APPENDIX B
Speaker Biographies
Paul Barshop is Chief Operating Officer of IPA, which he joined in 1994. Barshop was IPA’s quality manager from 1997 to 1999. From 2000 until mid-2004, he was the director of IPA’s Netherlands office that serves clients in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. As a project analyst, Barshop has focused on evaluating downstream process projects, especially in the petroleum and chemical sectors. He has led numerous benchmarking efforts and conducted over 75 individual analyses of capital projects. He also led research to understand the performance and drivers of control system projects. His latest research effort was the study of the effectiveness of engineering value centers. Barshop has written two articles published in European Chemical News. The topic of the first article was portfolio management of manufacturing site projects. The second article discussed project performance differences between U.S. and European chemical companies. Barshop also presented a paper at the 2003 Arabian Gulf Chapter PMI Conference. He holds a Masters Degree in business and a Bachelors Degree in chemical engineering. Prior to joining IPA, Paul worked for Shell Oil in the United States.
Andrew Blumenfeld, Esq., is the principal legal advisor to the Pentagon Renovation Program, a position he has held since 1998. Prior to joining the program, he was with the Army Corps of Engineers where he provided legal counsel to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Capital Restoration program, the American Battle Monuments Commission, Arlington National Cemetery, and a variety of other large federal construction projects. Blumenfeld has practiced before the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, the Corps of Engineers Board of Contract Appeals and the Comptroller General. He holds a B.A. from Hobart College and a J.D. from the Catholic University Law School.
William W. Brubaker is the director of Facilities Engineering and Operations at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and has held this position since March 2001. He leads all of the Smithsonian’s facilities planning, design, construction, maintenance, real property management, safety, and protection services activities. Brubaker started his career in 1972 as a civil engineer with the Southern Railroad in Atlanta and in 1976 began work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. From then until 1992, he held various positions with the Corps in Germany, Florida, California, and Oregon. He was a major participant in the Mount St. Helen’s volcano recovery effort that earned the American Society of Civil Engineers Outstanding Engineering Achievement of the Year Award in 1991. He was Chief of Army Construction Programming in the Pentagon, managing the programming and budgeting of Army construction worldwide, when selected into the Senior Executive Service (SES) as deputy director of Facilities Engineering at NASA Headquarters in 1992. He was named NASA’s Director of Facilities Engineering in 1995 and held that position six years before coming to the Smithsonian. He holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in civil engineering from the University of Virginia and Georgia Tech, respectively, a Master of Science in business administration from Boston University, and professional engineer registration in two states. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vice Chairman of the Federal Facilities Council, and former Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Construction Industry Institute. Brubaker was selected Federal Engineer of the Year by the National Society of Professional Engineers and NASA Engineer of the Year, both in 1997. He is also a recipient of the SES Meritorious Presidential Rank Award, NASA Exceptional Service Medal, Army Meritorious Civilian Service Medal, and Army Commander’s Medal.
Lester Edelman is senior counsel/senior advocate at Dawson & Associates in Washington, DC. He is an attorney with over 40 years of legal and legislative experience with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the United States House of Representatives. He retired in 1998 from his 19-year position as chief counsel of the Corps of Engineers. Prior to the Corps, Edelman served as counsel to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for 11 years. In that role, he focused on preventive law and ways to prevent and resolve disputes. Recognizing that litigation often imposes an unacceptable price on the government and on society,
he focused his energies and those of the Corps of Engineers toward becoming part of the solution to this problem by pioneering the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and partnering (dispute avoidance) techniques instead of costly litigation. Awards include the Presidential Ranking of Distinguished Executive in the Senior Executive Service, presented by President George W.H. Bush. Other awards include the Center for Public Resources “Outstanding Practical Achievement Award for Excellence in Alternative Dispute Resolution,” the Engineering News Record Award for Exceptional Services to the Construction Industry, the National Performance Review “Hammer Award” for his ADR/Partnering Teams “contribution to building a government that works better and costs less,” and many more. Edelman currently serves on the Board of Governors of the American College of Construction Lawyers (the Advisory Committee of the United States Court of Federal Claims) and is a principal to the Council for Excellence in Government. He has been a frequent speaker and published extensively on the subjects of alternative dispute resolution and dispute avoidance, partnering, water resources, water quality, environment, government procurement and “Pride in Public Service.”
