Life Membership

At our recent meeting in Wellington we accorded Life Membership on Alan Tanner in recognition of his lifelong support for NZTIF.

Alan was a member of the founding board of NZTIF in 1983 and has been a board member continuously since then. He was President of NZTIF in 1994-1997. Prior to the founding of NZTIF Alan was a member and board member of the New Zealand Sawmillers Federation, the organisation that preceded NZTIF. He has therefore served around 50 years as a member of organisations serving the interests of the sawmilling industry in New Zealand, most of those years as an active participant on their governing bodies.

 All during the period Alan as an enthusiastic member of our Board he provided guidance and input into all the activities and actions that NZTIF undertook to meet the challenges of the day. These included the privatisation of the state forest assets in 1987 and ensuring that sawmillers were not compromised as a result of this development, establishment of TPC following the dissolution of the Timber Preservation Authority, campaigns to ban CCA and timber export market developments in Australia, United Sates and Asian markets. There were many other challenges some of which threatened the viability of NZTIF but actions taken ensured its survival as a relevant organisation.

 At a personal level, through hard graft and determination Alan and his brother Ken established and owned sawmills in Tairua and Kaitaia and a treatment plant in Kerepehi. He also operated five retail sites in Auckland. In the early 2000s for a number of years Alan owned and operated a hardwood sawmill in Natchez, Mississippi. The venture was typical of his willingness to push his boundaries and accept degrees of business risk. Also, in this way, Alan was a pioneer in establishing what is now a flourishing market for New Zealand Radiata pine remanufacturing grades in the United States. He went to great lengths to ensure that his product was acceptable in the market. Given the differences in grading and dimension between New Zealand and the United States for timber, Alan went to the trouble of employing American grading experts to train his staff so his product was presented in a manner and condition that suited the market. Furthermore, Aland was prepared to share the knowledge he gained with industry colleagues to the betterment of the development of New Zealand’s timber export trade into the US market.

 Alan remains dedicated to the timber industry in New Zealand and to NZTIF.

 We acknowledge Alan’s contributions and support to NZTIF and are pleased to have been able to accord him Life Membership.