| John W. Burke
III Receives President's Award
John Burke has an amazing dedication to
forestry. His energy, his love for the forests of Virginia,
and his knowledge and passion for our forests exceeds that
of many professional foresters. Ironically, he is a lawyer,
not a forester; but he does manage the family Tree Farm.
John left the family farm to attend college and obtain his
law degree. He set up his law practice in Richmond, but in
1987 he moved back to the family farm. He did not just start
Tree Farming one day although a 4-H project in his youth had
him planting loblolly pines. John's father was recognized in
1961 as one of the early members of the Virginia Tree Farm
System, and John was awarded the 2001 Virginia Outstanding
Tree Farmer of the Year and was the Southern Regional winner
in 2002.
John works tirelessly to educate the public about trees and
forestry. He shares his Tree Farm with legislators and
public officials, and more importantly he educates our
children. John regularly conducts forestry and environmental
programs for students at his Tree Farm. He is truly an
ambassador for our forestry profession.
Ask John about his Tree Farm. His love for it is contagious.
Ask his wife and kids about the Tree Farm. Everyone is
involved. It is truly a family affair.
As a VFA member John has utilized his talents and knowledge
to energize our organization. His letter to fellow Tree
Farmers resulted in 34 new members joining VFA this past
year. We are indeed fortunate to have such a talented person
take over the reins of our organization this year.
VFA President for 2006-07 John W. Burke III
(third from left) with his family, left to right, Ben and
Sarah Pumphrey, Cathy Burke, Lindsay Buchanan, Rebecca and
Josh Burke |
Remarks by John A. Luke,
Jr.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer MeadWestvaco Corp.
Editor's Note: Following is a
transcript of the presentation by John A. Luke, Jr.,
Chairman and CEO of MeadWestvaco Corporation, given at the
Virginia Forestry Association Annual Convention Saturday,
April 29, 2006.
 We
are living today in a very exciting "new world"-one quite
different from the one we've known, and one that's most
decidedly different from the one I encountered some 25 years
ago living and working in both Covington and Richmond.
Today, almost every industry and every company is
experiencing the phenomenon of intensifying competition.
These pressures stem from the emerging global marketplace
and from the rapid spread of productivity-enhancing
technologies in almost every sphere-in manufacturing, in
many of our service industries and, in forestry.
Globalization has brought both great opportunity and great
challenge to industries throughout the developed world. In
its face, some companies have given up, failed or opted for
quick short-term gain. Others have chosen a different
path-they have become excited by the opportunities for
profitable growth and are reshaping their business models
and strategies for longer term success. At MeadWestvaco,
that's the path we've chosen. In the face of mounting global
competition, we see tremendous opportunity. Our target
markets here and around the world, including those for trees
and their byproducts, are growing nicely. And while we at
MeadWestvaco are applying an opportunistic attitude toward
our expanding global marketplace, we are also cognizant of
the inherent challenges of today's competitive arena. The
challenges we face today are very real and they are of
intense magnitude. Yet there is good and ample opportunity
for an enterprise like ours to grow profitably, so long as
we do what's necessary to change and position ourselves with
the right strategies and supporting cost structure for what
I'll call the "new world order." Our response to these
challenges? Chief among them is our move to Richmond! We
have been based in the greater New York City area for many
years, but as we've grown and expanded our global reach,
we've needed a corporate base that could accommodate the
leaders of several of our businesses, one fully conducive to
creating some real strategic synergies. We spent more than a
year assessing various locations around the country before
concluding, as the Virginia Forestry Association did, that
Richmond is the ideal place for us. Costs were a major
consideration, but there were many others. In the end, we
chose Virginia because it's the most pro-business
environment in the nation and because Richmond offers us a
well educated workforce, terrific transportation and
infrastructure, and a positive, can-do spirit that pervades
the community. Governor Tim Kaine and his administration
certainly conveyed that spirit in reaching out to us.
- Continued on
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