G. Edward Gibson, Jr., is a professor of civil engineering and the Austin Industries Endowed Faculty Fellow in the Construction Engineering and Project Management program at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Auburn University in 1990 and an M.B.A. from the University of Dallas in 1987. He served as associate chairman of the Civil Engineering Department in charge of the architectural engineering program at UT from 2000 to 2003. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Governors for the Architectural Institute within the American Society of Civil Engineering and as a co-director of the Center for Construction Industry Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Gibson’s research interests include organizational change, pre-project planning, risk management, construction productivity, electronic data management, automation and robotics. In 1996, and again in 2004, he received the Construction Industry Institute’s Outstanding Researcher Award for his pioneering work in pre-project planning and risk management. He is an author and co-author of numerous articles and reports on this subject. Among these documents are CII’s Pre-Project Planning Handbook, Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI), Industrial Projects, Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI), Building Project and the International Project Risk Assessment (IPRA) tool and method. Dr. Gibson has developed several CII education modules for continuing education. He has taught over 200 short courses to industry in areas such as objective setting, team alignment, continuous improvement, pre-project planning, and materials management. In 1996, he received the Lockheed-Martin Teaching Award for outstanding teaching by an assistant professor in the UT College of Engineering. In 1998, he was named the Construction Industry Institute’s Instructor of the Year for his efforts in developing and teaching continuing education short courses. In 2002, he was named the Outstanding Engineering Educator by the National Society of Professional Engineers as well as Outstanding Graduate Teacher at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Gibson has consulted with many organizations such as Amgen, NASA, TxDOT, 3M, BroadWing, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, BECK Group, DuPont, Ontario Power Generation, Hensel Phelps, Smithsonian Institution, U.S Department of State, U.S General Services Administration, and Union Carbide among others. He currently serves on a National Research Council committee investigating project management practices at the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Gibson has several years of industry experience and is a licensed professional engineer in Texas.
Gerald H. Greene was, until 1998, Manager of Global Capital Management for Procter & Gamble. He is a former President of the Construction Industry Institute, and a 2005 recipient of the Richard Tucker Leadership and Service Award from CII. He is a Charter member of the National Academy of Construction. While with Procter & Gamble he was responsible for managing the company’s project management and construction operations around the world, with a yearly workload of approximately $2.5 billion in new manufacturing plant construction and modifications to existing plants. During the course of this work he was responsible for forming a partnership network of engineering and construction firms to take advantage of continuity to insure quality, schedule control, and cost control. After his retirement from Procter & Gamble in 1998 he obtained a law degree from the University of Dayton Law School; he currently volunteers at Legal Aid representing battered indigent women, and he teaches at University of Dayton Law School. Gerald Greene also holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Detroit, and an MS in Structural engineering from Purdue University. He is a member of the Ohio and Cincinnati Bar Associations.
James P. Groton is a retired partner of the Atlanta and Washington, D.C. law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan and has spent most of his legal career working on construction industry and dispute resolution matters. He established a reputation as an expert in preventing, controlling and achieving prompt resolution of construction project problems and disputes. Since his retirement in 2001, Groton has served as a neutral arbitrator and mediator and been engaged in a number of educational and public services activities in the construction and dispute resolution
fields. He was a founder and chairman of the construction industry’s Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Taskforce (DART) and has received numerous construction industry and dispute resolution awards including the Engineering News-Record Medal of Excellence, two CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution awards for practical achievement in dispute resolution, the American Arbitration Association’s Whitney North Seymour Sr. Arbitration Medal, and honorary membership in The American Institute of Architects. Groton is a Fellow in the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the College of Commercial Arbitrators, a former president of the American College of Construction Lawyers, and a member of the National Academy of Construction. He is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Virginia Law School.
