On taking the reins at the Timber Trade Federation (TTF), David Hopkins didn’t have to move far.
As director of timber industry promotional campaign Wood for Good and former TTF head of external affairs, he was already based in the same Building Centre office as the TTF team.
His job as TTF managing director, taking over from interim TTF CEO David Lennan, sees him take on the challenge of revitalising the federation, the UK’s leading representational body for the timber trade.
His journey to the position has taken in varied and interesting roles including writing for national newspapers, compiling speeches for Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and running his own PR company called Spartacus.
You get the feeling talking to him that change will be most definitely in the air and that he has an ambitious vision for reenergising the TTF.
In his busy round of timber industry dinners, he is sharing that vision and it’s that name Spartacus which may prove to be a watchword. For Mr Hopkins it’s about mobilising a timber sales army from among the ranks of TTF members to drive growth for the sector.
BACKGROUND
A clue to Mr Hopkins’ past can be found in his slight West Country accent. Bristol, Stroud and Devon were all key places where he lived in during his formative years, as well as a spell in the East Midlands, where he vividly remembers the miner’s strike.
"My ambition was to be a writer," he said. "When I was studying for my A-levels I wrote sketches and jokes to send in to Roy Hudd’s News Huddlines radio programme and got some read out. You used to get £15 if one was used."
On leaving school, he wanted to see the world, so he hitchhiked around the Mediterranean, working in vineyards and bars.
"I did a lot of transient jobs at that stage and even busked on the street with my juggling clubs," he said.
The writing ambition didn’t leave him and led him to journalism training in the form of becoming a trainee at the Western Morning News.
"I learnt the skills of journalism which included absorbing information very quickly and turning a complicated subject into one that is easy to understand. They are useful life skills for anyone.
"Working on a local paper there is a lot that happens in every day life that makes a great story."
He then moved to London and did shift work on the national newspapers, including The Independent, Guardian, The Times, as well as the BBC, specialising in business and environmental matters.
He recalls one vivid memory on The Times when on Remembrance Day – unbeknown to him – it was customary of Times staff to stop work for the minute’s silence.
He carried on and did a phone interview, breaking the silence and the Times’ editorial code of etiquette. He wasn’t asked back for another shift!
He then went to Birkbeck College, University of London, doing a philosophy, politics and economics degree in evening school, so he could still continue his media work by day.
"But the national newspaper work left me a bit disillusioned," he added.
"There was no attempt at these papers to get their teeth into stories."
A break from the media saw him working with wood for the first time – a picture framing business in Islington called the Frame Factory. The likes of designer Alexander McQueen were among its clients. "Then after finishing my degree I went back into journalism. I went into trade titles, editing Utility Week and several other business magazines, as well as working for environmental news service EDIE.net."
Other magazine titles he worked for included Wet News about wastewater. "I covered renewable energy, waste and recycling and water. I wanted to start getting into depth in a subject."
About this time in the early 2000s carbon trading was coming to the fore, so in 2003 he became involved in a PR/public affairs/ investor relations communications firm specialising in clean technology and carbon markets.
"Our mission was to make people aware of the business opportunities from a sustainability/low carbon perspective," Mr Hopkins said.
One of its major clients was the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
"It was great fun writing press releases, almost as much fun as doing local news. Most of the projects required in-depth media strategies."
The experience made him aware of the value of carbon footprint, the importance of knowing who your key stakeholders were and bringing them onside, as well as how investors can put pressure on companies to improve their performance and values. Knowing all this, he added, it was possible to pull the market in your favour.
Some notable people came to open the stock exchange during those years and Mr Hopkins prepared speeches for some of them, such as Al Gore, Tony Blair and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He joked about the latter, as he wrote the speech with a liberal sprinkling of quotes from the Terminator films, such as "there’s no fate but what we make."
The actor obviously liked it, as he wrote to Mr Hopkins’ firm thanking them for the speech and requested them to do others for him on environmental matters during his travels.
Mr Hopkins sold his financial interest in the firm in 2010, following on from the stock market crash and set up his own business Spartacus Communications, with a focus on the environment and sustainability. Clients included banks and law firms.
