Darren Bechtel, founder and Managing Director at Brick & Mortar Ventures

Darren Bechtel is the founder and Managing director at Brick & Mortar Ventures, the leading sector-specific venture capital fund focused on emerging technologies to improve the way we design, build, and maintain our built environment. Bechtel serves on the boards of BuildingConnected, Fieldwire, ManufactOn, Zlien, Holobuilder, Safesite, and EverCharge, and he serves as a technology innovation advisor to several industry-leading AEC and FM companies, including Bechtel, Autodesk, Cemex, Knauf, Hilti, United Rentals, and FMI.

Dr. Giovanna Brasfield, Outreach and Diversity Manager at Hensel Phelps

 Dr. Giovanna Brasfield has over 18 years of experience in the California market in the fields of diversity & inclusion, leadership, public information distribution, outreach, and political involvement. Brasfield is currently the Southern California District Outreach and Diversity Manager at Hensel Phelps. She has hands-on experience in small business advocacy and works with local, regional, state, and federal inclusion programs that assist Hensel Phelps to maximize the engagement of subcontractors, community agencies, and the workforce.

Kevin Bredeson, CEO at ConTech Consulting

Kevin Bredeson is CEO at ConTech Consulting. Bredeson has significant experience heading up VDC initiatives for Skender, Suffolk Construction, Pepper Construction, and Gilbane Building Company. He earned a Bachelor of Science in construction management from Northern Michigan University.

Mark Bryant, Chief Information Officer at PCL Construction

As Chief Information Officer at PCL Construction, Mark Bryant is responsible for the strategic and innovative advancement of information technology (IT) within the PCL family of companies. Bryant has over two decades of IT expertise, having served in the financial services, software, manufacturing, and AEC industries. Prior to joining PCL, he led the technology operations at a century-old financial services firm and was CIO at a leading planning, engineering, and consulting firm.

David Burns, Director of Innovation at McCarthy Building Companies

David Burns is the Director of Innovation and Field Applications at McCarthy Building Companies. Burns has over 13 years of technology implementation experience within the construction industry, with a strategic focus on large-scale enterprise systems design, evaluations, and deployments. In his current role, Burns is responsible for developing the organization’s innovation competencies, including best-in-class research, identification, prioritization, and execution of new value-add technology capabilities across the organization.

Julie Byrne, Vice President of Preconstruction Services at CSM Group

As Vice President of Construction Services at CSM Group, Julie Byrne oversees the preconstruction, business development, and marketing departments, as well as work with all divisions on financial, legal, and risk management aspects throughout the execution phase of projects.

Doug Chambers, Vice President at WeWork

As the former founder and CEO at Fieldlens, Doug Chambers managed all aspects of the business including building the initial product, recruiting and managing an incredible team, raising $20+ mm in venture capital, building a successful go-to-market and customer success strategy, and eventually exiting to WeWork in June of 2017. At WeWork, Chambers now leads efforts to take what he created at Fieldlens and expand the impact into all aspects of the lifecycle of a building.

Jit Kee Chin, Chief Data Officer and Executive Vice President at Suffolk Construction

Jit Kee Chin is the Chief Data Officer and Executive Vice President at Suffolk and is responsible for leveraging big data and advanced analytics to improve the organization’s core business. Chin is also responsible for helping to position Suffolk to achieve its vision of transforming the construction experience while working closely with the company’s Innovation and Strategy teams to fundamentally reinvent the future of construction in the digital age.

Justin Davis, Vice President of Preconstruction at Walker Engineering

Justin Davis PE, LEED AP BD+C, is Vice President of Preconstruction at Walker Engineering. Davis provides oversight and leadership for preconstruction and estimating services for WEI’s offices in Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio. Additionally, Davis leads business development and greater involvement in healthcare, higher education, and mission-critical markets in Texas to grow the firm in multiple market sectors across the state.

Michael DeLacey, Principal and CEO at Microdesk

As Principal and CEO, Michael DeLacey oversees all aspects of Microdesk‘s sales, marketing, consulting, and software development operations. He has 28 years of experience integrating technology into the planning, design, construction, and operations, and maintenance process, specializing in Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Enterprise Asset Management (EAM).

Steve Dell’Orto, Senior Vice President at Clark Construction Group

Steve Dell’Orto has been Regional Acquisition Officer and Senior Vice President of Western Region at Clark Construction Group since 2016. He provides executive leadership for the Western Region’s marketing, preconstruction, estimating, and purchasing teams at Clark. He joined Clark in 1993 and has more than two decades of construction industry experience.

