A tribute to retired Forest Manager Willem Kotze
Form Ghana said goodbye in March 2026 to a long-serving manager. Willem Kotzé. He joined the company in September 2017 as Operations Manager and later served as Forest Manager and helped shape the professional forestry operation that Form Ghana has become.
Willem brought to Ghana more than two decades of plantation forestry management in the South African provinces of Mpumalanga and Limpopo. He had extensive experience in silviculture and harvesting management across pine and eucalyptus species, a strong track record in fire prevention and firefighting, and years of practice engaging productively with rural communities living alongside commercial plantations.
Teak was new territory. So was Ghana's context of reforesting degraded forest reserve land alongside commercial plantation development. Willem arrived knowing the principles and had to learn the species and build the operational systems from scratch.
Form Ghana's teak strategy and early species trials were already in place, with thinnings underway at its Berekum and Akumadan plantations. What didn't yet exist was the operational infrastructure to support efficient harvesting.
Willem's task was to develop land preparation processes, silviculture, and planting protocols, and, critically, to identify, train, assess, and develop the supervisory and management capacity the company needed to execute at scale. Safety culture and people development were at the centre of that work from the start.
His role covered the full range of forestry operations: nursery management, silviculture, harvesting, safety systems, production control, and financial oversight within the company's delegation-of-authority framework. Willem also coached and mentored members of Form Ghana's developing management team. He engaged with the communities surrounding both plantations, relationships he describes as consistently positive.
The Covid lockdowns of 2020 provided perhaps the sharpest test of Willem's character. With borders closed and the CEO unable to return from leave, Willem ran the operations for nine months. Planting schedules were maintained. Fire season was managed. The work continued. It was a period of loneliness, gardening, spinning and listening to music in the hours he did not work.
Ask Willem about his career, and he'll talk about people before trees. He is proud of the forestry team he leaves behind at Form Ghana and of the wider legacy of individuals he has mentored and guided over nearly four decades in the industry.
CEO Willem Fourie expressed the company's gratitude:
"On behalf of the Form Ghana board and management team, I want to formally acknowledge Willem's extraordinary contribution to this company over eight and a half years. He arrived when we were still building our operational foundations and leaves having helped shape a professional, well-trained forestry team of which we are genuinely proud."
On a personal note, he said, “Willem is the kind of manager who leads quietly and effectively. He never made a fuss, and things got done. That is rarer than it sounds, and we will feel his absence." Willem returned to South Africa, where he and his wife Carien look forward to being home together.
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