By Ken Ryan
The National Wood Flooring Association and Ed Korczak have been synonymous for the past 17 years. As executive director and CEO of the group whose mission is to help advance and promote the wood flooring industry while bringing valuable resources and information to its members, Korczak announced this year would be his last at the helm.

It has been quite a ride. Just look at how the NWFA has advanced under Korczak’s leadership. Start with membership: The group has grown from a little less than 875 in 1994 to more than 3,500 today. It continues with value: From training schools to installation manuals to websites and more, NWFA delivers as much for its members as any flooring group out there.

NWFA members laud Korczak’s contributions
After playing three holes of golf at an outing in Hawaii prior to a National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) event, Mark Elwell decided he should get to know his golf partner. “I turned to him and said, ‘So, what do you do for the NWFA?’ He replied, ‘I’m the executive director.’”

With that exchange, a slightly embarrassed Elwell met Ed Korczak. “Here I am, a nobody, and he’s the head of the NWFA and yet we were on the same playing field, losing golf balls, chasing balls into the gulleys and were able to laugh about it.”

That was seven years ago, and it was the beginning of a friendship between Korczak and Elwell, who is owner and operator of Bamboo Flooring Hawaii and an NWFA board member. “I was in the import-export business and it was tough for me to break into the hardwood flooring industry,” Elwell said. “But Ed took me around the country. I didn’t know any of these people he was introducing me to, but Ed told them I was a man of integrity. They took Ed at his word. Without Ed’s influence, I never would have been able to sell to distributors in the states.”

Friend, mentor, leader, problem solver, consensus builder. Those words were used by NWFA board members to describe Korczak, who announced earlier this year he was retiring from the NWFA. He is staying on through the remainder of the year to groom his successor, Michael Martin.

Board member Sprigg Lynn, principal officer of Universal Floors, calls Korczak a “visionary.” He built the NWFA from the ground up, Lynn said, and “did all the tedious leg work that doesn’t get in the spotlight, putting together programs for education, training and certification. He put the wood flooring industry on the map. He is a good guy to have on your team.”

Elwell added, “Two of the things I saw Ed do so well were helping people like myself network in the industry and thinking out of the box in marketing, like he did by setting up and working with the American Hardwood Export Council on the international shows. It was a brilliant move.”

The fun side
As with all business associations, there is time for serious meetings and discussions and a time to blow off steam, to get to know your colleagues in a different and relaxed manner. Often that vehicle is through golf.

“Ed’s golfing skills are legendary,” Jeff Fairbanks, vice president of sales at Palo Duro Hardwood and secretary with the NWFA, said facetiously.

Fairbanks recalled a time when he was paired with Korczak. Ed had a problem with one of his eyes at the time and needed to inject a lubricant in the eye, which impaired his vision. The combination of a golfer who is challenged to begin with, playing on a tough course, with one good eye made for some good laughs and lost balls. Fairbanks said many people would have begged out of playing, but not his friend. “It says a lot about Ed that he wanted to be out there with us, enjoying the experience.”

Elwell, who traveled to Asia extensively, found Korczak quite willing to try exotic and unusual foods during their overseas trips. “You never know what you are going to see or run into in some of these places, but I found Ed to be very adventurous,” he said.

Getting the job done
Don Finkell, president of Shaw Hardwood Floors, is the immediate past president of the NWFA. He has been in Korczak’s company numerous times during board meetings and other industry functions. “When you first meet Ed you soon realize he is a force to be reckoned with,” he said. “He has a steady, forward motion rooted in a not-so-quiet determination. He does not step aside when problems present themselves but wades in full ahead with a can-do, ‘let’s roll up our sleeves and get this done’ approach.”

Rick Holden, executive vice president of Derr Flooring and vice chairman of the NWFA, said one thing he could count on before NWFA meetings was that something new would be added to the agenda. “Ed was always coming up with fresh new ideas, always looking to challenge the status quo,” he said. “You’d look at our agenda and say, ‘How did that get on there?’”

When the green flooring trend emerged, Korczak embraced it, Holden said. “Rather than take up an adversarial relationship with the environmental groups, he wanted to work with them. He worked with the Lacey people, the FSC. He wanted certification. He wanted what was best for the wood flooring industry.”

Neil Poland, president of Mullican Flooring and chairman of the NWFA, hailed Korczak as an “all world” executive director. “Ed’s unbridled energy and contagious enthusiasm for the hardwood flooring industry enabled NWFA to become the true leader among all wood product trade associations,” he said. “Thanks to Ed’s leadership, during this great recession, NWFA has introduced the Responsible Procurement Program, directed the NWFA/NOFMA consolidation, confirmed that hardwood flooring is a renewable resource through the Life Cycle Analysis study and opened a new training center in Las Vegas. I don’t know of any trade association that has accomplished so much since 2007.”

In thinking about a proper tribute to Korczak, Finkell recalled another great hardwood flooring giant, a man who ran Anderson Hardwood Floors for 52 years. “I realized that I have experienced this same broad-shouldered attitude before. It was a fellow Chicagoan, Bob Anderson. It must come from living by the big lake. It has been a privilege to work with both men.”