WoodDigest.com |

At its Annual Meeting on April 28, 2008, Glen Oak Lumber & Milling’s board of directors tapped two talented employees to serve as officers in the progressive corporation, in keeping with its established practice of “building for the future.” Steve Halder has been named president, succeeding Bo Smith who lost his battle with cancer in November 2007; Barry Garrison has been named vice president of sales.

Halder has been with Glen Oak since 1981 when he was hired as a hardwood S4S board salesman. As a Glen Oak team leader, he has successfully developed and served customer accounts which supply big builders in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Halder has dedicated his entire career to the building materials industry. After earning his business degree from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, he worked for Wisconsin Window Unit Company (an R.O.W. window manufacturer) and sold softwood lumber for Emmer Distribution, before being recruited to Glen Oak by Founder Tom Talbot. As president, Halder will remain active in Glen Oak sales efforts while providing oversight to the company’s daily operations and its management committees.

Garrison brought 18 years of leadership experience in the wood products industry to Glen Oak, when he joined the company’s poplar production operation in 2007. His career education began at the University of New Mexico where he earned a degree in finance and played football. He went on to hold sales, marketing and management positions in the Western sawmill industry before becoming involved in softwood remanufacturing and serving as president of Tewa Moulding LLC — a niche pine solid-lineal moulding manufacturer in Albuquerque. Today, Garrison is based at Glen Oak’s Somerset, Kentucky manufacturing campus where he has been sales manager for the company’s poplar board and millwork product lines, as well as the Southern Division of Wood Residuals Solutions LLC, a Glen Oak subsidiary. As vice president of sales, he will influence sales activities for all of Glen Oak’s product categories.

Glen Oak Lumber & Milling and its subsidiaries manufacture a wide range of wood products for home and commercial interiors, including mouldings, boards, jambs, panels, stair parts, shutter components, closet components, and specialty-shape shutters. The company is well-diversified and an environmental leader. Glen Oak uses timber from verified sustainable forests and practices no-waste manufacturing-converting 100 percent of its wood fiber into saleable products, including animal bedding, wood flour, and renewable fuel.