George T. Heery, FAIA RIBA, is chairman/CEO of Brookwood Program Management and an internationally recognized leader in both the construction program management and architectural professions. In the mid 1960s he was one of a handful of American design and construction professionals who led the development of the new profession of construction management and construction program management. As early as 1961, Heery had already developed advanced project management procedures for controlling time and cost through the pre-design, design, and construction phases of projects. In 1974 he wrote “Time, Cost and Architecture,” hailed by McGraw-Hill as “the first definitive work on construction management.” Heery developed a real estate and facilities planning concept: Strategic Facilities Planning (SFP)—a component of business planning for business corporations with multiple facilities. He later modified SFP for colleges and universities. Heery then developed “bridging” to organize the roles of architects, engineers and contractors and incorporated a point of specific procedures. The new method was designed to reduce risks, costs and post construction problems for project owners. In recent years the bridging method has been embraced by more and more owners, project managers and architects. A hybrid of the traditional design/bid/build and design/build, bridging retains the best features of both and eliminates aspects that often cause problems for the owner. Bridging greatly reduces owners’ risks and costs while allowing full control over design and construction quality and details. From 1994-1996, Heery led Brookwood into real estate development, developing The Wakefield, Atlanta’s highest quality and most luxurious high rise apartment building (a cooperative). Projects include the major expansions of the Coca-Cola corporate headquarters, the Woodruff Medical Center Administration Building at Emory University, the 999 Peachtree high rise office building, The Wakefield luxury coop, and many collegiate and professional sports stadiums along with a large number of commercial and industrial projects. Heery has also carried out both design and construction programs in Europe, Mexico, the Middle East, and Japan. Heery is a World War II veteran (U.S. Navy) and received a Bachelor of Science and the five year Bachelor of in Architecture from Georgia Tech and completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.
Ted C. Kennedy is a founder of BE&K, Inc., a worldwide engineering, construction, and contract maintenance firm. He served as national president of Associated Builders and Contractors in 1980 and on the Contractor’s Advisory Committee for The Business Roundtable for 14 years. He was also chairman of the Construction Industry Institute in 1988. Under his leadership, BE&K was named one of the top 16 medalist companies out of 300 companies honored in the book, Companies That Care—The Most Family-Friendly Companies in the United States. Fortune Magazine recognized BE&K as one of the 100 best work places in America, and BE&K’s Child Development Center, BEKare, received the NOVA Award in 1991 for innovation in providing benefits to construction workers and recruiting women into the construction workforce. Kennedy received the first Crystal Vision Award from the National Association of Women in Construction for his role in the promotion of women in construction. In 1981 and 1989, Engineering News-Record recognized Kennedy as a “Man Who Made His Mark.” In 1999, Engineering News-Record recognized Kennedy as one of the top 125 industry leaders within the past 125 years. Both Kennedy and BE&K have been honored as inductees into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame. Kennedy is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Construction.
Richard G. Little is director of the Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment of the National Research Council (NRC) where he develops and directs a program of studies in building and infrastructure research and maintains outreach and liaison with federal agencies, the legislative branch, and affiliated organizations. He has directed NRC study activities, participated in workshops and panels, and written papers dealing with many aspects of infrastructure management and technology. Little has over 30 years experience in planning, management, and policy development relating to public facilities including fifteen years with local government. He has been certified by examination by the American Institute of Certified Planners and is a member of the Federal Planning Division of the American Planning Association. Little holds a B.S. in geology and an M.S. in urban-environmental studies, both from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
James B. Porter, Jr., is vice president of Engineering and Operations for DuPont and joined the company in 1966 as a chemical engineer in the engineering service division (ESD) field program at the Engineering Test Center in Newark, Del. He left in 1966 for a two-year tour in the U.S. army. He returned to DuPont as a field engineer at the DuPont Textile Fibers plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. In 1970, Porter was reassigned to the design division as a process engineer at Louviers and returned to ESD in 1971 as a campus recruiter. In 1972, he was reassigned to the Engineering Test Center as supervisor of the chemical engineering testing group. In 1975, he became a member of the ESD field staff. Mr. Porter became field manager at Chambers Works Construction in 1979, followed by an assignment in business methods and investment division as manager of investment engineering in 1981. In 1983, he worked as a design manager for Textile Fibers and then as facilities design manager for Chemicals in 1988. With the restructuring of DuPont Engineering in 1990, Porter became director of Engineering Operations. In 1992 he was named director of operations for the Fluoroproducts business. In 1995, Porter was appointed director of operations. He also assumed the position of vice chairman of the DuPont Corporate Operations Network. Porter was named vice president of Engineering in 1996 and assumed his present position as vice president of Engineering and Operations in January 1999. In 2000, Porter served as chair for the Construction Industry Institute and Delaware’s United Negro College Fund. He participates on various industry advisory boards including AIChE’s Center for Chemical Process Safety and is a member of the University of Tennessee’s College of Engineering Board of Advisors. Porter received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Tennessee in 1965.
