December 8, 2016 – The Observer Staff – Murray McLaughlin, a leader with Sarnia-Lambton’s efforts to attract new bio-industries, is being honoured.
McLaughlin, an adviser with Sarnia-based Bioindustrial Innovation Canada, will receive the award from the Chemical Institute of Canada/Society for Chemical Industry, at an event scheduled for Toronto in March.
The annual awards dinner recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the chemical sciences and engineering related industries, according to a news release.
McLaughlin will receive the group’s international award, during a awards dinner held during its Green, Clean and Sustainable Chemistry Seminar March 30.
“When you think of what he has accomplished over his many decades in these areas, it is well-deserved,” said Sandy Marshall, executive director of Bioindustrial Innovation Canada.
Marshall added the award is the latest of several awards and honours McLaughlin has received for his work.
McLaughlin previously served as executive director of Bioindustrial Innovation Canada, a non-profit organization formed in Sarnia in 2008.
The New Brunswick native earned a PhD at Cornell University and spent several decades helping agricultural-based technology get to market while working for Eli Lilly Canada, as a deputy minister of agriculture in Saskatchewan, the first president of Ag-West Biotech, president of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies and as a consultant.
He was building a home on his farm in Tillsonburg several years ago when officials from Sarnia-Lambton came calling.
They were looking for someone to lead an effort to create a cluster of green and sustainable bio-chemistry companies that would create jobs while complementing Sarnia-Lambton’s long-established petrochemical economy.
He became the first executive director of that group which used seed money from the federal and provincial governments to help new bio-technology companies get their products to market.
McLaughlin stepped down as executive director of Bioindustrial Innovation Canada in the summer, after the agency had secured a new round of federal and provincial funding.
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