Joshua Henry, president and co-founder of TimberHP in Madison, becomes emotional while delivering remarks in July 2023 during a ceremony marking the launch of the company’s manufacturing operations at the mill in Madison. Henry will be U.S. Rep. Jared Golden’s guest at this year’s State of the Union Address on Thursday night. Michael Seamans/Morning Sentinel

Josh Henry, president and co-founder of Madison-based TimberHP, the first wood fiber insulation manufacturing plant in North America, will be U.S. Rep. Jared Golden’s guest at President Biden’s State of the Union Address Thursday night.

Golden, D-2nd District, said he invited Henry to join him at the U.S. Capitol because the central Maine company’s innovative products have created new markets for one of Maine’s heritage industries and helped to revive the state’s industrial economy.

“Josh and his team at TimberHP are proving that just because forest products are a ‘heritage’ industry, it doesn’t mean they are a thing of the past,” Golden said in a statement. “Alongside the hardworking Mainers who cut timber, haul logs and work in the mills, he has ensured this industry – and the family-wage, middle-class jobs that come with it – will have a place in Maine’s future.”

President Biden will address a Joint Session of Congress at 9 p.m.

Henry and business partner Matthew O’Malia purchased a former paper mill in Madison in 2019. Henry had spent years researching and developing new materials to conserve energy or produce renewable energy, the statement said. He believed they could produce an entire line of wood fiber insulation more affordably in Maine than overseas because of lower costs for raw materials.

Henry, who lives with his family in Northport, also recognized the inherent value of Maine’s forest products, and saw an opportunity to help revive the state’s industrial economy and provide environmentally friendly, highly skilled, good-paying jobs, the statement said.