Thought Leadership

Anne Rahikainen

Director of Bioenergy Services, RISI

Anne Rahikainen has 14 years of management consulting experience in the forests products industry and wood biomass consuming bioenergy sectors with consulting experience both in North America and Western Europe. Her areas of expertise are market and policy research, biomass fuel supply analysis and due diligence studies, locating manufacturing sites and development of company strategy and business plans. During her career, Ms. Rahikainen has participated and lead numerous studies to investigate investment opportunities in the bioenergy sector and assisted companies to make optimal investment decisions. Her clients have included major utilities, biofuels producers, pellet manufacturers, trading companies, and investors.

Ms. Rahikainen has a BC in Forest Management from University of Helsinki, MS in Forest Products Marketing from University of Washington, and an Executive MBA at Cornell University.

William Perrit

Executive Editor, Wood Biomass Market Report, RISI

William is an analyst, writer and editor for RISI, contributing to the International Woodfiber Report, the Wood Biomass Market Report and the Timber & Wood Biomass News Service. He has written for the International Woodfiber Report since its first issue in 1995, and in 2008, personally inspired the launch of the Wood Biomass Market Report, for which he serves as Executive Editor.

During his time at RISI, William speaks regularly with industry sources and constructs real-world North American monthly market reviews in the pulpwood and wood biomass realms. He also analyzes price trends and market drivers for those raw materials.

Perritt is a graduate of Emory & Henry College with a degree in print journalism. He is a member of both the Forest Resources Association and the West Virginia Forestry Association.

Chris Lyddan

Director, Timber and co-founder, the International Woodfiber Report and the Timberland Markets Report, RISI

Chris Lyddan serves as a woodfiber, timberland and harvesting analyst at RISI. His areas of expertise include North American timber, wood fiber, timberland and biomass price reporting and analysis. His work is also the basis for the company's benchmarking and forecasting services in wood fiber and timberland. Lyddan co-founded the International Woodfiber Report in 1995 and the Timberland Markets Report in 2000, and has been a contributing editor to the Wood Biomass Market Report since 2008. Prior to joining RISI in 1995, Lyddan owned a timber harvesting and log export business, founded in 1979. He holds a BS in Industrial Forestry from Virginia Tech.

Robert Flynn

Director International Timber, RISI

Robert Flynn is the Director of International Timber for RISI. His work involves analysis of trends in international timber supply and demand and trade in pulpwood and sawlogs. Prior to joining RISI in April 2006, he worked for 18 years as a consultant with several firms, including Wood Resources International, assisting clients in understanding trends in forest resources, forest ownership, and industrial development in plantation forest countries in the southern hemisphere, China and elsewhere. In addition, Robert worked for 11 years as a forester, primarily for Champion International in Oregon. His projects include multi-client studies on China's timber supply deficit, and opportunities for investing in South America's plantation forests, as well as recurring publications such as, the Global Tree Farm and Managed Forest Industry, and the International Pulpwood Resource and Trade Review. Robert holds a BA in geography from the University of Texas, a BS in forest management from Northern Arizona University, and an MS in economics from the University of Oregon.

Peter Barynin

Principal Timber Economist, RISI

Peter Barynin recently rejoined RISI as the Principal Timber Economist after previously holding the title of Director of the North American Timber Forecasting Service at RISI, and has over 15 years of experience as a forest industry economist. Most recently, Peter was founder and Chief Economist for Resource Vision, Inc., which conducts research and analysis on global wood fiber issues and the intricacies of the timber markets.