DANA POINT, Calif. - At the Composite Panel Association's annual spring meeting, CPA recognized George Woodson as the 2024 Brock R. Landry Industry Leadership Award recipient. The Landry Award is given annually to an industry leader in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the composite panel industry. 

The award was created to recognize CPA counsel Brock R. Landry upon his retirement after more than 50 years of significant contributions in service to the North American composite panel industry. Landry presented the award to Woodson during the Chairman’s Dinner at the association's annual spring meeting, held April 13-16 in Dana Point, California. Representatives from more than 120 member companies attended the spring meeting.

In presenting the award, Landry highlighted many of Woodson's notable contributions and accomplishments during his lengthy career in the wood products industry. Prior to retiring, Woodson was the technical manager for Willamette Industries’ particleboard, MDF, plywood, OSB, and engineered wood facilities, and held similar positions with Weyerhaeuser and Flakeboard composite wood products divisions. Within the industry, Woodson also was considered an expert in wood dust and formaldehyde compliance issues. He served as CPA Technical Committee chairman and led several association task groups and coalitions, including the California Wood Industry Coalition, Federal Wood Industry Coalition, and the Research Advisory Committee for CPA’s Research Foundation. Since retiring, Woodson has remained active in the industry as a consultant on various wood product projects.

Woodson joins Kelly Shotbolt (2017), Wade Mosby (2018), Elliott Savage (2019) Will Warburg (2021), Norm Voss (2022) and Eddie McMillan (2023) as distinguished Landry Award recipients selected by CPA.

Safety Award winners named
Also at the spring meeting, CPA presented the annual awards for Safety and Industry Innovation.

Safety Awards were given to participating manufacturing plants with exemplary safety records, including acknowledgments for long-term, annual, safety improvement, and safety achievement. For each award, plants were categorized by low worker hours (Class I) and high worker hours (Class II).

Arauco North America, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (Class I), and Arauco North America, Malvern, Arkansas (Class II), received awards for the best long-term safety record over the past three years.

The annual safety awards for having the lowest incident rate in their class for 2024 were awarded to Plummer Forest Products, Post Falls, Idaho, and to Arauco North America mills in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, St. Stephen, New Brunswick, and Albany, Oregon, for Class I plants, and Arauco North America in Malvern, Arkansas, for Class II plants.

The two plants recognized for safety improvement were Collins Products Hardboard, Klamath Falls, Oregon (Class I), and Arauco North America, Malvern, Arkansas (Class II).

Four plants were also recognized for achieving an incident rate of less than 50 percent of the industry average over the past three years. Class I plants were Roseburg, El Dorado, Arkansas, and Arauco North America St. Stephen, New Brunswick. The Class II plants were Arauco North America, Malvern, Arkansas, and Grayling, Michigan.

Safety Innovation lauded
Arauco’s St. Stephen, New Brunswick mill also was recognized with the Safety Innovation Award for successfully implementing heated walkways at the facility. 

The award is given to a mill that introduces a new policy, process, or technology aimed at enhancing workplace safety. The heated walkways enabled the mill to further reduce slips and falls, beyond the standard practices of plowing, salting, and sanding.

Founded in 1960, the Composite Panel Association (CPA) represents the North American composite panel and decorative surfacing industries on technical standards, industry regulation, and product acceptance. CPA General Members include the leading manufacturers of particleboard, medium density fiberboard (MDF), hardboard and engineered wood siding and trim in North America, representing more than 88 percent of industry manufacturing capacity in the United States, Canada and Mexico. 

CPA's fall meeting will be held Sept. 21-23 in Austin Texas. For information, visit CompositePanel.org.