PEFC UK national secretary William Walker is to retire, following a long and distinguished career in the UK forest industry.
Mr Walker became national secretary in 2005, having trained at Aberdeen University in the 1960s before embarking on a long career in forest management. During this time he was responsible for some of the largest privately-owned afforestation programmes completed in the Borders during the 1970s and 1980s.
In the late 1980s he established an environmental forest consultancy practice which led him to specialise in forest certification and the development of forest standards. This subsequently led to him taking up his position with PEFC UK.
PEFC UK chairman Peter Latham said, “Willie has played a pivotal role in the growing acceptance of PEFC certified timber in the UK. There were fewer than 100 chain of custody certificates in the UK when he joined and this has now increased to over 1,000.”
A search for Mr Walker’s replacement is under way.
