Jillian Kennedy wins forest industry Future Leader Award
Jillian Kennedy, a Senior Forest Manager with Scottish Woodlands, has been named as forestry's most promising young leader in the premier industry awards.
Jillian won the Tom A Bruce Jones Memorial Award for the Future Leader in the Forest Industry at the annual Confor Awards Dinner In Edinburgh.
Judges praised Jillian's great leadership qualities, both within Scottish Woodlands and in her role as Chair of the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs (SAYFC). The judges noted that she “worked tirelessly to foster greater understanding between farmers and foresters, and to build stronger rural communities”.
The awards entry for Jillian stressed that she always goes the extra mile to develop her skills and knowledge. She has represented both Scottish Woodlands and the SAYFC on UK and European policy stages, including speaking at Confor’s policy conference at Westminster, and playing an active part in the European Rural Parliament and the European Rural Youth Parliament last year.
There was more success for Scottish Woodlands, when the Forestry Operations New Entrants Programme won the Building Industry Resilience Award. Scottish Woodlands is the lead industry partner for the programme, which aims to attract young people and career changes into the forestry industry by offering an intensive five-week ‘taster’ course at the Scottish School of Forestry in Inverness. The second cohort has just started the course after a successful first year in 2025.
Ian Robinson, Managing Director of Scottish Woodlands Ltd, said: “I'm absolutely delighted for Jillian, who is a fantastic young forester, a natural leader, and someone who works as hard as anyone to make rural communities stronger and better.”
Jillian Kennedy is the second Scottish Woodlands employee to win the future leader award after Neil White, now Regional Manager for Central Scotland and Jillian’s boss, took the prize in 2023.
On receiving the award, she said: "This is fantastic. A massive thank you to Scottish Woodlands for taking a punt on someone from an agricultural background. I’m so grateful and now I’ve got to live up to this award and realise my full potential.”
Scottish Woodlands again sponsored an award for communications in the forestry and wood industry at the event. The winner of the Championing Forestry and Timber Products Award was the Forestry Commission’s Trees to Timber campaign. The Trust UK C-16 campaign, which promotes the use of more UK-grown timber in construction, was also shortlisted - and was given a special Chair’s Award by Lord Duncan, Chair of Confor.
Ian Robinson said: “There was an exceptional shortlist for the award (also including Dr Eleanor Tew of Forestry England and Andrew Sowerby of Bronwin & Abbey Ltd) and all four finalists are doing great work to promote our industry and its products.”
