Bio's

Ron is currently Project Manager with Northstar Management Company.  He is a graduate of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville with a B.S. in Construction, and has over 19 years experience.  He currently provides program management services for owners on a wide range of project.  Ron spent 15 years estimating projects for St. Louis area contractors most notably Holland Construction Services and McGrath & Associates.  Project experience includes retail, commercial buildings, hospital, light industrial and heavy industrial.  Ron has taught numerous seminars and estimating academy programs.  Ron has held officer positions with ASPE St. Louis Chapter and is currently the Central Regional representative on the ASPE Education Board.

Professor Cook brings 25 years of industry experience to the classroom. His experience includes positions relating to estimating that include project estimator, cost engineer, senior and chief estimator, project controls supervisor, and director of estimating and purchasing. Projects include healthcare, commercial, residential, industrial, and heavy civil. Proposals include conceptual, negotiated, GMP, and "hard bid". The contractual aspects of estimating and bidding involve subcontract negotiations, owner negotiations, proposal review, defined scope of work, claims and dispute resolution. Professor Cook has also served as an expert witness on commercial and residential projects valued to $43,000,000.  Professor Cook currently teaches "Contracts" and Advanced Estimating at the M.E. Rinker School of Building Construction at the University of Florida.

Dan has been professionally engaged in construction for over twenty-seven years.  In that time he has worked on schools, hospitals, chemical plants, manufacturing facilities, parking garages, warehouses, and office buildings;  He has experience in all phases of construction including training, estimating, presentations, design-build, scheduling, purchasing, project management and supervision.  Dan has worked for McCarthy Building Companies, St. Louis, Missouri since 1995.  He started in the construction business as an apprentice carpenter in 1979.  Since then he has been an engineer, a superintendent, a project manager, and an estimator. Currently his focus as Productivity Manager is on maintaining and improving productivity and quality for self-perform concrete.  Dan also presents training sessions for engineers, estimators, superintendents, project managers, directors and other construction personnel.

Mr. Hughes is currently an Estimating Manager with Bergelectric Corporation, Escondido, California. Bergelectric is ENR ranked 6th in the nation for Electrical Contractors. Mr. Hughes is a Certified Professional Estimator (CPE), and a member of the American Society of Professional Estimators. He is on the Board of Directors for the San Diego Chapter and serves on the education committee.

Mr. Hughes has more than 30 years of extensive estimating experience with all types of electrical projects. His experience includes office and high-rise buildings, power plants, high technology, water projects, schools, hospitals, government projects, and defense works. His responsibilities include pre-construction budgeting, constructibility review, value engineering, and proposal development. His projects range from conceptual estimates to design build and design assist, as well as “hard bids” from engineered plans & specifications.

Dennis MacCartney is one of the structural steel industry's visionary leaders. He has extensive experience of utilizing the most advanced techniques, technology and machinery to be as efficient as possible in steel estimating, scheduling, detailing and fabrication.
 
Dennis is the son of Ernest "Pop" McCartney - the founder of B&B Welding. B& B Welding started out as a small welding shop, but under Dennis' guidance it has evolved into a fully automated, multi-million dollar, AISC Certified structural steel fabrication company. This was largely achieved through having the foresight to invest heavily in new technology and CNC machinery - B&B bought it's first Peddinghaus Anglemaster in 1990.
 
Dennis started a structural steel detailing business in 1989, Chesapeake Design Services, after attending a software demonstration of detailing software. He saw a need for advanced production of detail drawings and invested around $80,000 toward hardware and software to achieve it. Chesapeake Design Services sit on the B&B Welding Campus.
 
Dennis' latest venture is with electronic data interchange and he has spearheaded the capability to exchange files with engineers and architects, not only to speed up the detailing and fabrication process but also to enhance and improve the bidding and estimating processes.

Structural Product Manager, Infra-Metals (covering Mid-Atlantic and South)
 Ed was born, raised and attended college in Philadelphia He started his career in the metals service center industry in 1980 and since then has primarily focused on the processing and supply of structural steel to fabricators along the eastern seaboard.
 
