Athens, Ga. – Michael L. Clutter, who has been associated with the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources almost his entire life as the son of a faculty member and later as a student, researcher and professor, will become dean of the school on Aug. 15.
Arnett C. Mace Jr., senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, announced today that Clutter, the Hargreaves Distinguished Professor of forest finance in the school, has been chosen to succeed Richard Porterfield, who retired as dean Dec. 1. Robert Warren, a professor in the school, has served as interim dean since Dec. 1.
An authority on economics of the forestry industry, including finance, budgeting and timberland management, Clutter earned master’s and doctoral degrees from the Warnell School and has been on the faculty since 2001. He has also had an appointment to the Terry College of Business teaching faculty since 2002 where he teaches courses on corporate finance.
Clutter has also held management positions with two leading forest products companies, Georgia Pacific Corp. and Union Camp Corp.
Clutter’s father, the late Jerome L. Clutter, was on the school’s faculty for 20 years until his death in 1983.
“Dr. Clutter has a lifetime relationship with UGA and an enviable record of accomplishment in both industry and academia,” said UGA President Michael F. Adams. “Having recently named two deans from outside the campus to posts in the Terry College of Business and the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, I am glad to find an equally capable person within our own ranks. In the Warnell School, where the marriage of theory and practice is especially important, I believe Dr. Clutter to be an outstanding choice.”
Clutter has conducted extensive research on financial aspects of the forestry industry and on timberland management practices. His work has been supported by more than $1.3 million in grants that he received individually or in concert with other researchers.
He is co-editor of a book on timberland investment, author of numerous articles and other publications and served on the editorial board of the professional journal Forest Science.
In addition to teaching in the Warnell School, he has taught continuing education courses on forest finance and thinning of pine trees for private firms. He received the Warnell School’s Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2004.
From 1983 until 1994 Clutter worked for Union Camp Corp. as a research forester and project leader for timber management and development. In 1994, he joined Georgia-Pacific Corp. as director of decision support for the timberlands division. From 1999 until 2001 he was vice president of decision support and information resources for The Timber Company, a part of Georgia-Pacific.
Mace said Clutter “brings a broad and diverse background of expertise and experience from the private and academic sectors to the leadership role of dean of the Warnell School. His demonstrated excellence in instruction in the Warnell School and the Terry College, and his experience in research, public service and interaction with the school’s many constituents, will serve him well in his new role.
“In particular, his knowledge of, and working relationship with, a broad array of friends in the school, leaders and constituents will enable him to increase private funds essential to further development of the school and university,” Mace said.
Clutter is a member and past chair of the American Forest and Paper Association’s forest inventory committee and served on the U.S. Forest Service’s forest inventory and analysis review committee. He is on the board of directors of Forest Investment Associates Timber Partners, a major timber and timberland investment fund, and Silvics Solutions, a natural resources technology company.
Founded in 1906, the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources is the oldest forest resources school in the South. The school has 53 faculty members and enrolls about 380 undergraduates and 160 graduate students.
The school offers teaching and research programs in the areas of fisheries and aquaculture; forest biotechnology; forest business and management; water and soil resources; wildlife ecology and management; natural resources, recreation and tourism; and natural resource management and human dimensions.
In addition to its four-building complex on UGA’s main Athens campus, the school manages the 740-acre Whitehall Forest near the campus and more than 23,500 acres around the state that are used for teaching, research and service activities.