Watch on Youtube. Howard Ashcraft is the most recognized and most honoured currently practicing lawyer in the Lean Design and Construction Community.  He has been thinking about and drafting collaborative contracts (most usually IPD) since 2005.  Join us for a thoughtful chat on where he started, where he’s been and where he wants to go ..read more

Watch on Youtube. Mark Van Buren came to Queens University in Kington, Ontario looking for a degree in Architecture.  He stayed 8 years and ended up with Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, concentrating on water management.  He spent the next decade or so in California and Milwaukee on large water management projects, largely storm run-off systems.  Turns out the storm was in the contract delivery system and not in the pipes.  Disgruntled with the delivery process, he jumped at the chance to head back to Kingston about 20 years ago.  Since then he has risen through City Engi ..read more

Watch on Youtube. Stuart Eckblad has been thinking divergently since he left home for Kent State to pursue a degree in architecture.  That led him to the University of Wisconsin where he received a masters degree in Environmental Design.  He was particularly interested in the effect of color on human beings.   That kind of curiosity inspired a long career dedicated to moving from traditional delivery to a new vocabulary in the built environment, one that focused on collaboration, integration, purpose and innovation.  Join us for a glimpse of the life that led Stuart to fou ..read more

Watch on Youtube. Jessica Kelley lives in the Pennsylvania farm house she grew up in, and that her Mom also grew up in.  Her two-year-old son is the fourth generation in that house.  While she is obviously honours her traditions, she is also one of the great pioneers and innovators in our lean community.  She participated in the first IPD project with Sutter, helped drive the most successful Community of Practice in Northern California for LCI and worked with mechanical design/build leader Southland Corporation.  She is now director of Lean Delivery at Merck Pharmaceutical ..read more

Watch on Youtube. There is much talk these days about women in construction. How about a woman who’s name is synonymous with thought leadership in construction?  Iris Tommelein describes herself as a secular humanist. She balks at being called the high priestess but she surely is a Grand Dame of lean construction. She leads, and founded with Glenn Ballard in 2005, the Project Production Systems Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley.  At Berkeley, she has guided, mentored and presided over the PhD journeys of some of the Lean Community’s most well-known academicians ..read more

Watch on Youtube. Dr. Andreas Phelps is an original thinker of the first order.  He has a phd in Construction Management from Penn State University and is the CEO of the Collective Potential.  He lives with his talented wife and two incredible kids off the grid in a tiny house in the Bay Area.  His Tiny House Presentation at the 2021 LCI Congress was so popular he was brought back to this year’s Congress to keynote the opening of the Congress, speaking on intentionality and leadership.  Join us as we discuss living an intentional life that is intentionally lean ..read more

Watch on Youtube. Mike Casten started his construction career as a carpenters’ apprentice before attending Colorado State University as an Industrial Construction Management major.  He was working with Hensel Phelps when he was introduced to time lapse photography and Greg Howell.  He was an early pioneer in the quest for improvement of the productivity of the work at the construction crew level overall as well as overall project performance. Over the last forty plus years he has provided consulting services on projects of every size and type all across the US as well as in Canada ..read more

Watch on Youtube Gerry McCabe is the Managing Director of Turner and Townsend in Canada.  He was a founding member of his own company that was acquired by Turner and Townsend in 2010.  He grew up in Belfast during the “troubles.”  He came to Canada to visit relatives originally and decided to stay.  He’s a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and one of the most interesting people you’ll meet.  Come join as we chat about how to estimate the cost of something that hasn’t been designed and what to look for in Canadian Supply Chains in the next 5 years ..read more

Watch on Youtube. Rex Miller was a successful manager for a major office furniture manufacturer when he got down-sized—as in out of a job.  He knows hard times. He also knows resilience, perseverance, creativity and leadership. Rex has coached hundreds of teams in North America to understand their strengths and deliver on their commitments.  He kicked off a lot of people’s thinking around lean construction when he wrote the Commercial Real Estate Revolution with a team of like-minded believers.    Perhaps nothing describes his life better than his own introduction on his L ..read more

Watch on Youtube. Jennifer Kahn has been working at Ellis Don for more than a decade, focusing on inclusion, diversity and  people and culture.  In April, she was named Vice President with that same portfolio.  “I am proud to be part of the ongoing education, awareness and real conversations on Inclusive Diversity at EllisDon,” she says. “As a working mother of two boys, a visible minority with immigrant parents, who’s married to a Canadian Muslim, diversity is part of my everyday life and I hope to continue to provide a safe space for all employees to feel seen and heard.”&nbs ..read more