Safetree CEO, Joe Akari
Joe Akari has been appointed as the new CEO/National Safety Director of FISC/Safetree. Mr Akari is a Kiwi with Samoan heritage and whakapapa. He began his working journey in forestry as a Ranger with the NZ Forest Service and with PF Olsen as a contractor. He went on to forge a successful senior executive career in HR at various organisations including the Rotorua Lakes Council, Bay of Plenty Health Board, Refining NZ and Carter Holt Harvey. Mr Akari brings a blend of stakeholder management, communication, operations, and H&S experience to the role.
Scion GM Forests to Timber Products, Henri Baillères
Henri Baillères has been appointed General Manager of Forests to Timber Products at Scion. Dr Baillères has deep research and industry experience in forestry and wood product innovation. Most recently, he was product development manager at Hyne Timber in Australia, an industry leader in the manufacture, optimisation and application of cross laminated timber (CLT) and Glulam products. Before that, he led the Forest Products Innovation Team of the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Dr Baillères has also worked on forestry and wood product projects in several countries in Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. Dr Baillères was born in Toulouse, the European capital of the aeronautics and space industry. His scientific career began with CIRAD (French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development) studying the structural properties of wood from hybrid eucalyptus plantations in the Republic of the Congo. His research spans the broad spectrum of the forest-based sector, reflecting his technical skills, engineering background and research experience in wood science and technology. He has published widely in forest and wood science and engineering.
CollectiveCrunch Sales Director, Petri Itkonen
Petri Itkonen has been appointed Sales Director at CollectiveCrunch. The company is the creator of Linda Forest software solutions that provide forest inventories and climate analyses to global clients. Mr Itkonen brings with him 15 years of sales and management experience in Finland’s technology industry, during which he helped scale SaaS (Software as a Service) companies to enable both national and international growth. According to Mr Itkonen, replacing manual, analog forestry survey methods with AI and digital technologies provides landowners and companies with faster, more accurate information to help meet their forestry-based sustainability and emissions goals and requirements. He honed his sales abilities during his time at Gigantti Oyj, Paytrail, Mash and MyCashflow, where he gained experience implementing new sales strategies and processes, engaging new partners, creating customer onboarding processes, developing seamless sales funnels, and mapping and developing market penetration strategies for foreign markets. He earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering at the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences.
