The Scottish Forest & Timber Technologies Advisory Group (SFTTAG), is the Industry Advisory Group for Scotland's Forest and Timber sector.

One of 13 Industry Advisory Groups, it is responsible for developing and delivering a forward looking industry strategy, providing strategic leadership and advice to industry and the public sector in Scotland, drawing on members' national and international expertise on global trends and issues and the niche areas where Scotland has global competitiveness.

SFTTAG comprises leading business figures drawn from across the private sector as well as senior representatives from the public sector including Scottish Enterprise  and key stakeholders.

Chairman: John A Kissock OBE
After gaining a First Class Honours Degree in Forestry from the University of Aberdeen in 1974, John began his career as a graduate trainee with the sawmilling and timber merchants business, James Jones & Sons. After a spell as Area Manager for South Scotland harvesting and sawmilling operations, he became a Main Board Director in 1985 with responsibility for all production facilities and a brief to modernise and expand capacity both in terms of volume and markets.   Significant investment followed at the  Dumfries, Aboyne

and Mosstodloch sawmills.  

Appointed Joint Managing Director in 1997, all sites were upgraded and a completely new plant at Lockerbie came on stream.  At the same time the company diversified by establishing an Engineered Wood Products subsidiary at Forres, acquiring a pallet manufacturing plant at Golbourne and forming a joint venture to manufacture agricultural boxes.

Awarded an OBE for services to the industry in 2005, John also Chairs Wood for Good, the UK Generic wood promotion campaign, is involved as trustee of a charity and serves as Director of a small family company involved in the forestry and agriculture business. 


Alistair McKinnon
Senior Director, Forest & Timber Technologies, Scottish Enterprise
Alistair is the Senior Director in the Scottish Enterprise South region with responsibility for national Textiles and Forest & Timber sector activities.  The South of Scotland portfolio includes around 200 Account Managed businesses, and 40-50 Priority Industry projects across the Scottish Borders and Dumfries & Galloway.  Alistair is also a Board Member and Company Secretary of the South of Scotland Loan Scheme, and Katalyst (2005) Ltd.

Alistair joined Scottish Enterprise in 1991 and has specialised in business start-up and services to small businesses, as well as leading a number of large scale Scottish Enterprise projects and initiatives.


Stuart Goodall
Chief Executive, Confederation of Forest Industries (Confor)
Confor represents forestry and wood-using businesses from nurseries through forest owners to wood manufacturers. Stuart has over 20 years experience in the sector, working both in the public sector for the Forestry Commission in a variety of policy development and representational roles and in the private sector with Confor. Stuart joined ConFor at its inception in 2004 as head of policy and research, and in 2007 took over as Chief Executive. As well as being an ex-officio Board member of FIAB, Stuart is also on the Steering Group for the England Forest Industries Partnership and on the advisory group for the Wales Forest Business Partnership.


Dr Bob McIntosh 
Director Scotland, Forestry Commission
Joined FC in 1973 as a trainee District Officer and after 18 months in the Thetford District, spent 3 years as Assistant District Officer in the West Galloway District, based in Newton Stewart.  This was followed by a 6 year spell in Forest Research, based in the Silviculture (North) branch at NRS and with responsibility for work in nutritional problems and fertiliser use.  On leaving Research, spent a year as Forest District Manager in the Rothbury District before transferring to Kielder Forest District, initially as Harvesting Officer, then as FDM.  Moved to HQ after 9 years at Kielder, to become Operations Director within Forest Enterprise and became Chief Executive of FE in 1997.  Took up post of Director Scotland in April 2003.


