ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

Gen­er­al Ses­sion Speakers

Brooks Mendell, Ph.D. has three decades of con­sult­ing, oper­at­ing, and research expe­ri­ence in the for­est prod­ucts and tim­ber indus­tries. His expe­ri­ence includes roles in har­vest oper­a­tions and pro­cure­ment with Wey­er­haeuser, in man­age­ment con­sult­ing with Accen­ture, and as a fac­ul­ty mem­ber in forestry and finance at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Geor­gia. A Ful­bright Schol­ar in Uruguay, Dr. Mendell found­ed Forisk in 2004. He has broad domes­tic and inter­na­tion­al expe­ri­ence sup­port­ing small busi­ness­es, For­tune 500 cor­po­ra­tions and pub­lic orga­ni­za­tions. He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees at MIT, an MBA at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia at Berke­ley, and a Ph.D. in For­est Finance at UGA. Dr. Mendell will speak on the eco­nom­ic and mar­ket sit­u­a­tion in the for­est indus­try, includ­ing wood demand and for­est sup­ply analy­sis spe­cif­ic to East Texas, as well as out­lin­ing future expec­ta­tions for the for­est industry.

Scott Jones, Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, joined the For­est Landown­ers Asso­ci­a­tion in 2003 and has a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence degree in for­est resources from the War­nell School of Forestry and Nat­ur­al Resources at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Geor­gia and has been an SAF Cer­ti­fied Forester as well as a Geor­gia Reg­is­tered Forester. Scott brings a diverse back­ground of for­est land man­age­ment, pro­cure­ment, land own­er­ship and advo­ca­cy at the state, nation­al and inter­na­tion­al lev­els to FLA. Scott serves on the Stan­dards Com­mit­tee for the Sus­tain­able Bio­mass Pro­gram based in Ham­burg Ger­many and is a mem­ber of the Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee on Sus­tain­able For­est-based Indus­tries of the Food and Agri­cul­ture Orga­ni­za­tion of the Unit­ed Nations in Rome Italy. With 20 years as the CEO of the For­est Landown­ers Asso­ci­a­tion, Scott is well versed in advo­cat­ing on issues of impor­tance to pri­vate for­est landown­ers that help them access mar­kets and pre­serve prop­er­ty rights that will sus­tain the next gen­er­a­tion of for­est landown­ers. His pre­sen­ta­tion is titled, ​“Water­shed Moment for Forestry.”

Kevin Burke was appoint­ed to his cur­rent role as Senior Vice-Pres­i­dent, Wood Prod­ucts in 2021, fol­low­ing Norbord’s acqui­si­tion and is based in Greenville, South Car­oli­na. Mr. Burke joined Nor­bord in 2001 and was appoint­ed Senior Vice Pres­i­dent of North Amer­i­can Oper­a­tions in 2018. Pri­or there­to, he held sev­er­al pro­gres­sive­ly senior oper­at­ing posi­tions in both North Amer­i­ca and in Europe, includ­ing Vice Pres­i­dent, US South Oper­a­tions and Direc­tor, Euro­pean Oper­a­tions Excel­lence as well as Man­ag­ing Direc­tor, Cowie Facil­i­ty. Mr. Burke holds an MBA degree from Uni­ver­si­ty of Edin­burgh, Scot­land and a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing from Uni­ver­si­ty of Rochester, New York. He will dis­cuss West Fraser’s pres­ence in Texas.

Mea­gan McCoy Jones is Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of McCoy’s Build­ing Sup­ply. Ms. McCoy grew up in San Mar­cos, Texas and is a grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Rich­mond in Vir­ginia and of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas at Austin. Mea­gan is the fourth gen­er­a­tion in her fam­i­ly to work for McCoy’s. She has worked her way up in the busi­ness and was pro­mot­ed to Pres­i­dent and COO in 2019. She is a mem­ber of the Board of Direc­tors of McCoy Cor­po­ra­tion, a part­ner in McCoy Remme Ranch­es, co-Chair of the Leg­isla­tive Com­mit­tee of the Lumbermen’s Asso­ci­a­tion of Texas, a Board Mem­ber of the Texas Asso­ci­a­tion of Builders, and an involved mem­ber of the Greater San Mar­cos Part­ner­ship. She is a for­mer Board mem­ber and pas­sion­ate sup­port­er of Mobile Loaves & Fish­es, a social out­reach min­istry that empow­ers com­mu­ni­ties into a lifestyle of ser­vice with the home­less. Ms. McCoy will give a retailer’s per­spec­tive of the for­est indus­try in Texas.

Lunch Speak­er

Kevin Eltife was appoint­ed to a six-year term on The Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas Sys­tem Board of Regents by Gov­er­nor Greg Abbott in Jan­u­ary 2017 and was con­firmed by the Texas Sen­ate on Feb­ru­ary 7, 2017. In April 2021, Gov­er­nor Greg Abbott reap­point­ed him to a six-year term. On Decem­ber 20, 2018, he was elect­ed Chair­man of the Board of Regents and was re-elect­ed as Chair­man on June 2, 2021, and again on May 4, 2023. Chair­man Eltife pre­vi­ous­ly chaired the Sys­tem Review and Struc­ture Task Force, and pre­vi­ous­ly served on the Aca­d­e­m­ic Affairs Com­mit­tee; the Audit, Com­pli­ance, and Risk Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee; the Facil­i­ties Plan­ning and Con­struc­tion Com­mit­tee; the Finance and Plan­ning Com­mit­tee; and the Board for Lease of Uni­ver­si­ty Lands. He for­mer­ly served as Sen­a­tor for Texas Sen­ate Dis­trict 1, as the May­or of Tyler, and on the Tyler City Coun­cil. Mr. Eltife earned a Bach­e­lor of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion from The Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas at Austin. He will talk about the inte­gra­tion of Stephen F. Austin State Uni­ver­si­ty into the UT System.

