Our Founder – has an innate need and vision to improve the world for its people

Ron Goldschlager is a problem solver.

A qualified chemical engineer of Jewish faith, he is driven by an intense ethical compass and an intrinsic need to improve the world. His family have worked in the timber industry for more than seven consecutive generations.

Ron continues in this tradition, innovating and adapting his businesses within the ever-changing marketplace. Ron has diversified his Hermal Group into the new world economy of sustainability. Initially inspired by the political environment of protecting & conserving old-growth hardwood forests from commercial harvesting, Ron sought to create a new industry based upon Eucalyptus plantations.

Recognising that there was a global shortage of timber and that Australia was importing vast volumes of building material and exporting vast volumes of plantation Eucalyptus hardwood logs & woodchips, he could see a problem that needed to be solved. 

As timber has risen to the fore as a solution in the fight to tackle climate change, offsetting its enormous carbon storage benefits by freighting it across the planet seemed absurd. Turning his attention to our country’s vast hardwood plantation resource, he has done what none other has achieved before him.  

Ron has turned a forest based raw material being sold as woodchips into the world’s first plantation hardwood CLT. 

Ron called this CLTP, the ‘P’ emphasizing the “New Supply Line” approach from plantations to projects by and for the people. 

Cusp Building Solutions is not just about engineered timber. It is a concept with an appetite for smarter solutions, founded to pursue the cutting edge of the built environment and to make dreams into realities. 

Cusp is the realisation of Ron’s vision to facilitate Australia becoming self-sufficient in timber production and to minimise waste in the timber supply chain. To this end, he is also creating a Bioenergy plant that can generate renewable electricity & heat from the biomass waste of the forest industries. 

Hermal Bio Energy has developed technology and a process to convert biomass (chemically stored Solar Energy) into sustainable and renewable Bio Energy which has a negative carbon footprint.  Food grade carbon dioxide can also be commercially recovered from this process and bio renewable chemicals, solvents, plastics and other commercially required hydrocarbons could be economically manufactured in environmentally friendly new age Bio-chemical plants utilising these Hermal patented processes.

Corporate Social Responsibility is fundamental to Cusp’s purpose for being, not just as an integral part of its brand image, but because it is fundamental to Ron’s personal convictions. 

A decade ago, Ron co-authored a book with Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, who is internationally regarded as one of the leading scholars and Rabbis of this century, entitled “The Mystery of You – A Journey through the Paradoxes of Life” illustrated in colour by the celebrated artist Victor Majzner.  Published in Australia by Hybrid, this book confronts the reader about living life. The book provides incredible insight into how Ron sees the world and his role within it. 

Ron lives by ‘Yetzer ha-tov’ – the good inclination. When making decisions, he councils: “Could we do such a deed openly, with pride and dignity? If the answer is yes, think it through rationally, if the answer is no, forget about it.” 

Blessed with four wonderful married children & 14 amazing grandchildren, Ron has a passion for helping to ensure a better future for the next generation and beyond.

Ron wants to inspire people to improve their lives by exciting their imaginations to experience new, positive and creative experiences. This shows in the team that he has built to take Cusp forward. Drawn to a brand DNA that’s driven to ‘do cool stuff’ their greatest challenge will be reigning in the enthusiasm of their founder. 

When you combine Ron’s faith with a scientific background in engineering, chemistry, biology, physics and maths, it’s little wonder that Ron has founded a brand that is always working on what’s next.  

Ron smiles and says that “Cusp” is comprised by three fundamental elements: The Cusp “C” is for Carbon and the negative carbon footprint of CLTP. The “us” in the middle is for all of us involved to share and to care and to enable. The “P” is for the people. 

Additional Information 

Cusp Building Solutions is just one of the many successful companies that form part of the Hermal Group, of which Ron is Chairman & Managing Director. These companies, include Sullivans Cove Distillery, Quip$mart, Mortim, CLTP and Cusp, Solarwood International, Hermal Bioenergy & Westernport Marina, amongst others.

The Goldschlager family provides funds to needy and deserving through their Philanthropic trust.  

Ron holds an honours degree in Chemical Engineering from Monash University.  

He was Chairman of Australian Sustainable Hardwoods, the largest hardwood sawmiller and high added value processor in Australia located in Heyfield Victoria and Chairman of Leibler Yavneh College between 1990 & 1992.