Stephen Lavery (Bsc(For), MicFor)
Managing Director,UPM Tilhill Forestry Ltd
Graduated from Aberdeen University in 1980 and began his forestry career with the Forestry Commission in 1981 in the Scottish Border. In 1985 Stephen joined A&R Brownlie, Sawmillers in the Scottish Borders, later becoming Northern Regional Director in harvesting.   In the late 1990's he was appointed Managing Director of BSW Harvesting Ltd, then part of the BSW Timber Group of sawmills. His roots and expertise are very much based in timber harvesting and marketing.  In 2002 as part of a business divisional sale, he joined UPM Tilhill continuing operations as Timber Operations Director. In 2005 the Business was awarded the Queens award for International trade in establishing a major export operation to Northern Europe.

In March 2006, with almost 30 years in the forest Industry sector Stephen was appointed as Managing Director of UPM's Tilhill Forestry Ltd, the UK's largest private forest management and timber harvesting company. with a turn over in excess of £90m. and employing over 350 people throughout the UK.   Steve is also Chairman of Confor Processor Council Group and Private sector representative of the National Forest Inventory (2011) Programme Board.

Alex G Brownlie, 
Director, BSW Timber Ltd
Following the completion of his formal education at the National School of Forestry at Newton Rigg and the University of Wales, Bangor,  Alex  has work primarily for BSW Timber in a variety of project, operational and business development roles. He also spent two years working at the UPM Shotton Paper mill.

Alex has in the past also sat on various committees including the Association of Professional Foresters, the Welsh Forest Business Partnership Leadership Group and Woodland Strategy Advisory Panel for Wales.   Currently he sits on the Main Board of BSW Timber Ltd and has the remit to focus on new business opportunities and technologies that may be attractive to the company.


Dr Ed Suttie
Director, BRE
Dr Suttie has a 20 year career in scientific research that began with studies of environmental pollution in Antarctica, to soil fertility and for the past 15 years in wood science and timber in construction. He is presently the Director of Timber research at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) where he manages a team delivering BRE's Timber, Composites & Materials Sustainability consultancy and research programmes sponsored by industry, construction users, UK Government and the European Commission. Dr Suttie is a member of the English Forest Industries Partnership and he serves on British and European Standards Committees, providing UK expert input. He is convenor of CEN/TC38 WG 28 "Performance classification" a key service life task force for wood products, sits on the Executive Council of the International Research Group on Wood Protection and is a member of the advisory board of Holzforschung the leading international wood science journal.

Dr Suttie has a degree in Chemistry from the University of York and has a PhD doctoral thesis on the photo-stabilisation of wood to the University of Sussex. He has published widely in the field of service life, sustainability, construction and wood durability.

Fergus Tickell
Director,  Northern Energy Developments Ltd
Having graduated with an Honours degree in Ecological Science, spent 15 years in the private forestry sector with Tilhill, managing the Argyll office. Thereafter he managed three large integrated Estates in west Scotland. This included the management of six hydro schemes, three of which were planned, consented and constructed in that period.  In 2005 he established Northern Energy Developments Ltd to develop small hydro projects and wood energy projects utilising forest sourced material. At present a series of medium scale (5MW) biomass projects are at different stages of development, including two with full planning consent, one with outline consent, two currently in planning, and four more in the early stages of development.  He is Chairman of the Argyll Timber Transport Group, board member of the Argyll & Islands Energy Agency and has been a member of the Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland Biomass and Renewable Heat Groups.

Tom Bruce-Jones
Joint Managing Director,  James Jones & Sons Ltd
Tom Bruce-Jones is Joint Managing Director of James Jones & Sons Ltd, one of the leading privately owned timber and forestry companies in the UK employing over 550 people in the UK and with annual Group sales of £183 Million in 2010.  The Group operates sawmills located strategically across Scotland; this portfolio was enhanced in 2010 through a £25M investment at Lockerbie, creating one of the most technologically advanced sawmills globally.  The Group is the UK's leading Engineered Wood Products manufacturer and one of the leading pallet and packaging manufacturers through Unit Pallet Ltd.  Through a joint venture company, the Group is the majority shareholder in Stella-Jones Inc, North America's largest wood treatment company with annual sales of $CAN 561 Million.