Dustin DeVan, co-founder and CEO at BuildingConnected

Dustin DeVan is the co-founder and CEO at BuildingConnected, the leading preconstruction platform enabling real estate owners and general contractors to hire qualified contractors for their projects. Before founding BuildingConnected in 2012, DeVan worked in commercial construction for more than six years as an engineer, scheduler, estimator, and project manager for some of the largest construction companies in the country, including Bechtel, Rudolph and Sletten, and XL Construction.

Jesse Devitte, co-founder of Borealis Ventures

Jesse Devitte is a co-founder of Borealis Ventures and leads the firm’s Built Environment Investment Team. The Borealis Built Environment Investment Team has made investments in industry-leading companies including SketchUp, Newforma, Flux, Builtr Labs, FieldLens, SmartVid, Measurabl, Blokable, Dandelion Energy, Honest Buildings and Courbanize. Prior to co-founding Borealis Ventures, Devitte served as an executive in two public application software companies: Softdesk EVP/President and as VP of the Autodesk AEC Market Group.

Laura Dwyer, Global Innovation Leader at Dupont Performance Building Solutions

Laura Dwyer became the Global Innovation Leader in 2018 for DuPont Performance Building Solutions, a $1.3 billion material and building science supplier to the construction industry. Dwyer is focused on identifying, collaborating and helping to address the biggest opportunities to improve construction globally. Her 20-year career in the construction industry has spanned sales, marketing communications, channel management, and strategic marketing.

Matt Gray, co-founder of BuiltWorlds

Matt Gray is the co-founder of BuiltWorlds, a Chicago-based community, media platform, and network aimed at bridging the gap between technology and construction. He’s also the co-chair of leading construction firm Graycor.

Stacey Harris, Project Superintendent at Consigli Construction

Stacey Harris is a Project Superintendent at Consigli Construction with Consigli’s Portland, Maine office and manages the construction of large-scale commercial projects. Currently guiding the building of ImmuCell’s new manufacturing facility in Portland, Harris brings clients and building teams her focused knowledge of life science and pharmaceutical facilities. Especially adept with Lean project delivery, Harris’s management style integrates Lean construction approaches.

Zac Hays, VP of Product at BuildingConnected

Zac Hays has served as VP of Product at BuildingConnected since 2015, where he builds beautiful SaaS products for the commercial construction industry. Prior to joining BuildingConnected, Hays worked in product management for Spongecell, Rovi Corporation (now TiVo), Microsoft, and Nokia.

Matt Hedke, Virtual Construction Manager at Barton Malow

Matt Hedke is the Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) Manager for Barton Malow‘s self-perform trades. With over 16 years of experience at Barton Malow, Hedke has held a variety of roles such as Reinforcing Steel Fabricator, Detailer, Estimator, Project Engineer, Rebar Fabrication Manager, and Rebar Detailing Manager before taking the current role as VDC Manager.

Emma Hendry, CEO at Hendry Group

Emma Hendry, Hendry CEO is an experienced executive driven by a goal to create safe and sustainable communities. Under her leadership, Hendry continues to lead the built-form advisory industry with innovative solutions and new technology. Championing collaborative, solution-driven operations has led Hendry to implement projects and partnerships with universities, research institutions, and other commercial entities.

Don Henrich, Assemble Team Leader at Autodesk

Don Henrich is an accomplished technology entrepreneur in both the MCAD and the AEC industries. At Assemble, Henrich led the expansion of the company to become a dominant application for BIM in construction leading to a sale of the company to Autodesk. Henrich is now working with a group of Autodesk AEC executives to formulate and drive strategy for the global construction market.

Les Hiscoe, CEO at Shawmut Design and Construction

As CEO, Les Hiscoe provides the leadership and vision required to maintain the continued growth and success of Shawmut Design and Construction, a $1.2 billion national construction management firm. His focus is on creating the most differentiated customer experience in the industry by driving exceptional levels of client service, developing teams of remarkably talented people, and embracing the latest technologies and implementing them across every aspect of the business.

Alex Holton, Senior Vice President – Project and Development Services at JLL

Alex Holton provides leadership for JLL‘s Project Management business in Northern California. His team specializes in high-end and highly technical build-outs with significant AV, IT, and MEP coordination. He oversees an annual average of over $1.3B+ in project volume, working with some of the most innovative companies and real estate investors in the world.

John Jacobs, Chief Information Officer at JE Dunn Construction

John Jacobs, Chief Information Officer at JE Dunn, previously held the roles of Project Manager and then Vice President of Operations. Prior to joining JE Dunn, he served as a Supply Officer in the US Navy. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Structural Civil Engineering from Notre Dame University in 1991, followed by receiving his MBA at Baker University in 1998. He has been with JE Dunn for 24 years.