Ed is currently the Structural Product Manager for Infra-Metals - one of the largest structural steel service centers in the United States. He works with steel mills and steel fabricators every day of his life and is somewhat of an expert on the capabilities of service centers, supply and demand of structural steel and has a good view on pricing trends and what it means for the industry.
 
One of his strengths is being able to understand his customer's needs and deliver steel as it's needed, processed as required. In addition to Infra-metal's traditional customer group of fabricators, Ed is also very familiar with the needs of General Contractors and is able to provide an insight as to how to take best advantage of a highly tuned steel supply chain.

Kevin R. Miller has worked as an estimator for several companies in Utah and Arizona including Layton Construction, the largest building contracting firm in the intermountain-west, and W. E. O’Neil’s Phoenix, Arizona office. He has also been a certified trainer for Precision Estimating and has provided technical support for Timberline users in Idaho and Utah. Kevin and has consulted in the areas of using Electronic Documents for Estimating, Timberline’s Estimating software, and Estimating 101. Kevin received his Ph.D. from Arizona State University, and is an assistant professor in the Construction Management Program at BrighamYoung University.

Chris has over 23 years experience in the steel construction industry. He began his career at a major structural steel fabricator (in Manchester, England) learning all aspects of the steel fabrication business from several perspectives including the shop floor, detailing, project management, site management and erection.

Dexter is the Chief Estimator for A/ Z Corp. in Ledyard, Connecticut. He estimates commercial and industrial construction projects ranging from $5,000 to $10 million in work scope.  Responsibilities include pre-construction services quantitative and budget estimating, proposal development, cost control strategies and analysis, project scheduling, A/E drawing and specification reviews, and value engineering recommendations to clients. 

Dan has been involved in the HVAC, Piping and Plumbing contracting business for 36 years.  He has worked as detailer, project engineer, project manager, estimator, chief estimator for several contractors.  During his tenure, he has worked for US Engineering Co. in Loveland, Colorado and Reno, Nevada, United Electrical and Mechanical, Phoenix, Arizona, JWP, Los Angeles, CA, Harris Companies, St. Paul MN, and presently for California Comfort Systems, San Diego, CA. Some of the bigger projects he managed: MGM Grand Hotel, Reno, Nevada.,John Ascuaqa’s Nugget, Reno, Nevada, Harrah’s, Lake Tahoe, AT&T, Mesa, Arizona, Crescent Hotel, Phoenix Arizona, Jensen Filtration Plant, Sylmar, California, 91st Avenue Waste Water Treatment Plant, Phoenix, Arizona.

Reed Thomas has been employed in the construction industry since 1969.  He began his career in New York City as an estimator for a small masonry and concrete subcontractor and is currently Senior Estimator with R. J. Griffin & Company (Southeast Division of the JE Dunn Company) in Atlanta, GA.  Reed has worked in literally every major department within the commercial construction industry and has been involved with well over $400 million worth of constructed commercial and residential projects.

He had his own General Contracting firm in NYC for 20 years and worked for a variety of other GC’s before leaving for Atlanta in 1999. He worked with The Winter Construction Company and then moved to RJ Griffin about 2 years ago.  Reed has been involved in the preconstruction and construction of four LEED projects: the Southface ECO Office building (goal of Platinum), the Richard B. Russell Clubhouse (Silver certification), and currently is working on two new Daycare Facilities for Georgia Power Company, each with the goal of Silver certification.  Reed is a LEED Accredited Professional since 2001 and has been involved in preconstruction efforts on numerous other proposed LEED projects..

Frank has been working in the construction industry since 1962. His experience and expertise in this field of endeavor was developed while carrying out those duties and responsibilities associated with both estimating and project management for the past forty years. He has served as a construction consultant on several specific engagements.  Frank is a past president of ASPE and has also received the distinguished award of "Estimator of the Year" from ASPE.