John Foppert leads the New York branch of Pekin Branch Forestry and serves as Assistant Professor of Silviculture and Economics and Head Forester at Paul Smith’s College. He is an active researcher in forest science, economics, and management, and holds the Certified Forester credential from the Society of American Foresters.
John’s academic path has been broad and international. He earned a PhD in Economics from the Technische Universität München in Germany, a postgraduate degree in Entrepreneurship from the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School, a master’s in European Forestry from the University of Eastern Finland, a master’s in Forest Science from Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg, and a bachelor’s in Forestry from Paul Smith’s College.
In addition to his teaching and research, John serves as an appointed member of the Adirondack Local Government Review Board and the New York State Climate Impacts Assessment Ecosystems Technical Working Group, and as a domain expert and adviser to Carbon13, a UK-based climate startup accelerator. He is active in the Saranac community as a youth sports coach, a volunteer on the Whiteface Mountain Host Patrol, and a former Clerk and Treasurer of the Saranac Lake Quaker Meeting. Earlier in his career, he worked in logging, wildland firefighting, carpentry, and agriculture.
John lives with his wife and four children on a farm in Clayburg, New York.