January / February 2025
Cover: Richie LeBlanc and Hunt Forest Products have stepped up for community and industry.
Inside This Issue
NEWSfeed
- Group Of Mills Up For Sale
- USDA Begins Loan Program
- Irving Acquires Established Mills
- Weyco Announces EWP Investment
- More Time Allowed To Prep For EUDR
- New OSB Project Gains Permitting
- Enviva Emerges From Bankruptcy
THE ISSUES: The Piney Woods Is Home
My favorite time of the year is here—the annual announcement of the Timber Processing Person of the Year. I’ve always said that the Person of the Year articles are such special stories for me to write, not just because the recipients become industry friends, but because I get to really know who they are—beyond the nuts and bolts, deep into the why. Like peeking behind the curtain. These titans become “my people.”
COVER: 2025 Person Of The Year Richie LeBlanc President & CEO Hunt Forest Products
RUSTON, La. — During the course of his Person Of The Year interview, TP’s 2025 honoree Richie LeBlanc kept repeating the same concept over and over—in the nine years since joining Hunt Forest Products in his adopted hometown of Ruston, La. he never thought he’d be here. “Here” being a metaphor for many things.
Article by Jessica Johnson, Senior Editor, Timber Processing
MACHINERY Row
- Selco Finds Added Value Through Scanning
- USNR, Key Knife Work Together
- Menominee Becomes Part Of Burton Team
- Carbotech Blends Autolog Into Carbotech
- CMPC Plans Upgrade Of Mulchén Sawmill
- Comact Reflects On Pivotal Year
- Floyd/BE&E Plan Expansion In Kentucky
- CPM Purchases Jacobs Global
- CM Biomass Appoints Plagborg As CEO
- SonicAire Achieves ATEX Zone 22
- Dieffenbacher Names Heads Of Recycling
- Vermeer Southeast Earns Pinnacle
AT Large
- Ardis Almond Led Family Business
- Homan Rebrands Tri-State Lumber
- Georgia-Pacific Names Sr. VP of Operations
- GP Wants To Redevelop Headquarters Site
- Movement Grows For Steel-Timber
- California Pellet Mills Edge Ahead
- Roseburg Names Dillard Plant Manager
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The Issues: The Piney Woods Is Home
Article by Jessica Johnson, Senior Editor, Timber Processing
My favorite time of the year is here—the annual announcement of the Timber Processing Person of the Year. I’ve always said that the Person of the Year articles are such special stories for me to write, not just because the recipients become industry friends, but because I get to really know who they are—beyond the nuts and bolts, deep into the why. Like peeking behind the curtain. These titans become “my people.”
And no one is more “my people” than this year’s honoree, Richie LeBlanc, President of Hunt Forest Products—affectionately known around my house as “Mr. Richie,” the LaTech baseball player, who was good friends with Sammy Pullin’s grandpop, and who we bumped into at the airport that one time. LeBlanc isn’t just a special person to our wood products industry, or to my family, but to the community where he raised his two children, and where I am raising mine. Yep, we live about two miles apart in the heart of the Louisiana Piney Woods.
The LeBlanc family, from left, Richie, his wife Holly, daughter Mary Lloyd , his son Ben, and daughter-in-law Cameron
He may not come across as the dude who wants to throw the baseball as hard as he possibly can and if necessary directly at you anymore, but he hasn’t lost that will to win or the competitive drive. It’s what makes him a great lumberman. Hunt Forest Products was always highly acclaimed in the wood products industry, but not necessarily for its sawmills…until Richie LeBlanc.
Under his strategic leadership, with support from owners Trott and Jimmy Hunt, he’s taken Hunt Forest Products to new heights, preparing the company for the next generation of the Hunt family to take over and see it continue to flourish. That’s what LeBlanc does, he takes something and elevates it, like pitching 10 innings and beating SEC baseball powerhouse LSU 5-4, a game that is one of the most storied in LaTech history and one people still talk to him about to this day.
Though drafted by the Royals, LeBlanc never wore the Kansas City uniform; instead he’s doing something so much better: Giving kids the chance to wear uniforms. One of the impactful moves LeBlanc makes as President of Hunt FP is to support the local community, giving back to our Ruston Parks & Rec (my twins have never lost a basketball game on the Hunt court!) and the two parishes and towns Hunt’s sawmills operate in.
Like me, LeBlanc was an outsider to Ruston, but he found a home, created a family and built a legacy. “Dynamite in a tiny package” a sportswriter once said, and I couldn’t agree more.
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