18/06/2007 The leading European innovation award within the wood products industry, the Schweighofer Prize, has been given to Professor Matti Kairi and Finnforest Kerto Laminated Veneer Lumber products. The Schweighofer Prize is an acknowledgement to Matti Kairi, professor of wood technology in the Helsinki University of Technology, who has worked for 30 years with the Kerto wood products. He worked in the service of Metsäliitto Wood Products from 1975 to 2001, for example, in the posts of product manager, production manager and development manager, thus having a remarkable effect on the development, manufacturing and marketing of Kerto LVL products. In his doctoral thesis published in 2005 Kairi researched the development process of Kerto as an interactive process between the research and development, and business operations. He has also published several other writings connected to the field. The sum of the Schweighofer Prize, nominated every second year, is 100,000 euros, and it is granted to innovations that can be counted as milestones in the development of European forest industry and are in industrial use. Finnforest Kerto is a dimensionally stable beam and panel product that has excellent strength properties. The product's innovativeness is based on its versatile use in all construction and the constant development of new usage applications in cooperation with customers. The Schweighofer Prize was handed to Professor Matti Kairi on Monday 18 June 2007 in the City Hall of Vienna. In addition to the main prize, the Schweighofer Privatstiftung Beteiligungsverwaltung GmbH foundation gave four separate innovation awards. The benefactor of the Schweighofer Prize is Heinz Fischer, the President of Austria. The Schweighofer Prize's international panel of judges in 2007 included the chairman Alfred Teischinger (Institute of Wood Science and Technology, BOKU), Bo Borgström (European Confederation of Woodworking Industries CEI-Bois), Georg Erlacher (Österreichische Bundesforste AG), Josef Rettenmeier (Rettenmeier Holding AG), Manfred Brandstätter (Holzforschung Austria) and Emeritus Professor Tero Paajanen. Read more about the Schweighofer Prize at http://www.schweighofer-prize.org/ Further information: Johanna Kankkunen, Marketing and Communications, Metsäliitto Wood Products Industry, Finnforest, telephone +358 50 350 4005