Anyone who knows Geoff Taylor will already be aware of his boundless enthusiasm for timber – he positively oozes it from every pore. So, his appointment as president of the Institute of Wood Science (IWSc) last year at a time, when most would agree, the organisation was at a turning point, is a piece of very happy timing.
Mr Taylor, business development manager of Sikkens, is an acknowledged expert on coatings systems, having worked at the each of the three largest coatings manufacturers in the world – Akzo Nobel, ICI Paints and Sherwin Williams – during his 30-year career in the industry. He is, as many joinery manufacturers will testify, an ardent supporter of the appliance of science within the timber industry, not just in coatings terms, but in the development of life cycle assessment, for example, and, more recently, modified wood (Sikkens is BSW Timber and Titan Wood’s coatings partner in the development of Accoya).
It is this combination of technical expertise and commercial nous that makes Mr Taylor a good fit for his IWSc presidential role and he is as passionate about his new post as he is about timber in general.
He is keen to play to the IWSc’s strengths by what amounts to a return to its core values. “The IWSc should be the first port of call for anything to do with wood science,” he said. “There is huge knowledge within the organisation, covering several areas of the timber industry and we need to send out a stronger message that we are relevant to today’s industry.”
Golden opportunity
The annual conference presents a golden opportunity to reinforce this message and Mr Taylor envisages a beefing up of the technical content. “My personal view is that there are other organisations more capable of attracting architects and that we should focus on our strengths and play to our relevance to the market.
“We wouldn’t be turning our backs on architects, but organisations such as Wood for Good and The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) are more in the sphere of promoting the aesthetics of timber and they are doing it very well.”
He added that the proposed future venues (yet to be confirmed), Edinburgh’s Napier University this year and the University of Bath in 2008 (tying in with the new BRE Centre in Innovative Construction Materials), will provide the necessary sense of wood science authority.
Mr Taylor also believes that more can be done to assist individual companies by providing access to the membership’s knowledge base to offer practical and relevant advice on all matters relating to timber solutions.
“I want to grow corporate membership by articulating the IWSc’s relevance and benefits,” he said. “All the other associations require a financial commitment from companies, so the IWSc has to justify the cost of its membership.
“We’re hiding a lot of what we do,” he continued. “Members can get technical advice from us and we have to make more use of our synergies with TRADA, with whom we share a library, particularly with e-learning.
“The IWSc can draw from a wide pool of know-ledge – it has a network of trade experience through members such as AHEC, and can also offer the technical skills of members such as Drs Martin Ansell [University of Bath] and Richard Murphy [Imperial College, London]. We just need to find a way to formalise it.”
Mr Taylor’s “open” style of business is already much in evidence at the IWSc. “I’m very inclusive in the decision making with my senior vice-president David Venables (AHEC’s European director) and junior vice-president Charles Trevor (wood for good managing director),” he said.
“And I think their terms of office will be much more dynamic in terms of commercial presentation. They will be the public face while behind the scenes it will be much more technical.
Promotion of training
“What the institute does very well is training,” Mr Taylor continued, “and we should continue to focus on that. At the moment we promote courses through our member companies, which is a little nebulous, so we need to do more on that front ourselves.
“Another problem is that young people are doing the foundation courses and then dropping off the radar,” he added.
“We need to capture and engage their interest and promote the institute’s continued credibility and relevance to them. We need to have more drive, to get the name out to a wider audience.”
“In the past the president’s role has been that of a figurehead,” said Mr Taylor. “Now we need to promote the role of director (see below). The IWSc has to start working with people on a very tangible basis.
“We want to articulate that we’re about change and we’re heading for a much more dynamic period.”
