Business View Magazine | September 2022

98 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 9 recently managed to design and produce the world’s first Obsidian Ebony manufacturing machine, in conjunction with CCNB (New Brunswick Community College). Bob Lennon founded ThermalWood Canada in 2008 in partnership with his brother-in-law Pierre Friolet, currently the company’s General Manager. “In 2005, Pierre, who worked in wood harvesting, came across the thermal treatment equipment while on a fact finding mission,” Lennon recalls. “He returned with an armful of thermally treated wood samples and told me that was where the future lay.” Over the next three years, Lennon dug into the technology and concept, understanding its viability and, in the process, developing a business plan. Coincidentally, the mining company Lennon worked for was planning to shut down and shift executives overseas, so he was also looking for an exit plan. “I was one of the senior managers, so I was getting transferred