committee

Desirée Mackey

GEI Consultants
BILT Chairman

Desirée has been in the AEC industry since the 1990s. She holds a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Davis and a master’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Desiree has worked in construction and as a structural engineer, and now is the Design Technology Practice Leader for GEI Consultants. Desirée is a regular speaker at many conferences, she co-founded the Rocky Mountain Building Information Society, is the Chair of the Structural Engineers Association of Colorado’s BIM Committee, served as an AUGI board member, Treasurer, and Vice President, serves on the AU Advisory Council, and is a member of the BILT North America Committee

Robert Manna

dRofus
DTS Chairman, Americas Executive Committee Member

Robert works for Stantec out of their Boston MA office. As a member of the Buildings Group Digital practice team Robert is a leader in the implementation and support of new processes and technology throughout the organization. Currently his key responsibilities include: management of custom software development, management of the migration and integration of Design Technology for individual acquisitions, interactions with technology vendors, liaison with IT for configuration and deployment of software and technology as well keeping pace with technology trends. Robert has worked on a variety of building design projects of various scales and at all stages. He has also spoken at a number of events and conferences over the years, including AU, RTC, and BIMforum. When not running around the globe and helping teams he enjoys his family and enjoys skiing, swimming and biking. You can find him on Twitter @rpiboy.

Melissa Thiessens

Parallax Team
BILT Speaker Manager

Alice Leung

Brick and Mortar Ventures
BILT Committee

Alice started her career in the AEC industry with DPR Construction in the San Francisco Bay Area building UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. She led the Bay Area Skunkworks group and implemented various construction technologies on project sites. In April 2016, Alice relocated to Singapore to help start up the Southeast Asia HQ for DPR Construction as the resident BIM/VDC and construction technology expert and worked on data center projects. She was part of various workgroups led by the Singapore Building and Construction Authority (BCA), was a part-time lecturer for the BCA Academy BIM Management Certification Course, taught BIM courses for RICS and spoke at various conferences in the region. She joined the Digital Built Environment Institute(DBEI) organizing committee whilst in Asia and is now part of the DBEI North America Committee since her relocation back to San Francisco. After realizing the slow pace of digitization in the construction industry, Alice joined the Brick & Mortar Ventures team to work with startups that want to disrupt the way we design, construct and maintain the built world.

Alice holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Brown University where she was on the Formula SAE racecar team and worked in a materials science lab researching lead-free piezoelectrics.

Nicholas Kramer

LPA Inc.
BILT Program Manager

Nicholas M. Kramer, LEED® AP, is the Director of Design Technology for LPA Inc, a fully integrated practice focusing on all areas of the built industry based out of Irvine, California. He has been using Revit since version 8.1 on projects ranging from 400,000sf to 600sf and from medical to libraries to commercial and office buildings. Nicholas has actively run projects day to day as well as helped to implement Revit and new technologies along with the development of standards, processes and best practices for worldwide architectural companies. Additionally, he is currently working with some of the largest construction companies in the world to implement these practices and new technologies.

At LPA, Nicholas provides strategic direction for BIM and new technologies, spearheads the company’s research and development group and overseas the company’s Technology department. In addition to LPA, Nicholas is currently serving as the chairman for the South Coast Revit Users Group (SCRUG), has guest lectured on BIM and sustainability at UCLA, Autodesk University and other forums.

Bob Yori

AECOM
DTS Program Manager

Brad Novak

Goettsch Partners
DTS Committee, Assistant Speaker Manager

From the beginning of his career in architecture, Brad Novak has been a leader in CAD / BIM / IT management and a specialist in technology standardization, bringing 30 years of experience weaving technology into the design profession.  Starting with AutoCAD custom programming, through REVIT implementation, and now with software and hardware analysis and deployment, Brad aligns information technology goals, as the 10-year Director of IT at Goettsch Partners, with a focus on the design of beautiful buildings.  He established these goals by assembling and leading teams of like-minded IT staff and consultants from Chicago to Shanghai to Abu Dhabi. The resulting synergy is an IT infrastructure with next-generation ideas, hardware, software, standards and problem-solving to support GP’s global reach.

