Executive director of the Forest Products Association, Russell Ainley, has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia. Photo courtesy Russell Ainley

The executive director of the Forests Products Association, Russell Ainley, has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the 2006 Queen’s Birthday honours list. The award was for service to the forest industry through the Forest Products Association (FPA) of New South Wales.

“This award, in recognising services to forestry, has provided the opportunity to show that the forest industry itself is a worthwhile and valid pursuit, despite the efforts of those who try to denigrate it,” Mr Ainley said.

A professional forester who joined the FPA in 1994, Mr Ainley was appointed assistant director in 1996 and chief executive in 2001. He has served on the Australian government’s Forest and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation’s hardwood advisory group.

Mr Ainley graduated from Melbourne University with a degree in science (forestry) and has completed a number of courses in economics and computing science.

He has spent most of his working life in the timber industry, and was previously employed by Boral Timber Ltd for ten years, managing resources and contractors for their north coast sawmills.

During the east coast regional forest assessments, Mr Ainley was the industry representative on a number of technical committees.

In the Australian honours system, appointments to the Order of Australia confer the highest recognition for outstanding achievement and service.

This article appears in the Spring 2006 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.