The IFPTA Remembers Paul Doiron
Paul believed the Association was a collection of friends who were lucky enough to work with each other.
Published: July 25, 2010
On the final day of PPI Transport Symposium 17, the setting October sun cast shadows along the waterfront and the upstairs conference room in the Mobile Convention Center was a golden brown. Nine people from three different organizations gathered to have a rather unusual post-mortem meeting for the closing Symposium. Rhiannon James, senior vice president, marketing services, RISI, was in attendance, as was Wendy Parsley, founder of Quint Strategies. Buddy Greene, then IFPTA vice-president and PPI TS17 conference chairman attended and George Hudson, the soon to be named Conference Chairman for PPI TS18 sat to his left. At the center was IFPTA President Paul Doiron.
These three organizations, the IFPTA, RISI and Quint Strategies, had formed a partnership in January 2006 to approach PPI Transport Symposium, the biennial event for the IFPTA, from a different perspective. Now was the time to see if their two years of teamwork were going to pay off. The ledger was read: nearly 1,000 participants, the second largest exhibition, record attendance for the keynote speaker, standing room only in many of the conference program sessions, and record attendance and high marks for the opening reception. While not the largest Symposium, everyone agreed PPI TS17 was an unmitigated success. The changes they all wanted came together beautifully.
Turning point for the IFPTA
PPI Transport Symposium would never be the same after Mobile. It would no longer stand alone as a single industry event. From now on, the IFPTA's Symposium would be viewed as the cornerstone for the larger project of growing the Association to a global audience. In effect, the Symposium would be but one, albeit very important, part of a range of events and activities to answer the needs of the IFPTA members. Of all the people who were part of this achievement, perhaps none could more proud than Paul Doiron.
Looking back, this meeting was a defining moment in Paul's career as president. PPI Transport Symposium 17, in Mobile, AL, in 2007, marked a turning point for the IFPTA. In place of simply a networking event, Paul's work had bolstered the Symposium into a world-class conference and exhibition, giving the IFPTA a muchneeded foundation for future growth. Two years later, in Liverpool, during the worst of a worldwide economic recession, when conferences were closing as fast as paper mills, PPI Transport Symposium 18 was the fourth most successful Symposium in the Association's history. Through his efforts, Paul had virtually guaranteed forest products logistics professionals would look to PPI Transport Symposium as the defining event for their industry for years to come.
On Saturday, March 6, 2010, Paul Doiron passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack. Paul joined the IFPTA in 1983 and was appointed the IFPTA's second president in 2002. He is survived by his wife Aurella, his son Curtis, two grandchildren and four brothers. Paul began his career in forest products transport in 1981, when he was the general manager of forest products for the Terminal Corporation. He worked for more than 30 years with Logistec Stevedoring in Saint John, NB, Canada, retiring as senior vice president in 2008. Paul was an active member in the Saint John business community, serving on the Saint John Board of Trade, the Saint John Employers Association, the Maritime Employers Association, the Saint John Board of Trade's Marine Policy Task Force, and was Chairman of the Saint John Airport Authority at his death.
A collection of friends
The IFPTA is a better association for having known Paul Doiron. Under his leadership, the IFPTA gained a financial stability that would propel it through the first decade of the new century and ensure that a global network of professionals in forest products logistics and related industries would exist for years to come. When many professional organizations were succumbing to dispassionate and remote technologies, Paul strived to retain a personal touch for the association he loved. Instead of a loose conglomeration of business acquaintances around the world, Paul believed the IFPTA was a collection of friends who happened to have the luck to work with each other.
Paul's legacy for the IFPTA is most directly seen in the people who comprise the Association. Those he worked with, the management team he picked to help it grow and thrive, and the Board to whom he reported now holds his values and principles of leadership at its core. They are the ones who will carry Paul's vision forward.
When the news of Paul's death emerged, emails, phone calls and messages went out through the IFPTA global community. The condolences for his family and for the IFPTA came in from all corners of the globe. Everyone, it seemed, had been touched by Paul in some way. For those who worked with him the most, the news was a greater shock than simply loosing a colleague. They had lost a friend.