Craig Barbieri

EwingCole
DTS Committee, DBWa Marketing Manager

Craig Barbieri is an international Design Technology leader and drives the use of technologies to enhance the practice of design and construction. With more than 15 years of experience with information modelling in practice, management, and leadership he has managed some substantial advancements in the use of design technology. Craig has broad insight into the challenges AEC BIM firms face. He has played a key role on the success of some of the largest and most complicated BIMs ever created and the first Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) project in New England. He is an advocate for maximizing the potential of current and new technologies on projects and monitors the effective use of the benefits BIM provides.
Craig holds a Masters of Architecture and Masters of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Business from the University of California. He is an associate member of the AIA.

Chris Warden

Clark&Enersen
DTS Committee, DBWa Sponsor Manager

Chris developed a desire for Design Technology while attending the University of Kansas and graduating in 2009 with a master’s degree in architecture. While Chris finished his degree later in life, he spent the first 10 years managing various landscape companies and being a stay-at-home dad while his wife Lisa served in the US Navy.

Chris and Lisa finally landed back in Lawrence, KS where he finished his degree and has been working for design firms since 2007. His passion for design technology goes back to his time at school, where he would continually research and experiment with alternate technology methods to refine his studio projects. This passion spilled over into his Architecture career and continues to drive him to continually search for improved workflows throughout the design/construction process. Chris also participates as a committee member for the Design Technology Summit, a conference that brings design technologists together to share experiences, knowledge, and identify opportunities to improve.

Chris’s family is unique, they were blessed in 2001 with triplets, Cassidy, Tommy, and Isabel. Along with watching triplets progress through life, Chris also enjoys fishing, spending time at the lake, and working in the yard.

Wesley Benn

DBEI
Executive Chairman

A post-Sydney, post-New York, post-post Digital Nomad, Wesley is the founder and Global Chairman of the Digital Built Environment Institute. As a long-term user and advocate of BIM (starting with ArchiCAD in 1996), Wesley has been speaking and teaching in the field since starting to play with a pre-release version of Revit.

Wesley has worked directly with Autodesk on Revit development and implementation, built content for manufacturers and end-users, and has implemented multiple BIM tools into well over 300 practices throughout South-East Asia and beyond.

He has spoken around the world on technology, facilities management and process change; he founded (and chaired for 5 years) the Revit User Group, Sydney; and is now focused on broad issues of sustainability and innovation for the AECO industry globally.

Vickie Harris

HKS
DTS Commitee, DBWa Site & Social Events Manager

Vickie Harris is the Firmwide BIM Leader and a core member of the Practice Technology team at HKS Architects in Dallas, Texas, USA. With her diverse skill set and over 10 years of architectural experience, she is responsible for developing, maintaining and administering all BIM protocol and standards. Focusing on the overall needs of the firm and working with the Regional Practice Technology Leaders, Vickie offers oversight for BIM implementation at the practice and project level, provides guidance for hands-on and group training for new hires and advanced professionals and acts as a resource for the firm with BIM software.

Vickie has uniquely carved out her current career path by linking her passion of making a change through architecture and the use of technology. She is focused on helping the AEC industry reach its potential through the integration of technology. Through her years of experience, she continues to see a lack of progression and adoption of new technologies due lack of change in contractual language. From her perspective, Architects, Engineers, and Contractors can truly change the way our world is developed and lived in, and this potential shouldn’t be limited because our forefathers didn’t have the foresight to know of what technological advancements may come.

Keeping this passion in mind, Vickie recently launched a blog in pursuit of transforming AEC industry and its use of technology. Although BIM and Design Technology were not her focus through her education, it has become an integral part of who she is and has made it a personal mission to help lead the effort to see true transformation in the industry – an amBIMtious Transformation.