Mark Konchar, Chief Innovation Officer at Balfour Beatty

As Chief of Innovation at Balfour Beatty US, Mark Konchar has the opportunity to develop ideas and approaches to industry innovation. Konchar joined the company in 1999 on the design-build National Academy of Sciences Headquarters project in Washington, D.C. and was promoted to vice president of National Integration in 2009. Since 2012, he has led the firm’s National Capability Center before taking his current role as innovation lead.

Chris Kramer, Chief Innovation Officer at Brasfield & Gorrie

Chris Kramer is the Chief Information Officer of Brasfield & Gorrie. An expert in the use of technology to increase productivity and innovation in construction, Kramer has been with Brasfield & Gorrie for over 20 years, starting as a Vice President and Regional Manager in 1998.

Kathleen Langan, Vice President and National Practice Leader at McKissack & McKissack

Kathleen Langan is a construction management, business development, and marketing industry leader with more than 35 years of experience. Prior to joining McKissack & McKissack, Langan was the executive vice president and chief operating officer of a leading construction management firm, where she provided strategic direction, aligning business, service and operations initiatives with company goals, and oversaw the management of four business divisions.

Silvana Lara, Director of Advanced Work Packaging at Fluor

Silvana Lara is a professional engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in different areas of management and execution of projects within the oil & gas and petrochemical industries. Constructech recognized her as one of their 2016 Women in Construction for her commitment to quality project planning through advanced work packaging (AWP) and workforce planning.

Justin Levine, VP of Risk Management Strategy at BuildingConnected, founder of TradeTapp

Justin Levine is the VP of Risk Management Strategy at BuildingConnected and the former co-founder and CEO at TradeTapp. TradeTapp by BuildingConnected is the most advanced qualification tool ever, empowering teams to take smarter risks with insightful data, automated risk assessment, and mitigation recommendation.

Jim Lynch, Vice President & General Manager of Autodesk Construction Solutions at Autodesk

As Vice President and General Manager of Autodesk Construction Solutions, Jim Lynch leads Autodesk’s efforts to create and deliver products and services that accelerate the construction industry’s transformation from analog-based processes to digital workflows. Lynch and his team are focused on delivering innovative, cloud-based solutions to help the global construction industry reduce risk and increase margins using Autodesk construction products.

Josh Mallamud, CEO at Cartegraph

Josh Mallamud is CEO at Cartegraph. Prior to joining Cartegraph, he served as COO at CityBase, a Chicago-based government technology company, and as senior vice president at DialogTech — playing a key role in the company’s transition into Martech and enterprise SaaS. Mallamud also co-founded Jigocity, a Shanghai-based social commerce business, successfully scaling the organization across APAC and to $20 million in revenue and nearly 200 employees just 15 months after launch.

Aaron Maller, Director at Parallax Team

Aaron Maller is the Director at Parallax Team, a full-service implementation firm. He has been implementing BIM and practice technology at architectural, engineering, and general contracting firms across the country for the last ten years. Specializing in streamlining workflows and maximizing efficiency, he has become well-known for his work in elaborate content libraries and templates.

Rene Morkos, founder and CEO at ALICE Technologies

Rene Morkos is the founder and CEO at ALICE Technologies, the world’s first Artificial Intelligence software application to optimize construction. His professional experience includes working as a project manager in Afghanistan, underwater construction in Lebanon, automation engineering on a gas refinery expansion in Abu Dhabi, and virtual design and construction consulting around the world. He completed his Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence applications for construction as a Charles H. Leavell fellow at Stanford University.

Fred Mills, founder of The B1M

Having worked with a leading UK contractor, Fred Mills co-founded The B1M in 2012 to upskill the construction industry on building information modeling (BIM). Mills grew The B1M into the world’s largest and most subscribed-to video channel for construction with over 7 million viewers each month. It now employs a six-strong team from its London headquarters. In October 2018, Mills was recognized for his outstanding contribution to digital construction at the inaugural Digital Construction Awards.

Jesse Pederson, co-founder and CTO at BuildingConnected

A software engineer with a keen eye for design, Jesse Pederson lends his vast technical background and meticulous attention to detail to BuildingConnected as co-founder and CTO. He gleans a decade of experience as a web developer, engineer and technical co-founder for companies such as IronKey, 8×8, and Revvim.

Jason Pelkey, Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Gilbane

Jason Pelkey is Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer at Gilbane Building Company. Before moving into the world of construction, Pelkey’s career background included working in an IT capacity for corporate giants Kraft Foods and General Electric before finding a home at Gilbane in 2010.

James Roche, CEO at HELIX RE, Inc.

James Roche is the CEO at HELIX RE, Inc., the first company launched from Google X. HELIX is working with a handful of the world’s most admired real estate tenants and owner/operators to radically reduce the effort to create digital versions of buildings. Roche holds an architecture degree from Yale University and has built a career helping industries adapt to revolutionary technology.

