Lars Christensen, buildingSMART International
Technical Program Manager buildingSMART-Norway, Norwegian Homebuilders Association & co-CEO, buildingSMART International Council Ltd

Lars C. Christensen is currently working as a Technical Program Manager in the Norwegian buildingSMART project. He, together with Bjørn Stangeland also from Norway, has also been asked to take on the position as CEO of buildingSMART International (formerly IAI International).

Lars is a sivilingeniør graduate in engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NUST). He has worked with engineering and ICT development and deployment within the AEC industry for more than 20 years. Within ICT he has done both software development work and more academic research. His experience covers businesses like engineering companies, pre-cast concrete producers, industrialized homebuilders, software companies, ship classification societies and research at NUST and Stanford University. In Norway he is also know as a buildingSMART evangelist for the efficient usage of buildingSMART standards enabling “low friction information logistics” and thereby improving decision quality and project efficiency and effectiveness.

The last 8 years Lars has been working with technology development and industrialization in the Selvaag Gruppen and has held several different roles. Selvaag Gruppen has three major business areas; homebuilding and special projects, capital management and business development. Lars founded and was Chief System Architect of Selvaag BlueThink, a knowledge based systems company. He was also part of the founding team of Selvaag Hus, a low cost housing company. He has also been Senior Vice President for Technology Surveillance and Competence in the Selvaag Gruppen. His last assignment in 2007 was to establish Selvaag Design, a 45 person architectural and engineering practice focusing on residential projects.

Dr. Richard H. F. Jackson
Director, FIATECH

Dr. Richard H. F. Jackson is the first Director of FIATECH, a not-for- profit consortium focused on fast-track development and deployment of technologies to improve substantially how capital projects are designed, engineered, built, and maintained. Its members reap significant benefits by working together to discover and develop high-value technologies — and then using those technologies before anyone else. In his role as Director, Dr. Jackson manages the research initiatives of the consortium including for example the Capital Projects Technology Road mapping Initiative, the Automating Equipment Information Exchange Project, the Smart Chips in Construction Project and the Mobile Computing for Construction, Operations, and Maintenance Project.

Prior to his arrival at FIATECH, Dr. Jackson spent almost 30 years at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a world-renowned U.S. Department of Commerce research institute. For the last four years of his distinguished career at NIST, Dr. Jackson was the Director of the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory (MEL). Directing a staff of 400, Dr. Jackson led research in high precision dimensional measurements; sensing and measurement of force, sound, vibration and surface finish; advanced control and sensing in automated machines, manufacturing systems and robot manipulators; and information technology in manufacturing including design, process planning, control, and product data exchange. As a member of the NIST senior management team, Dr. Jackson frequently represented the U.S. Government in international and national arenas. In addition, Dr. Jackson has served on numerous national and international technology and educational boards and panels.

Dr. Jackson speaks widely at national and international forums on the subjects of integration, automation, and interoperability in the construction and buildings industry, and has published over 100 technical papers and reports in the fields of mathematical modeling, nonlinear optimization, automated manufacturing, and technology transfer. He holds a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University, a master’s degree from Southern Methodist University, and a doctorate from George Washington University.

Dana K. "Deke" Smith, FAIA
Executive Director, buildingSMART alliance™

Deke is the Executive Director of the buildingSMART™ Alliance an emerging program of the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) to improve construction productivity through interoperability. He was the founder and former chair of the NIBS Facility Information Council, home of the US National Computer Aided Design (CAD) Standard and the evolving National Building Information Modeling (BIM) Standard. Deke is a senior analyst with the International Centre for Facilities and also a senior analyst with CYON Research, and has his own information consulting firm. He participated in the beginnings of the NIBS Construction Criteria Base and was on both American Institute of Architects (AIA) CAD Layering Guideline efforts as well as the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST)/ Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) Uniformat II. He was the U.S. representative for facility related CAD to the International Standards Organization (ISO) in the 1990’s. He was a winner of the 1996 Federal 100 award, 1997 NIBS Member Award and the 2006 CAD Society Leadership award. He is a registered architect in Virginia and has worked as a surveyor, assistant field engineer, facility designer, cost engineer, value engineer, life-cycle cost analyst, deputy CIO, and was the chief information technology (IT) architect for the DoD Business Transformation Agency’s modernization effort for installations and environmental issues before his retirement after 30 years with the DoD.

RK Stewart, FAIA
Perkins + Will

RK Stewart joined Perkins + Will in 2008. Prior to Perkins + Will he was at Gensler since 1988 where he had extensive experience in large scale, mixed-use projects, institutional projects, renovation/restoration projects, and high-rise office towers. Mr. Stewart manages complex projects applying his expertise in the architectural design, development and documentation processes coupled with his understanding of engineering disciplines. Mr. Stewart's experience in regulatory approval processing makes him a firmwide resource for planning code, building code, historic preservation, building technology and similar issues. As a rotating member of the firm’s Management Committee in 2000 - 2001, Mr. Stewart led development of improvements in Gensler’s Design and Delivery Systems, including technical, specifications, CAD, project management and learning committees. To improve the communities in which we practice, Mr. Stewart has been involved in advocacy efforts across the state and nation. Mr. Stewart’s contributions to the profession were recognized with his investiture in the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows in 2001. At the 2005 American Institute of Architects Annual Meeting Mr. Stewart was elected to serve as the organization’s national President in 2007 as AIA celebrates its 150th Anniversary.

Prior to joining Perkins + Will, RK gained experience working for:

• Gensler, San Francisco, CA 1988-2007
• Heller Manus Architects, San Francisco, CA 1984-88
• Skidmore Owings & Merrill / DC (Director of Computer Operations) 1983-84
• Skidmore Owings & Merrill / Chicago 1978-83
• Mississippi State University, School of Architecture 1976-78
• Louisiana State University, School of Architecture 1976