Australia’s leading forest certification organisation, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Australia announces the appointment of Damian Paull as their new CEO.

A registered not-for-profit and national office of the global non-governmental organisation, the Forest Stewardship Council, FSC Australia promotes responsible forest management practices through multi-stakeholder standard setting and the operation of a globally recognised certification labelling program.

Paull has a strong background in corporate leadership, having worked with a number of regulatory and membership-based organisations that are involved in the development of voluntary standards and codes of practice.

As National Director of the Australian Account Standards Board and the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, he was responsible for assisting the two Chairs and Boards to develop and maintain high quality financial reporting and auditing standards.

Paull has also worked in risk and compliance, education, law enforcement, and climate change mentoring, as part of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project.

Announcing the appointment, deputy chair of the FSC Australia Board of Directors, Sarah Rees commented, “Damian is a proven CEO and director with an excellent track record of inspirational leadership and change management, and building trusted relationships. His experience reforming large organisations and managing high performing teams operating in complex environments will be an asset to FSC Australia.”

In 2018, FSC Australia released their landmark Australian Forest Stewardship Standard developed by local experts from industry, environmental, and social backgrounds to provide the highest benchmark of environmental management for production forests on offer in Australia.

Currently, FSC certifies 1.22 million hectares of Australian forests to full FSC Forest Management standards, an increase of 37% since 2012.