Episode 75: Jim Girvan and Rob Schuetz

Rob Schuetz is the President of Industrial Forestry Service (IFS), which is one of the largest natural resource consulting firms operating in British Columbia for the forestry, bioenergy, oil & gas, and mining sectors. 

Rob is past-president of the Society of Consulting Foresters of British Columbia. He specializes in the analysis of fibre supplies throughout BC and Alberta and has spent over 25 years consulting to the natural resource industries.  

 In this regard he has undertaken due-diligence assessments of biomass fuel plans in support of over 50 proposed bioenergy projects; log supplies in support of sawmill acquisitions, economic assessments of the impact of a mountain pine beetle epidemic on timber supplies across Canada; delivered log cost optimization analysis to multiple delivery points and sawmill operating rate forecasts.  

Rob graduated with a B.Sc. in Forestry from the University of Toronto in 1987.   Jim Girvan is a Registered Professional Forester (RPF) who has dedicated over four decades of his life to the British Columbia forest industry.  Jim's name is synonymous across North America in respect to fibre supply forecasting and the varied lobby efforts on the part of independent timber harvesting contractors, consultants, forest licensees, and investors.  

Residing in Ladysmith. BC, Jim is a recipient of the Distinguished Forest Professional Award from the Association of BC Forest Professionals. He has previously served as Executive Director of the Truck Loggers Association of BC, and has advocated for the forest industry through various articles and speaking engagements.  

Girvan earned a Masters of Business Administration from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and is the author of the book '𝑰𝒇 𝑰 𝑯𝒂𝒅 𝑶𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝑲𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒏,' which is available online at https://bit.ly/JimGirvanBook.  Completing his MBA led Jim into boardrooms in the corporate world where he worked as a commercial lender at one of Canada’s big banks, a wood supply analyst at a major pulp and paper company, and a lobbyist with a major logging association before returning to consulting work for the balance of his career.  

 In his spare time, Girvan served on numerous committees and councils related to safety, stumpage and forestry education. Girvan now works independently as an industry consultant, and is looking to retire soon. He looks forward to enjoying his time on his property raising dogs with his wife, Tracey.