Welcome

Lignor was born from a grand vision.

To produce a sustainable engineered wood product that would help to do more from less. It would do this by adding value to Australia’s wood chip export industry and reducing the need for it to import more highly manufactured timber products.

It would cover the full portfolio of engineered wood products from post and beam to panel and rival conventional cross laminated timber, with less impact on the environment and with superior strength and versatility.

It started with two determined men who worked tirelessly to achieve the seemingly impossible. Producing quality stranded timber from Australia’s abundant and underused Eucalyptus.

Inspired by their discovery, they developed a patented CLST® which can be made from soft or hardwoods and quietly outperforms its competitors.

Lignor’s portfolio of engineered wood products has grown, and each is designed with a single purpose. To build a better future for everyone.

EXPLORE PRODUCTS

Meet the Team

Lignor’s team of innovators spans the globe with a shared mission – creating more from less.

Steve Baldwin

Chairman | Joined board 2007

Introduction

Stephen is a Chartered Accountant with 40 years of business experience. He began his career with Price Waterhouse and had a decade with the firm in three different countries. He was subsequently employed in the funds management industry for many years, initially with Hambro-Grantham and then with Colonial First State, where he was Head of Private Equity.

He has extensive Board experience across multiple industries. He is currently the Chair of ASX-listed RPMGlobal Limited and also represents one of Australia’s larger superannuation funds (UniSuper) on the Boards of two New Zealand-based forestry businesses.

Stephen holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from the University of Cape Town and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia.

Graeme Black

CEO 2007 – † Oct 2023 | The Black Family History

Introduction

Mr Black was a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds an MBA from the London Business School. He had worked in the Agribusiness sector since 1985 and been a director of Craigpine Timber Ltd NZ to 2020, which exports to some 22 countries. Craigpine was the first company in Australasia to get FSC accreditation in 1997.

He had been a non-executive director of Simmonds Lumber Pty Ltd for a similar period. Simmonds was the first company in the world in 2007 to have its timber independently audited by Certisource/Double Helix Pte Ltd using DNA tracing to prove it was legal.

He had also been an independent director and Chairman of Taltarni and Clover Hill Vineyards and a director of Goelet Wine Estates LLC for its wineries in the Napa US, France and Australia. Prior to 1985 he worked for two marketing strategy consultancy companies in London.

Mr Black was involved as a company director in over five mergers and acquisitions with both publicly listed and private companies in Australasia. He was also a patron of Flora and Fauna International where he had met Sir David Attenborough several times.

Peter Burton

Technical Director

Introduction

Peter Burton is the founding shareholder in Lignor and as the author of the Lignor Patents, he has been instrumental in the development of the Lignor project over the past 10 years. Peter is the Principal of Agway Pty Ltd, a private agri-industrial consulting services company. Educated at Stonyhurst College, England, he studied engineering at the St Gallen Polytechnic, Switzerland. Peter is fluent in three languages.

Peter has had over 35 years’ experience in agri-industries and has been involved in various projects in Australia, Asia, Middle East and South America. Before starting his consultancy company, Agway, Peter spent seven years as the Export Manager and Manager Systems (Asia) for the Sprout-Bauer division of US-based Combustion Engineering Inc. This position covered all projects and systems throughout Asia and was responsible for the development of agent networks in ten Asian countries including China.

For the past 24 years Mr Burton has consulted through Agway for Australian and Asian clients in the Agri-industrial sector.

Jim Lake

Acting CEO Lignor Inc.. U.S.
Marketing and Technical Consultant Americas

Introduction

im Lake has been President of Deep Lake Consulting based in Wisconsin since 2015 working with major Engineered Wood Producers. Jim has more than 40 years’ global experience as a senior executive in the building products industry. As CEO and Operational Leader, he has led corporate reorganisations, financial turnarounds, new business start-ups, divestitures, acquisitions and integrations, joint ventures and new plant start-ups. His focus is on visionary and strategic thinking for profit.

He began his career in 1984 at Louisiana Pacific Corporation, Nashville, a leading international manufacturer and distributor of building products. He worked his way up to the position of Vice President of Manufacturing between 2003 and 2007. From 2007 to 2010, he was Vice President of Operations at Grant Forest Products in Toronto, a company internationally recognised as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of OSB products.

From 2010 to 2015 he held several executive roles at Ainsworth Lumber from 2010 to 2015 including President, CEO, COO and Vice President of Operations.

Duncan Mayes

Marketing and Technical Consultant, Global

Introduction

Duncan Mayes has worked in the international forest and wood products industry for over 26 years. A large portion of his career has been dedicated to leading forest industry company Stora Enso, where he worked in a variety of roles from product management in the sawmilling division, to Managing Director of Stora Enso Wood Products Australia, SVP of Strategy and Innovation and leader of a strategic group R&D program related to bio composite materials development and bio refinery from lignocellulosic materials.

More recently Duncan has worked with Australian Wood Products company Timberlink, (A NewForests company) helping them to develop an innovation pathway including the recently announced investment in Cross Laminated Timber production in Australia.

Duncan has now established his own technical and business consulting business, Lignutech Oy, based in Helsinki, where he is supporting a variety of companies in the development of innovative technologies and products in the lignocellulosic materials and recycled feedstocks.

Duncan has an extensive global network in research and industry and chairs the Council of Experts group of the InnoRenew Centre of Excellence.

Engineering Consultants

Established in 2003, the KTC Group provides engineering solutions focused on forest products, with significant experience in the Orientated Strand Board (OSB) industry since the 1980s.

The group has provided engineering services to many of the leading companies in the engineered wood industry in North America and Europe and employing more than 50 engineers and designers at its head office in Vancouver Canada.

Lignor was born from a grand vision.