IFI_PG56_59_High Profile_01 30/10/2013 13:53 Page 56
HIGH PROFILE
Log Max’s new man International Forest Industries Editor, Chris Cann, chatted with recently appointed Log Max Chief Executive, Tom Sarin, about the direction of the company and the importance of reliability in forest machines and airports
International Forest Industries: How did you get involved in the forestry business? Tom Sarin: In a way, it was a family connection. My dad had a lumber yard when I was a kid so I used to work there over the summer and on holidays. But then I went to school, a business school, and majored in accounting. At that point I didn’t really have any preferences on the type of industry that I would like to get involved in or should be involved in. So when I got a phone call from an old friend who worked for a Finnish firm called Partek Corporation in the accounting department I was happy to get my start. That company actually acquired another Finnish company in 1997 called Sisu, which had the Valmet forestry company as one of its subsidiaries. Valmet nowadays of course is part of the Komatsu Forestry group and formed the mainstay of its cut-to-length business in Europe, primarily in Scandinavia. I was at the business development for Partek and then later moved into investor relations. It was really through these roles that I fully came to appreciate all the different parts within a forestry supplying company. And that really, besides the early days in the woodyard, was my introduction to the forestry sector at a professional level.
IFI: Did the woodyard background help with your decision to pursue forestry further? TS: Actually it did. 56 International Forest Industries | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013
I didn’t know all the ins and outs of the forestry business but it helped to know enough in the early stages to be able to speak with investors and specifically analysts. In 2001, I actually told the corporation then that if there was an opportunity to work for the group outside Finland then I would like to grab that opportunity – they provided me with that chance almost immediately and that same year I relocated to the UK. I worked with a sales company just outside Carlisle, Cumbria, as the finance manager for about a year. In 2002, they asked if I’d go to the US and I said: “Yeah, why not?!”. So I moved to the US with my family in 2002 and worked as the CFO for another forestry subsidiary for three or four years before becoming the plant manager. Then finally I became the President of the North American operations when the company by that point had been bought by Komatsu. After the US, I came back to Sweden in 2009 to be the Managing Director for the Swedish sales company for Komatsu.
IFI: Has the family always been happy to travel with you? TS: When I was in the UK they were actually still back in Helsinki so I was going between the places on the weekends and weekdays. That post was supposed to be a shorter assignments but, as always projects take longer than you anticipate, and so it was almost a year.