About
Dean McCraw
Our key team member is Dean McCraw. A native of North Carolina, Dean was previously the direcotr of Forestry for the North Carolina Biofuels Center. Prior to this position, Dean was the regeneration Manager for Rayonier in Glenville, GA where he was responsible for all Southeastern seedling production. In this position from 1995 to 2008, Dean managed the growing of over 505 million seedings that are planed throughout the Southeast from Oklahoma to North Carolina. Before Rayonier, Dean developed and managed a woodyard that shipped wood to Ohio for the landscape mulch market. Prior to this position, he was employed with Union Camp Corporation in Savannah, GA. While at Union Camp, he held staff positions in the Land Department and Company Harvesting Department. He also managed four company logging crews, starting up the last crew that union camp added in 1980. Durring the mid-80's Dean managed Union Camp's Biomass Harvesting operation, which harvested forest residue for use in the Savannah Mill's power boiler. This operation was nationally recognized by the Paper Industry Management Association for their productivity accomplishments. Dean Graduated from NC State in 1978 with BS degrees in Forestry and Natural Resource Recreation Management. He is a Certified Forester and has held leadership positions in the Society of American Foresters including Georgia Division Chair in 2005 and 2006. Dean has also served on the board of the Adopted and Foster Parent Association of Georgia. He also served on the board of Providence Christian School of Savannah for a ten-year period with the last five years as Chairman of the Board. Dean currently serves in a leadership role for the local cubscout Pack in which his sons are involved. He has also served in leadership roles in his local church.
Fred Haeussler
A native of Ohio, Fred was with Union Camp Corporation for over 37 years. He had twelve different positions of increasing responsibility during his career. Fred's longest tenure was as Land Manager for the Savannah Region where he was responsible for all activitied on 1.1 million acres of timberland. He was also responsible for the development and management of Union Camp's Biomass Harvesting operation. Fred also had extensive experience in environmental affairs holding two different positions related to Union Camp's environmental efforts/ He was also a key corporate leader in developing Union Camp's woodland operations in Alabama after their purchase of the WT Smith Lumber Co. He held three different management positions in Alabama from 1966 to 1974, with the last being Woodlands Manager. Fred graduated from the University of Georgia with a BS degree in Forestry and from Duke University with a Masters in Forestry. He has been recognized as Distinguished Almunus from both Universities. Fred is a Certified Forester and has held numerous leadership positions in the Society of American Foresters. These have included Chair of the Alamaba Division and Southeastern Society, National Council Member and National Chair in 1985. In 1979, he was recognized by his peers with election as a SAF Fellow. Fred served on the Advisory Committee on Sate and Private Forestry to the Secretary of Agriculture and he served as board member and Chair of the LSU/MSU Logging center. Fred's achievements were honored with induction into both Alabama and Georgia Foresters Hall of Fame. He has appeared as a cast member in three movies that were filmed in Savannah.
Ev Stephenson
A native of Tennessee, Ev has a long history of engineering development in the forest products industry. he is the holder of nine US and two Canadian Patents with most related to timber transportation innovations. Ev has extensive experience in development of tree length handling systems and development of new equipment and techniques for mass productions of colonial tree seedlings. He spent most of his career working with Union Camp Corporation in their Savannah office. Ev positions included Equipment Supervisor for the Harvesting Department, Project leader of Forest Engineering for the FRG Technical Department and Group Leader of Forest Resources Group. He also worked with International Paper as the FOrest Engineer of Research/Biotechnology in the Forest Resources Group. In the 80's, Ev served as teh Forest Operations Specialist at the Forestry and Harvesting Training Center in Long Beach, MS and Briefly worked as a Research Associate on the Forest Products faculty at Virginia Tech with a Masters in Industrial Forestry Operations. He has authored over 10 publications and has made numerous presentations on forest industry engineering developments in the US. These presentations have included meeing in New Zealand and Denmark. Ev has been recognized by the Council of Forest Engineering, the Forest Products Research Society and named to Whos Who in Science and Technology in 1998-1999. In the 70's, he served in the Army National Guard, being honorably discharged in 1977. In recent years, Ev has turned his attention to being an author. In 2008, he completed his first novel Resolution and in 2011 published Innovation, a short story collection.