About the Speakers:

Adam Taylor
Adam Taylor is the Wood Products Extension Specialist at the University of Tennessee. His responsibility is to assist Extension agents, the wood industry, landowners and interested individuals to do more, better, with wood products. Dr. Taylor was raised in Canada, went to school in Oregon, and is now happy to live and work in east Tennessee.

Dan Mathews
Dan Mathews began working for his father’s dry kiln company at the age of 15. In 1970, he started as a laborer, installing a prefab aluminum kiln in Laurinburg, NC. Throughout the mid-1970s, during his college breaks, he traveled across the southeastern United States, installing hardwood and softwood kilns, and learning valuable skills such as pipe fitting, welding, and operating cranes. With his construction background, Dan enrolled at UNC-Charlotte, where he earned both a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and a Bachelor of Architecture degree. He practiced architecture for 10 years before joining the family business, SII Dry Kilns, in 1990. Dan became President in 1996, a position he held until 2022 when he transitioned to the role of Chairman. Dan's involvement with Thermally Modified Wood began in 2008 at the International Woodworking Fair (IWF) in Atlanta. In a struggling lumber market at the time, it was one of the few new technologies available. Over the years, Dan has taught numerous kiln-drying classes, including the NC State dry kiln workshop for over 25 years.

Fred Fuller
In 1968, Fred began working with his father at his sawmill and hardwood lumber company which supplied all necessary materials to industrial arts shops throughout Indiana. During this time, a good foundation for business ethics and attention to detail were developed. After graduating from Ball State University in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts degrees in business administration and industrial arts, Fred began to grow the business toward design and manufacture of Interior Architectural Millwork products. Fred purchased the company from his father in 2000 and renamed it Fuller Architectural Hardwoods and was the sole proprietor until 2024 when he sold the business to his son, Adam. Today, Fred remains the president. FAH began its journey with thermally modified wood products in 2015 with a request to provide this material for a project. TMH’s unique properties lends itself to a variety of quality woodworking design solutions. The application and problem solving of using TMH is and will continue to be an ongoing process. Authoritative testing of each application is essential to success. Fred is an AWI presenter for Thermally Modified Hardwoods.

Frederik Laleicke
Frederik Laleicke is a Wood Products Extension Specialist and Assistant Professor at NC State University. Originally from Germany, he came to the United States in 2012. Laleicke is passionate about wood products and urban wood utilization. He regularly teaches workshops related to drying and gives presentations to educate about the various facets of wood. Through some of his extension projects, Laleicke has explored the diversity of wood products in our daily lives. His overall goal is to improve the sustainable use of our wood resources and to increase the number of wood products in our built environment.