The Paper Industry Gold Medal Association has announced that the Gold Medal for 2010 has been awarded to Mike Clark of Cookham High Street.

The Award Committee met on the 25^th January 2010 at Stationers’ Hall under the independent chairmanship of the current Master of the Stationers’ Company, Mr Richard Brewster.

The medal will be presented to Mike at the Charter Dinner of the Stationers’ Company on 5^th May 2010.

Mike retired from full time employment with M-Real in 2008, but remained active in retirement as Chairman of PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) until December 2009. Mike is well known in Cookham with his voluntary activities particularly his work for the Cookham Festival. He is currently busy organising the second year of Rock the Moor with Nick Billinghurst, which will take place in May this year. Rock the Moor was part of last year's Cookham Festival and was a runaway success.

The award recognises Mike's contribution to the wider industry over many years. Although primarily concerned with the cartonboard market, Mike recognised that the industry needed to present a united front when faced with wider issues such as the introduction of Packaging Waste Regulations, the poor perception of the industry by NGOs and the wider public, or  the need to embrace environmental issues such as forest certification proactively and whole-heartedly.

His contributions to PIMO (Paper Industry Materials Organisation), the CPI (Confederation of Paper Industries), ProCarton, and PEFC have been positive and constructive. At the same time he was active within the PAA (Paper Agents Association) where he served on Council for a number of years and completed a two year term as President. He continued to support the Association’s Environmental Committee after his retirement from M-Real.

In 2004 Mike was made a Knight First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland, in recognition of his services to the Finnish forest products industries.

In nominating him, the PAA said “The Paper Agents Association believes that Michael’s commitment to the establishment of meaningful industry bodies and fair representation for all branches of the industry in its relationships with Government, the EU and NGOs uniquely qualify him for consideration as a recipient of the Gold Medal.”