Contact: Maridith Geuder
The vice president of Weyerhaeuser Co.'s Southern Timberlands group will speak April 11 at Mississippi State University.
Mike Branson of Hot Springs, Ark., is the College of Forest Resources' 2003 Carlton N. Owen Lecturer. Since last year, he has been responsible for the company's 10-state forest management and harvest operations, which includes some 700,000 acres in Mississippi and nearly five million acres overall.
His 9 a.m. public presentation in the Tully Auditorium of Thompson Hall will highlight--as do all of the Owen Lectures--issues of forest resources stewardship.
Branson, who has worked in the forest products industry for more than two decades, will discuss the "new" world of forestry. He formerly was vice president for plywoods with the Washington-based international forest products company.
The Arkansas native holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Ouachita Baptist University. He also is a graduate of the Stanford University Executive Program and Weyerhaeuser's Leadership Institute.
The MSU lecture series was established through a 1992 gift from Owen, a 1974 MSU graduate and Greenville, S.C., resident.
For more information about the lecture series, contact MSU's Forest and Wildlife Research center at (662) 325-2953.