He also helped set up a charity Pure Leapfrog, a leading provider of social investment and professional support to community energy projects in the UK. "Putting business sustainability to work in a social and environmental context is something that drives me," he said.
So to Wood for Good, which he joined in 2012. No-one was in the role at the time and the brief was to position the timber industry in a low carbon setting.
Mr Hopkins is very proud of Wood for Good’s Wood First campaign which targeted architects and local authorities. "It encouraged them to make the best environmental choice by using wood but was also aimed at stimulating the market. We told them there was only one moral and environmental choice – timber.
"We got a lot of headlines and the objective was to put timber on the same platform as all other building materials." Wood for Good’s Lifecycle Database project created a free online information hub containing all of the environmental and design data necessary to specify timber as a first choice material.
"The industry should embrace that as an ongoing project. The timber industry had needed to get smarter about a lot of the natural advantages it has and how it can communicate them.
"The producers are the people who understand this the best, but we tend to have a trading mentality."
TIMBER TRADE FEDERATION
And so to that name "Spartacus" again. It’s a theme that resonates with Mr Hopkins.
It speaks of empowerment and decentralisation. In Mr Hopkins’ mind, it also means spreading the message of wood and mobilising the army of the timber industry to deliver this message rather than just central voices, such as the TTF office in London. "I want to bring dynamism to the workings of the timber supply chain.
"I feel I can put a lot of energy back into the TTF. Since John White left, the focus has been on creating the Confederation of Timber Industries (CTI) so we now need to put more focus on the core business of the TTF. "I want the federation to act as the vital trading desk of the industry."
Mr Hopkins believes his experience of local authorities can help.
"If there is one thing I’d like to bring in it is encouraging more of our members to have these discussions and dialogue [with specifiers and local authorities] which will allow the TTF to make better use of its resources."
"Certification as well as procurement are key strengths in the timber trade, and we need to start to build out from these strengths.
"This is where we can see the regions playing a greater role. We can start to decentralise things, with members talking to local procurement officers about specification and being part of architects’ workshops, stimulating architects’ interest in local markets, causing an army of timber industry sales people to rise up."
There’s more than a passing resemblance to David Cameron’s Big Society here, and Mr Hopkins said the comparison was valid. It’s a core theme in his messages at the regional industry dinners.
"Most people would like to get their material from a local supplier if they could. Most of our members do business at their local level."
Mr Hopkins said this vision will also require the TTF to change some of its internal workings.
"We are looking at the make-up of committees and divisions and asking – are they really serving members’ needs? "There are four divisional meetings four times a year, and then there is the governing board and dinners as well. It’s a huge strain on people’s time, so why not let’s strip out other stuff from the committee meetings so they concentrate on their product specific issues".
Mr Hopkins is suggesting the establishment of quarterly Members Day meetings to cover crosscutting issues including quality & standards, education and training, communication and engagement. These would be open to all and give members an opportunity to be updated on TTF work as well as to provide input.
"We want to get more people involved in these crosscutting issues."
Another idea is a working group to assess London construction opportunities. But he’s keen to emphasise that further discussion is needed and nothing is set in stone, with the process being more evolution than revolution.
"There is lots of internal consultation about the changes. And we are not piling anything on anyone. Internally, we are adding staff; we’re not losing anything. "And what does the market want from us? Too often there seems to be a pervasive attitude from the past that the market needs to accommodate ‘us’. But the world does not work like that.
"It’s going to be slow and for the first six months a lot of organisation internally but I’d like to think for the second half of the year we’ll have plans in place to be out in the market.
"I want people to see the benefits in their local areas. The more we increase our visibility, then people like architects and local authorities will see us as a vital part of their local economy."
It’s also the social side of the industry with all its events, where Mr Hopkins believes the TTF could be modernised.
"The industry is quite traditional, still I’d like it to be more open and a bit more relaxed. I’m still not convinced we need to wear a bow tie for dinner! I’d like to modernise our approach."
