Francis Leslie Clay Reed was born in 1927 and raised in a farming community near Three Hills, Alberta. He was exposed to the forest industry early on, as a woods worker in the foothills near Sundre, Alberta. He obtained a B.A. in Economics at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon in 1954 and a M.A. in Economics at the University of Oregon, Eugene in 1959.

Mr. Reed served as a research economist with Stanford Research Institute in Portland, Oregon. Subsequent positions led him to Forest Industrial Relations Ltd., Council of the Forest Industries of B.C., and Hedlin Menzies and Associates Ltd., all of Vancouver. During this time, he was a member of the delegation that presented Canada's case before the US Tariff Commission's 1962 hearings on softwood lumber.

Reed then began a period in consulting economics and spent two years with the federal Prices and Incomes Commission, as Director of Price Reviews. In 1972 he founded an economic consulting firm called FLC Reed and Associates Ltd., specializing in resource development and regional analysis, which operated eventually in some 40 countries.

In 1980 he moved to Ottawa as the senior official in charge of the Canadian Forest Service. As Assistant Deputy Minister, he oversaw the reorganization of the agency and developed a series of new policy initiatives. In 1981 Reed chaired the Victoria meeting of the North American Forestry Commission and in 1982 led a technical forestry mission to the People's Republic of China.

In 1984 he moved to the Forestry Faculty at the University of British Columbia, as the first appointment in a new program of NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Resources Council) funded research chairs across Canada. In this role he engaged in forest policy research and teaching, while participating in federal and provincial forestry affairs in Canada.

Upon his retirement in 1992 he was named Professor Emeritus of the Forestry Faculty of UBC. Reed then resumed his earlier career in international forestry consulting.

Special appointments in Canada include: The British Columbia Premier's Wilderness Advisory Committee, the Prime Minister's National Advisory Board on Science and Technology (NABST), the Canadian Forest Advisory Council, the National Advisory Board on Model Forests, and the boards of three forest sector research agencies: Forintek, FERIC, and the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada. He also served on the Boards of the Canadian Bible College/Canadian Theological Seminary and Regent College.

International appointments include: nomination to the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth Forestry Association, and the Science Advisory Board of the Temperate Forest Foundation.

Reed has published a number of works, including a history of the softwood lumber dispute between Canada and the US titled Two centuries of softwood lumber war between Canada and the United States - A chronicle of trade barriers viewed in the context of saw timber depletion.

Source: "FLC Les Reed biographical notes," document found in the "FLC/CFS history" file (File 2-6) of the Leslie Reed fonds.