Appointment of Pierre Lapointe as President and Chief Executive Officer of FPInnovations

POINTE-CLAIRE, QC, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ – FPInnovations is pleased to announce the appointment of Pierre Lapointe to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer, effective December 1st, 2008. FPInnovations is the result of a merger of the three main forest sector research institutes (FERIC, Forintek Canada Corp., and Paprican) and its partner, the Canadian Wood Fibre Centre of Natural Resources Canada. Mr. Lapointe succeeds Ian de la Roche whose term recently expired. According to Mr. James Lopez, Chairman of the Board of FPInnovations, “Through his leadership and great enthusiasm especially demonstrated over the past years, Ian led the organization with exceptional tact through an historical merger for Canada’s forest sector. We are extremely grateful.”

During recent years, Mr. Lapointe headed l’Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) and managed its integration with l’Institut Armand-Frappier. He also initiated numerous agreements and partnerships with the global scientific community while taking an integrated development approach to international research and training.

Early on in his career, he worked in research and management with various research teams at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). He was subsequently appointed Director General of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) Information and Services Branch, where he created the Quebec Geoscience Center (QGC) as part of a unique partnership between a university institute (INRS) and a government agency (GSC) a component of NRCan with offices across Canada, namely Pat Bay, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Quebec and Dartmouth.

“The Board of Directors is pleased that Pierre has accepted this position. It is an accomplishment for FPInnovations to have recruited the recipient of the 2008 Prix Hommage awarded by the Laval Chamber of Commerce and Industry,” said Mr. Lopez. The Chamber recently recognized his exceptional contribution to the economic and scientific vitality of the region by referring to him as “one of the greatest architects of Laval’s new economic face.”

About FPInnovations

FPInnovations is a not-for-profit world leader which specializes in the creation of scientific solutions in support of the Canadian forest sector’s global competitiveness, and responds to the priority needs of its industrial and government members. It is ideally positioned to perform research, to innovate, and to deliver state-of-the-art solutions for every area of the sector’s value chain, from forestry operations to consumer and industrial products. Created from the merger of the three main Canadian forest sector research institutes: FERIC, Forintek Canada Corp., and Paprican, FPInnovations also provides technical direction to the Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Wood Fibre Centre. FPInnovations’ staff numbers more than 600. Its research laboratories are located in Quebec City, Montreal, and Vancouver, with technology transfer offices across Canada.

    /NOTE TO PHOTO EDITORS: A photo accompanying this release is available on
    the CNW Photo Network and archived at http://photos.newswire.ca.
    Additional archived images are also available on the CNW Photo Archive
    website at http://photos.newswire.ca. Images are free to accredited
    members of the media/

SOURCE FPINNOVATIONS