Marketing & Sales Manager

An Oregon man at heart, Jim Lee is no amateur when it comes to horticulture and sustainability. With what he calls a “farm girl” mother from Nebraska and a father from Colorado, the Marketing and Sales Manager for Western Pulp Products (WPP) grew up in Oregon. It’s no surprise, then, from a very young age, Lee was instilled with an appreciation for the environment.

“I’ve always had a love for agriculture,” Lee said. “When I was a kid, I enjoyed growing lots of things and was really involved with FFA. Eventually, I decided I wanted to teach for a while, and getting a degree in agriculture was a logical outgrowth of my interests.”

Armed with a 1979 bachelor’s in Agricultural Education from Oregon State University and knowledge of basic plant physiology, Lee began working in the agricultural and horticultural industry, not forgetting his love for “plows and cows,” he said.

“I ended up moving to a place in Jefferson, Oregon on a couple of acres,” Lee said of life after college. “We wanted our kids to have the opportunity to have room to stretch their legs. They were also in 4H and FFA.”

In 1990, Lee joined the WPP team, in an effort to remain in the area and to continue working with cutting-edge horticultural companies. From a strong horticultural background, Lee had long-known of WPP’s signature molded-fiber containers, which nurserymen, greenhouse growers, and florists had already been using for many years.

WPP is known for their innovative and diverse family of pulp products, which include the original paper maché floral containers, greenhouse and nursery containers, hanging baskets, corner and edge protectors, and wine shippers. But they have also been known for their sustainability ever since the beginning. “In the 1950s, when we first got started, we were basically making something out of a waste,” said Lee. “We were taking a raw material—waste paper—and then molding it into shapes that were useful products.”

“The great thing about Western Pulp is that even though many of the people who are new to our products have embraced ‘Sustainability,’ our ultimate message is that our products are of excellent quality, perform exceptionally well, and are cost effective. And they’re made from recycled paper,” he said.

As the head of WPP’s marketing and sales, Lee says that his secret to success is simple: good luck, hard work, consistency, and sincerity.

“It all comes down to reaching a point in your life when you realize that you’re not the richest, the smartest, or the best looking, but I’m in a good position, and I hope that people would say I’m the real deal,” Lee said. “I try to live by the principal that I say what I’m going to do, and I do what I say.”

“We’ve been rewarded over the years because we are easy to do business with. Well, that and because we’ve got great quality products.”