Robards, President of TYLD Corp, Was Meant to be a Forester

Story by Tim Robards

December 2, 2019

Alumni: Tim Robards
Degree: BS Forestry
Graduation: 1985
Business Title: President TYLD Corp
Business: TYLD Corp, Forest and Orchard Analytics & Technology

After 20 years with what is now known as CAL FIRE and completing a PhD at UC Berkeley, I moved to the private sector to expand on my experiences. For three years I was a partner in a consulting firm. I then spent five years with an Australian-based Timber Investment Management Organization (TIMO), working out of their San Francisco office. During this time, I have been involved in a wide variety of interesting activities including raising capital, timberland acquisitions, and have developed carbon offset projects on over a million acres in the United States. My work has taken me to Alaska, Kentucky, New Mexico, Maine, Washington, Arizona, Tasmania and many more places where I have been able to work in a wide variety of forest types and meet great landowners and foresters. I found that any day I might be on a ferry cruising by Alcatraz on the way to work, in New York speaking at an investment conference, in Europe meeting with potential investors, in the field on remote tribal lands, in Alaska looking out for bears while installing a forest inventory, or by myself on a side-by-side evaluating a property for purchase or carbon project development.

I have now started my own company where I do forestry consulting and technology development for forestry and nut orchard management. Where I live in Northern California is in the middle of almond and walnut orchards so I’m leveraging my tree knowledge to cover more than conventional forestry. I still can’t imagine being anything other than a forester!

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