Robert A. Rubin is an adjunct professor, Columbia University, faculties of law and civil engineering. Since entering the legal profession in 1964, his practice has been limited to construction matters, particularly the resolution of complex construction disputes. He has authored two texts and numerous chapters and papers and has lectured for the American Bar Association, American Society of Civil Engineers, Practicing Law Institute and other societies and universities on construction contract documents, construction claims, surety law, professional liability, alternative dispute resolution, and government contract law. Rubin is a member of the New York State Bar and is a licensed professional engineer in New York. He is a member of the National Academy of Construction and the Construction Industry Arbitration and Mediation Panels of the American Arbitration Association. He is also a member of the Construction Panel, CPR Panel of Distinguished Neutrals, and CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers; a Fellow and past president of the American College of Construction Lawyers; and a member of The Moles. Rubin is a member of the Advisory Council of the Cornell University, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering; a member of the Construction Group Advisory Board, Construction Contracts Law Report, Thomson/West; president-elect of the Dispute Resolution Board Foundation; a director of the Building Futures Council; and a director of the ACE Mentor Program. He received a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Cornell University and a Juris Doctor from Columbia University.
Takis Salpeas is assistant general manager for Transit System Development, WMATA in Washington, D.C. and is in charge of engineering and construction of capital projects. Prior to WMATA, he served with BART since 1991 in several capacities: first as project manager for the BART Colma Station Extension, and then as executive manager of West Bay Extensions. Under Salpeas' leadership, the BART rapid rail system cleared numerous political and financial hurdles to begin construction of the 8.7 mile extension to the San Francisco International Airport. Salpeas also worked for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA), which serves the Philadelphia metropolitan area. At SEPTA, he was project manger for reconstruction of elevated rail guideways and stations where he directed its engineering development program. Salpeas is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers; the Transportation Research Board of the National Research Council, the American Public Transit Association (APTA) and the APTA Construction Committee; and the Federal Transit Administration's Construction Roundtable. A graduate of Athens University and the University of Pennsylvania, Salpeas holds two Masters degrees in systems engineering and civil engineering. He is the author of more than 30 professional papers on rail transit topics and has taught civil and transportation engineering at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania.
James G. Slaughter, Jr., is president of S & B Engineers and Constructors, Ltd., with home offices in Houston, Texas. The company specializes in engineering and construction services for the refining, chemical, infrastructure, paper and power industries, and prides itself for having perhaps the best safety performance of any major construction company for the last 15+ years. Mr. Slaughter is a native of Houston and received a BSChE from the University of Houston, and attended the University of Toledo and Harvard Business School. He has spent his entire career at S & B, starting as a draftsman in 1967 and filling both engineering and construction positions. Slaughter is President of the National Academy of Construction, an organization founded in 1999 for the purpose of honoring
engineering and construction leaders for their contribution to construction improvements on a national level. He has served as vice president, chair of the membership committee and chair of the initial ad hoc committee that studied dispute avoidance/dispute resolution. He serves on the Construction Industry Institute (CII) Executive Committee. He twice chaired the CII Strategic Planning Committee. He chaired the Front End Planning Team that developed the Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI) and also a tool for assessing project alignment, the Alignment Thermometer. He is a Member of the CII Benchmarking and Metrics Committee, providing leadership on the subcommittee developing National Productivity Metrics for both Design and Construction. He is past President of the Houston Area Contractors’ Safety Council.
