The Canadian Academy of Engineering has announced the election of Bill Adams as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering among the new Fellows for 2020. His citation reads:
The nominee has made outstanding contributions in leadership and engineering practice in Canada’s pulp industry, specifically in establishing technologies to produce renewable energy from biomass and innovations to enhance pulp quality for high-value products. He has also provided skillful leadership in forest industry sustainability, both in technical matters and in interactions with the various stakeholders of Canada’s forest resource. In addition to these contributions to Canada, the nominee has generously donated his exemplary engineering skills to charitable works in developing countries.
About Bill Adams
Bill received his BASc in 1987(Mechanical) and M Eng. in 1991 (Chemical/ Pulp and Paper) from UBC, and later an MBA from Asia Pacific International Institute. Over the course of his career he has held positions of increasing breadth and responsibility in the pulp and paper industry, most recently as Director of Sustainability, Strategy, and Innovation at Canfor Pulp and currently as Vice-President, Sustainability and Innovation at Mercer International.
Among his accomplishments, in his earlier work he led the design and implementation of a comprehensive energy model to optimize energy production from biomass in the Domtar Pulp mill in Kamloops BC. This laid the groundwork for a competitive bidding process among pulp companies to support BC Hydro’s objective of sourcing low cost renewable energy from independent power producers, thereby benefiting the entire BC pulp industry and society.
Bill has also played key roles in sustainability to balance the needs of society and companies in a competitive marketplace. He has given numerous seminars and had interactions with governments, NGO’s, and the public . He was recognized for these contributions by a prestigious lifetime achievement award at the annual PACWEST Pulp and Paper Conference.
Bill has given been a strong supporter of educational activities. He mentored UBC students in the design of a 10-kW solar power system in rural Nepal. This facility is now in use by UBC medical students for humanitarian and medical research training. Lastly, while at Canfor Pulp, he was a key player in establishing the NSERC/Canfor Industrial Research Chair in Forest Bioproducts at UBC, a chair aimed at new products from the forest industry.