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Leonard M. Guss, Ph.D., is President of Leonard Guss Associates, Inc. Forest Industry Marketing Research. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, earned a B.A. in zoology & chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania; an M.B.A. from Drexel University and his doctorate in marketing from Ohio State. 

His work experience includes R&D and petrochemicals production management with E. F. Houghton Company, followed by Battelle Institute, Columbus, Ohio where he headed a section dealing with economic and marketing research on forest products and building materials.  Len joined Weyerhaeuser as Associate Director of Research and Development, and then was appointed Director, Corporate Economic and Marketing Research.  He left to establish LGA.

He is a charter member of the National Association of Business Economists; has been a National Director of the American Marketing Association; has served on the National Industrial Conference Board-West Coast Council, and on the advisory boards of several forest industry trade associations.  His book: Packaging is Marketing, has been translated into several languages.  He has also contributed chapters to well known standard industry marketing texts: Handbook of Marketing and The Marketing Handbook.  Len is especially well recognized for his marketing studies and publications on lumber and engineered wood products.  His most recent publications include: LVL In North America - The Decade Ahead (6th ed June, 2006); and Structural Engineered Wood Products In North America (5th ed. Spring, 2006)  He received the Distinguished Service Award from Washington State University, College of Engineering & Architecture, at the 33rd International Particleboard/Composite Materials Symposium (1999).  Dr. Guss is a contributing editor to MDF Industry Magazine (Switzerland) in which he provides a column focusing on the North American MDF industry.

Claudia D. Boyer, Sr. Vice President & CFO.  Claudia was born in Okinawa; she earned her degree from the University of Washington and joined LGA in 1982 when her Company (Markey Research) was acquired by LGA.   Claudia’s prior work experience includes: government contracts, GTE regional compiling of data acquired on a monthly basis for five years or until all GTE regions combined into one area; public relations, two years in the legal field; bookkeeping, managing, hiring, and training personnel and field interviews around the U.S.  Claudia also manages Field Services at Leonard Guss Associates, Inc.

• Telephone Surveys - Supervises and trains telephone staff, develops screeners and questionnaires, provides for coding, editing, and data processing, does analysis, and reports findings.
• Focus Groups -Arranges for focus group facilities, sets criteria for recruiting, supervises recruiting, conducts groups and oversees performance of  other leaders and facilitates as well.
• Intercept Interviews - Arranges for and supervises consumer, commercial and industrially oriented intercepts at public and private locations. Develops intercept criteria and questionnaires, supervises staff, and evaluates results.
• Executive Interviews - Claudia manages and participates in the executive interviewing process for a variety of business, government and trade organizations.

She is a member of the American Marketing Association, the Puget Sound Research Council and the Washington Athletic Club.

Jack Gates is a Senior Associate with Leonard Guss Associates, Inc.  He has over 35 years experience in the forest products industry and in related chemical and resins industries.  He has a B. Sc. in wood utilization from Iowa State University and a Master's degree in Forest Products Engineering from Oregon State University.  He is in charge of LGA studies dealing with resin and other binders of all types, in composite and laminated products, and with chemical treatments of wood.  He is also a Project Coordinator at the University of Washington in engineered wood products, wood chemistry and related studies.  Jack has directed, conducted and participated in over 100 studies related to lumber, plywood, engineered wood products, insulations, adhesives, exports and other aspects of the forest products industry.  He has worked in Asia, Europe and North America.  Jack is a member of the Forest Products Society, Chemical Marketers Association, American Marketing Association and other professional organizations.

Will Wilcox is Senior Associate with LGA.  His extensive experience encompasses health care, financial research, GIS programs and others as well as forest industry topics such as harvesting equipment, wall paneling, construction materials and others.  Will has a BA and MBA in Marketing from the University of Washington, and also teaches Advanced Marketing Research courses at City University, Seattle.  He is a member of the American Marketing Association, Puget Sound Research Council, GDS Society for geographical market studies and other professional organizations.

Dr. Azzeddine Oudjehane is a Senior Associate with LGA and also President of AZZO & Associates Consulting.  He has an excellent knowledge of the forest products industry.  Dr. Oudjehane earned a Ph.D. in Materials Science, specializing in wood technology, from the University Blaise Pascal, Clermont, France.  Dr. Oudjehane has worked as an engineer in Algeria and France. He has taught engineering and wood technological subjects at four universities in France and at the University of BC, Vancouver, Canada.  At UBC Wood Science, Dr. Oudjehane has conducted and led several research projects on a wide variety of wood products.  He has a strong knowledge of the secondary forestry industry in BC through the Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP) at UBC.  He also speaks fluently several languages (French, English, German and Arabic).