He joined the company in 2002 as the fifth generation of the family, having previously worked in the paper and finance sectors in London.

Neil Donaldson
Executive Chairman,  James Donaldson & Sons Ltd
Neil is one of the timber industry's most experienced professionals.  For 35 years he has been part of the success story of James Donaldson & Sons Ltd which has gown to become one of the leading companies in its field with turnover of over £100 million and 540 staff operating out of 23 sites.

To mark James Donaldson & Sons Ltd's 150^th anniversary, Neil set up the Donaldson Leadership Academy.  The purpose of the charity is to help children who have not had an easy start in life to realise their true potential.
He currently serves on the Board of Wood for Good.

His previous roles have included President of the Timber Trade Federation, Chairman of the Timber Research and Development Association (TRADA), at both local and national levels, and Chairman of the Scottish Timber Trade Association (STTA).

Neil is also Chairman of one of Scotland's premier investment trusts and Chairman of Crieff Hydro Hotel which has been catering for family holidays for over 140 years.  He also serves on the Board of New Park Education Trust and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.

A passionate salmon fisherman, Neil's interests also include golf, squash, skiing and his family.

Neil Stoddart
Operations Director JST Floating Piers Ltd.
Highland Regional Chair
Originally from Hexham, Neil graduated from the Scottish School of Forestry in 1994. After working for sawmillers John Gordon & sons he spent 14 years with Scottish Woodlands Ltd, initially in the Borders and latterly running the companies harvesting operations across the Highlands. In recent years this led Neil to focusing on accessing and unlocking remote timber on the north western seaboard utilising sea based (floating pier) technology. In early 2011 Neil joined timber handling company JST, to head up and expand their specialist Floating Pier division. Neil maintains a strong interest in forestry - especially innovative harvesting and haulage solutions."

Colin Kennedy, Associate Director, Scottish Woodlands Ltd
South Scotland Regional Chair
Colin has worked for Scottish Woodlands Ltd for 30 years after graduating in Forestry from Edinburgh University in 1981. After spending 6 years based in Inverness-predominantly involved in timber harvesting and marketing, he transferred to Castle Douglas in 1987-to assist in large scale new planting projects.

Starting as Senior Forest Manager, Colin progressed to Regional Manager-South West before becoming Operations Director for South Scotland in 2002 (6 offices). Currently has responsibility for Key Clients, Business Development and Company Representation Duties. As well as being SFTT -South Scotland Chair, Colin is presently Regional Chair for Confor in South Scotland.

Guy Watt
Managing Director, John Clegg Consulting Ltd
John Clegg Consulting Ltd provide business, economic and rural development consultancy services. Guy is a forestry graduate of Aberdeen; has a B Litt in forest economics from Oxford and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters and a Member of the Institute of Economic Development. He worked in the South Pacific for two years followed by four years at the Forest Research Institute in New Zealand. He undertook overseas consultancy assignments for over 20 years for the NZ Government, the UN and the Department for International Development.

Guy has undertaken a wide variety of consultancy assignments in the UK over the last 20 years firstly with EFG, where he was forest economist for 10 years, followed by 13 years with John Clegg & Co, where he was a partner, before starting John Clegg Consulting Ltd in 2003. Guy is Deputy Chairman of the Scottish Forestry Trust and Chair of their Projects and Research Committee, Vice Chair of the Central Scotland Forest Trust, a partner in Beacon Forestry and was Chairman of the Scottish Hardwood Timber Marketing Group for 5 years. He is a Trustee of Scotland's Finest Woods Awards.

Guy replaces former SFTTAG member Stephen Good.

George Webb, Norbord Ltd

Diane Duncan, Highlands and Islands Enterprise

Cathy Black, Scottish Enterprise

Derek McDonald, Aberdeenshire Council -  North East Regional Chiar

Elisabeth Stark

Harry Wilson,RTS ltd -  Mid Scotland Regional Chair

Lynn Forsyth, Scottish Government

Philip Turner, Napier University