Curtis Rodgers, Principal at Brick & Mortar Ventures

Curtis Rodgers is an industrial technologist and investor at Brick & Mortar Ventures, with six years of construction process improvement experience across defense, industrial, infrastructure, and commercial markets. Rodgers founded The Society for Construction Solutions (SCS) in 2014, contributes to the NASA Centennial 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, and participates as a lecturer for the US Dept. of Energy’s Project Leadership Institute.

Stephen Sandherr, CEO at AGC of America

As Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Sandherr maintains relations with AGC’s national network of chapters, coordinates government relations activities, and enhances AGC’s involvement with business coalitions. CEO Update, which tracks people in association and non-profit executive careers, listed Sandherr as a top CEO in 2009, a Capitol Hill newspaper, The Hill, listed Sandherr as a top lobbyist for the last eight years, representing the only commercial construction industry association on the Top Lobbyists of 2009 – 2016 lists.

Jennifer Scanlon, President and CEO at USG

Jennifer Scanlon is the President and CEO at USG. She is a sought-after spokesperson on global manufacturing and building technologies in the U.S. and around the world. Scanlon leads the vision of USG and is chairman of the board of USG Boral Building Products, a $1.6 B joint venture between USG Corporation and Boral Limited, involving 12 countries across Asia, Australasia, and the Middle East.

Gregory Scurto, founder of Ductilcrete

For more than 35 years, Gregory Scurto has been leading Scurto Cement, which is one of the largest concrete construction companies in the U.S. His career-long dedication to the development of better and more cost-effective concrete slabs and pavements has produced significant improvements in every phase of their technology. Scurto was featured in the January 2005 article in Concrete Construction Magazine as a “Contractor to Watch,” and in 2010, Concrete Construction Magazine named Greg as one of the industry’s five “Top Influencers.”

Jay Snyder, Technology Practice Leader at FMI

Jay Snyder has been in the engineering and construction industry throughout his entire career. He has industry experience as a construction project executive, corporate director of planning, design, and construction for a healthcare system, founder and managing partner of a risk management tech startup company and as a valued business consultant.

Clark Taylor, Vice President of Estimating at Mortenson Construction

Clark Taylor is Vice President of Estimating at Mortenson Construction. Taylor has been with Mortenson for over 30 years, beginning his career at the company in 1986, and is one of the foremost experts on preconstruction planning in the United States.

Ivette Vanas, Senior Vice President, Risk Management at Skanska USA Building, Inc.

Ivette Vanas started her professional career in the construction industry in 1988 and has worked for two large construction companies over her 30-year career. Her educational background is in Accounting and Business Administration from Jersey City, NJ. She holds a senior-level position in risk management as the SVP of Risk Management for Skanska USA Building, a multi-billion-dollar project development and construction group.

Shawn Van Dyke, Construction Business Coach

Shawn Van Dyke is a business coach and consultant to the construction industry. Before he became a business coach and mentor, Van Dyke owned a general contracting and construction management consulting firm and was an executive for a specialty contracting company.

Satyam Verma, Partnerships and Market Development at Pype

Satyam Verma leads partnerships and market development at Pype. Immediately after graduating from George Mason University, Verma jumped straight into working in the public sector. Shortly thereafter, he started his own company before coming on board at Pype.

Rob Watson, Chief Science Officer at EcoHub

Rob Watson is Chief Science Officer of EcoHub, leading efforts to ensure that recovered materials are put to their highest and best use. An international leader in market transformation and green buildings, Watson is known as the “Founding Father of LEED.” Under Rob’s direction, LEED became the largest and fastest-growing international green building standard.

David Wilson, Chief Innovation Officer at Bechtel

David J. Wilson is Chief Innovation Officer of Bechtel. Wilson manages Bechtel’s Future Fund, a program designed to encourage colleagues across the company to create, share, explore, and develop new ideas to enhance performance and has held positions of increasing responsibility with leadership roles as a Lean Six Sigma black belt and as manager of a telecommunications mobility project.

Tracy Young, co-founder and CEO at Plangrid

Tracy Young is the co-founder and CEO at PlanGrid, the leader in construction software for the field, where she oversees the corporate direction and strategy of the company, focusing on leadership, innovation, and customers. Young founded PlanGrid with Ralph Gootee, Ryan Sutton-Gee, Antoine Hersen, and Kenny Stone in 2011, and the company was acquired by Autodesk for $875 million in the fall of 2018.

Looking ahead

We can’t wait to see what the future has in store for these incredible leaders — as well as which new ones will emerge as the industry grows and evolves. In the meantime, be sure to keep an eye out for the ways they continue to shape the future of construction.