The Business of Writing - Lundquist College of Business - University ...

of forESt grovE
aNd tIMBErlaNd
Richard E. Hanson ’65 might have seemed destined for a career in the timber industry,
but it was his thirst for knowledge and drive to do things better that made him successful.
y
you’re writing a novel. The lead character is a top executive in a giant
international timber company. Will you say that he was born and raised in a
town called Forest Grove? Naah, too contrived.
P rofI les I n sUCCess
Yet Forest Grove, Oregon, is the hometown of Richard E. Hanson, chief operating
officer of Weyerhaeuser Co. And although he likes the place and is on the governing
board of Pacific University located there, he attended the University of Oregon.
He earned a B.S. in industrial management in 1965 after first majoring in landscape
architecture. After four years in a U.S. Gypsum management training program,
young Rich Hanson looked around for a company that was on the move.
He He had heard heard good things about Weyerhaeuser, so he called called the corporation’s
controller and expressed interest in an entry-level position in operational auditing.
“But I don’t don’t have have any money, so would you buy me me a plane ticket and interview interview
me?” Hanson recalled asking. “And he said he would. So he bought my my plane ticket
and, as they say, say, the rest is history.”
Much of that that history, including eighteen years in Springfield, Oregon, involved
timberland. timberland. So it was no surprise when in 1999 Hanson became became the the head head of all
company timberlands. Four years later, he was elected COO, the position he holds
today—but not for long.
Weyerhaeuser has mandatory retirement at at age sixty-five for top managers. Hanson
will turn sixty-five in November 2008. He and and Joy, his high school school sweetheart sweetheart and
wife of forty-four years, will move to to a home with with eight acres acres on the the Longbranch,
Longbranch,
Washington, Washington, waterfront. “It’s enough ground ground to to justify owning a couple of tractors,”
he chuckled. “And I’m starting my classic car collection with a ’59 Corvette.”
Other postretirement plans plans might might include some guest lecturing. lecturing. He’s interested
in the Center Center for Sustainable Business Practices at the Lundquist College
of Business. “I’ve gotten quite familiar with supply chain management and
enterprise resource planning systems,” he said, noting that Weyerhaeuser has
embarked on related related programs of its own. He understands the theories “and the the
practical aspects of it as well.”
He also will continue to follow Weyerhaeuser’s expansion in South America. In
two minutes he he can tell you more about growing eucalyptus trees in Uruguay for
hardwood flooring than you can readily absorb. Unless you’re you’re a good student—
which which he he was and still is.
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