Craig L. Larsen

Craig Larsen is currently the President of the Softwood Export Council, a group of trade associations and grading agencies and state trade development agencies that help develop international markets and promote US softwood lumber products.

Mr. Larsen is responsible for identifying and generating new demand for western US softwood lumber products in markets throughout the world. He is charged with planning and executing marketing strategies, and managing component programs tailored to select individual country or regional market opportunities.

Mr. Larsen’s duties include a close cooperation with the Foreign Agricultural Service of the US Department of Agriculture, which underwrites parts of the SEC export promotional programs with market development funds. He is also responsible for guidance and direction of four overseas SEC representatives, located in Japan, Spain, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. In additional to the aforementioned countries, promotional activities are also being conducted in Korea, China, and throughout the Pacific Rim and in Western Europe

Prior to the SEC Mr. Larsen was the Director of the International Marketing Department for the Western Wood Products Association. He returned to the WWPA after spending seven years in the forest products industry developing products and markets for engineered wood products in the early 1990’s. He was a member of the WWPA staff for 13 years from the mid-1970s through the 1980’s. He spent a decade in the Association’s Field Services department, servicing Western lumber markets in the Pacific Northwest, Eastern seaboard and the Midwest. He transferred to WWPA’s Export Marketing department where he spent three years directing and expanding the programs prior to moving into industry.

Before joining WWPA, Mr. Larsen spent three years with a Pacific Northwest architectural and specialty wood products manufacturer. He is a native of Oregon, and a graduate of Oregon State University, where he specialized in marketing and engineering.

The international marketing goal of the SEC is twofold. First it is to develop overseas awareness and markets for western softwood lumber products by meeting foreign buyer market specifications, including sizes and specialty grades, and secondly to introduce U.S. lumber products, with U.S. sizes and grades -- as well as wood building systems that utilize them -- to foreign construction markets.

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