Agenda Day: Sept 21

Dr. William Strauss is the president and founder of FutureMetrics, LLC. Bill and his FutureMetrics team are globally recognized as the leading experts in the wood pellet sector. Bill continues to be a thought leader in the sector and has published numerous papers on a variety of subjects relevant to the wood pellet sector. He is also a founder and director of Maine Energy Systems, the largest manufacturer of European style automatic pellet fuelled central heating systems in North America. Bill is the 2012 recipient of the International Excellence in Bioenergy award and was named as one of the most influential leaders in the biomass sector in 2016 and 2017 by Argus Media. Bill has more than 40 years of strategic and policy planning, project management, data analysis, operations, and modeling experience in the renewable energy sector. He has an MBA (specializing in Finance) and a Ph.D. (Economics, Earth Systems Science).

Vaughan is Senior Vice President of Biomass Sales and Logistics at Drax PLC based in London, UK from where he manages a global team stationed in the UK, Canada and Japan. Vaughan joined Drax through their acquisition of Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc. in 2021. Vaughan was the executive in charge of commercial activities at Pinnacle. He remains a Director of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada and is serving as its President. He is a past-Director of the London based Sustainable Biomass Program Ltd (SBP) and past-Chairman of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters association, BC Division.

Vaughan has an extensive career in international business, particularly in the forest products industry. Previously, he spent almost 20 years with Sappi, a global pulp and paper company. As their executive in charge of their world-wide pulp sales, he was stationed in Hong Kong for 10 years before moving to Canada in 2007 and joining Pinnacle in 2011. Vaughan earned his BSc from the University of Natal and his MBA from the University of the Witwatersrand, both located in South Africa.

Having been on the ground in sawmill and woodlands operations, as well as the corporate finance aspect of the industry – working in mergers, acquisitions, and project financing, Gordon Murray joined the Wood Pellet Association of Canada in 2009. Today, he works as an ardent advocate on behalf of Canadian producers, traders, ports, terminals, shipping companies, equipment suppliers and all those who want to participate in growing a safe and prosperous wood pellet industry. Gordon Murray has a bachelor of science in forestry. He is a registered professional forester and a chartered professional accountant.