Thomas J. Stipanowich is president and CEO of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution, an international non-profit coalition spearheading innovation and promoting excellence in public and private dispute resolution. Stipanowich has diverse credentials as a mediator, arbitrator (on the CPR and AAA panels), federal court special master, and facilitator. A long-time chaired professor of law, he is an award-winning author of many articles about ADR issues and co-author of a forthcoming text for law schools on dispute resolution. He has also co-authored two of the leading books on commercial arbitration law and practice, including Federal Arbitration Law: Agreements, Awards and Remedies (Little, Brown & Co., Aspen 1994). He has advised or participated in important national efforts at statutory reform (the Uniform Arbitration Act and Uniform Mediation Act), served as chief drafter of a protocol for consumer ADR programs, and played an important role in the development of the leading construction and securities ADR rules and policies. Stipanowich has conducted empirical research and analyses on the use of arbitration, mediation and other approaches in different settings and recently produced a major study on the growth and impact of ADR for the Journal of Empirical Legal Research. Prior to joining CPR, he founded a non-profit court-connected mediation center that is still in operation. As the first director, he helped establish programs for mediation of circuit and district court matters; worked with peer mediation courses in the public schools; and created and implemented mediator training and accreditation programs and ethical standards. He also facilitated the resolution of various major community issues involving ethnic and workplace conflicts. Stipanowich served as a Public Member and Chair of the Securities Industry Conference on Arbitration (SICA from 1997-2004), as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Arbitration Association, and as Chair of the Advisory Committee to the Global Disputes Research Center. Before going to law school, Stipanowich trained as an architect. He is a Fellow of the American College of Construction Lawyers and a Founding Fellow of the American College of Commercial Arbitrators. He is also one of four Companion of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, an Honorary Member of the Marie Garibaldi A.D.R. Inn of Court, and an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators. He is a frequent speaker on dispute resolution topics and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The American Lawyer, The National Law Journal, The American Bar Association Journal, Trial, Corporate Legal Times, The China Daily, and many other print and online publications.
Hans VanWinkle (Maj. Gen., U.S. Army, retired) is director of the Construction Industry Institute. On September 1, 2003, he became the third director since CII’s inception. VanWinkle now leads a collaborative effort by almost 100 organizations from the engineering and construction industries in funding research to improve one of the nation’s largest industries. Prior to joining CII, VanWinkle was deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, D.C. He oversaw the Corps’ military construction and real estate services for the Army and Air Force; the Army’s national water resources program; and the design, construction management, and real estate services for other defense and federal agencies. During his distinguished and highly decorated military career, he had many key command and staff assignments including as director of Civil Works, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; deputy chief of staff, Engineer, U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army, Heidelberg, Germany; director of training, U.S. Army Engineer School at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri; commander, Division Engineer Brigade, 4th Infantry Division (mechanized), Ft. Carson, Colorado; and commander, 8th Engineer Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, Ft. Hood, Texas. Among his military awards are the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, and campaign awards from Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in Iraq and Operation Joint Endeavor in Bosnia. VanWinkle, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, is a registered professional engineer (Virginia). In addition, he holds a Master of Science degree in public policy from the University of California-Berkeley.
Mike Vorster is the David H. Burrows Professor of construction engineering at Virginia Tech. He served as founding coordinator of the Construction Engineering and Management Program from 1986 to 1993 and as associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Engineering from 1993 to 1997. Prior to Virginia Tech, Vorster worked in industry and academia in South and Central Africa. In industry, he was directly involved in the
field construction of heavy civil engineering projects at various levels of responsibility. In academia, he was assistant director of the Graduate School of Business and later chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering at The University of Cape Town. While at Cape Town, Vorster established an executive level construction management program, which provided inspiration and input for similar operations at Stanford, Texas A&M, and Virginia Tech. His teaching and research interests focus on construction equipment, contract administration, and contract dispute resolution. He is a consultant to various companies in these areas and has served on a number of dispute review boards for major projects. He is the academic advisor to the Association of Construction Equipment Managers where he has presented a number of seminars and short courses focusing on the management aspects of construction equipment. He holds a BS in civil engineering, an MBA from the University of Cape Town, and a Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Stellenbosch. Vorster is a member of the National Academy of Construction. He is also a recipient of the South African Institution of Civil Engineers Basil Reid Gold Medal for contributions to construction, the Virginia Tech Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, Outstanding Faculty Award.