Log­gers Break­out Session

Dr. Joseph Con­rad will present ​“Main­tain­ing Prof­itabil­i­ty in the Face of Ris­ing Costs for Insur­ance, Labor, and Equip­ment.” He will share data on how much costs have increased across the South, dis­cuss how to mea­sure the impact of ris­ing costs on log­ging costs per ton, and sug­gest some strate­gies to con­trol costs for vari­ables under the logger’s con­trol. Dr. Con­rad is an Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor, For­est Oper­a­tions at the War­nell School of Forestry & Nat­ur­al Resources, Uni­ver­si­ty of Geor­gia. He has a Ph.D. For­est Oper­a­tions, Vir­ginia Tech, 2011, a Mas­ter of Forestry, Vir­ginia Tech, 2010, and a B.S. Forestry, The Uni­ver­si­ty of the South, 2008.

Kevin Gid­dens is with the law firm Boyd Boyd & Gid­dens in Tyler. He is an expe­ri­enced tri­al and appel­late attor­ney, con­cen­trat­ing in truck­ing and com­plex com­mer­cial issues. He is a grad­u­ate of Bay­lor Uni­ver­si­ty and Bay­lor Law School. He is licensed to prac­tice in all Texas state courts, the East­ern Dis­trict of Texas, the North­ern Dis­trict of Texas, and has han­dled appeals in the 6^th, 12^th, and 13^th Court of Appeals. His pro­fes­sion­al asso­ci­a­tions include mem­ber­ship in the State Bar of Texas, Amer­i­can Board of Tri­al Advo­cates (ABO­TA), past board mem­ber of the Smith Coun­ty Young Lawyer’s Asso­ci­a­tion, and grad­u­ate of the Texas Crim­i­nal College. 

Landown­er Break­out Session

E. V. “Rusty” Adams III is the research attorney at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. He provides the public and real estate professionals opportunities to learn about Texas real estate law by writing articles and reports for the Center’s publications, and by speaking to groups around the state. A Bryan native, Adams earned the degrees of Bachelor of Business Administration in Management and Master of Science in Marketing, both from Texas A&M, before earning the degree of Juris Doctor from Baylor University. He was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 2004 and to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in 2007. Adams practiced law, including real estate transactions and litigation, for 12 years in the Bryan‐College Station area prior to joining the Center. He will give a presentation on Managing Surface Use Agreements and participate in a panel discussion.

Chris Adams is the founder of Vision Forestry, LLC, a natural resource consulting firm located in Lufkin, Texas that is dedicated to serving the land management needs of forestland owners. He received a B.S. in Forest Management from Texas A&M University in 1999 and has been a practicing forestry consultant for more than 20 years. His background includes multiple aspects of forest resource management utilizing the latest technology (forest resource assessments/valuations, multi-resource planning, forest product sales, reforestation, tax basis analyses, and more for private forest landowners, timberland investment groups, and others throughout Texas & Louisiana. He has his Texas Appraiser Trainee certification and works with Lewis & Seely Appraisers, Inc. Chris is actively involved and serves on numerous committees for the Association of Consulting Foresters (state and national levels) and the Texas Forestry Association where he is currently the Chair of the Education and Outreach committee. Chris will present Diversified Income Streams and participate in a panel discussion.

Justin Thay­er, Senior Man­ag­er of Hunt­ing & Recre­ation at Ray­onier, admin­is­ters a pro­gram that facil­i­tates recre­ation­al access for 20,000+ users annu­al­ly through a sys­tem of recre­ation­al licens­es and access per­mits. Justin earned both under­grad and grad­u­ate degrees from Louisiana State Uni­ver­si­ty in Wildlife with grad­u­ate work focused on white-tailed deer. The roots of his career began as a Deer Biol­o­gist with the Mis­sis­sip­pi Depart­ment of Wildlife, Fish­eries, and Parks, then branched over to the tim­ber indus­try where his work has since focused on opti­miz­ing recre­ation­al access pro­grams and enabling oth­er non-tim­ber income streams. Justin’s pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence in the recre­ation space extends 16 years and now spans Rayonier’s 2.8 mil­lion acre foot­print. Justin will present on the Role of Recre­ation and par­tic­i­pate in a pan­el dis­cus­sion dur­ing the landown­er break­out ses­sion on Thurs­day afternoon.

Bri­an Lock­hart is Own­er, Hard­wood Sil­vi­cul­ture, LLC where he co-leads a team updat­ing the bot­tom­land hard­wood wildlife habi­tat forestry man­u­al for bot­tom­land hard­woods titled ​“Desired For­est Con­di­tions for Wildlife in Bot­tom­land Forests: Rec­om­men­da­tions for Enhanc­ing Wildlife Habi­tat for the
Mis­sis­sip­pi Allu­vial Val­ley and West Gulf Coastal Plain.” He has been on the fac­ul­ty the School of For­est Resources, Uni­ver­si­ty of Arkansas at Mon­ti­cel­lo and the School of Renew­able Nat­ur­al Resources, Louisiana State Uni­ver­si­ty, Baton Rouge; and was a Research Forester, USDA For­est Ser­vice, Cen­ter for Bot­tom­land Hard­wood Research, Stoneville, Mis­sis­sip­pi (retired). Bri­an is a Reg­is­tered Forester in Arkansas; a mem­ber of the Soci­ety of Amer­i­can Foresters; and a Cer­ti­fied Senior Ecol­o­gist, Eco­log­i­cal Soci­ety of Amer­i­ca. He will present the Ethics course on Day 1 of the Conference.