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SUBExcel 2024 Speaker and Moderator Biographies
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Chip Bachara - presenter
As long as he can remember, construction has been part of Chip Bachara’s life. The Florida Bar Board-Certified Construction Lawyer grew up working summers as a laborer for his father’s residential construction company, drawing his first paycheck at 13. His practice has been dedicated solely to construction law and litigation since his admission to The Florida Bar in 1987.
AV-Preeminent-rated by Martindale Hubbell, Chip founded Jacksonville’s Bachara Construction Law Group in 2007 and expanded the firm to St. Petersburg in 2023. He has served as first-chair counsel in state and federal trials as well as arbitrations throughout the state of Florida; and BCLG represents clients in every aspect of the construction arena, including municipalities, owners and developers, contractors, trades of nearly every type, and design professionals.
Chip has been recognized multiple times by Best Lawyers in America as Jacksonville’s Lawyer of the Year for Construction Law, and has also been recognized by Super Lawyers, the Construction Lawyers Society of America and Chambers & Partners for excellence in the practice of law. He joined the ASA Attorneys Council in 2017 and is currently serving his second consecutive year as Chair.
Jeff Butler - presenter
Jeff Butler is an author and workplace strategist who explores human behavior within the working world. His experience spans over 40 industries in 4 continents on how different cultures and employees interact with each other. He studies common threads of behavior in industries such as IT professionals, underground utility workers, police officers to clothing retail chains. In addition, companies like Google, Amazon, John Deere, and Coldwell Banker.
As a researcher and practitioner, he also runs a consulting company and a tech company, TrinityFix where he is able to test his ideas in different workplace environments. His ideas have made it to TEDx twice, appeared in dozens of media outlets including two books on human behavior:- The Authentic Workplace and The Key To The New You. Currently, he lives in Dallas, Texas as an out of place Californian.
Lee Brumitt - presenter
Lee Brumitt is a director and shareholder with the Dysart Taylor McMonigle Brumitt & Wilcox law firm where he has practiced law since 1984. His law practice focuses on construction law and litigation.
Mr. Brumitt is a frequent advocate for subcontractors, suppliers, and specialty contractors and has represented general contractors, design professionals, and owners on public, commercial and residential projects.
He has served as the Chair of the ASA’s Attorneys’ Council and has been general counsel of the Kansas City Chapter of ASA for twenty (20) years. Lee has presented webinars for the ASA, other construction industry trade groups, and the local bar associations and has organized and presented a series of legal workshops for the Kansas City Chapter of the ASA.
Tom Freund - panelist
Thomas Freund represents the second generation at Freund Enterprises, Inc., a family-owned business in San Antonio, Texas established since 1964. Freund Enterprises, Inc. provides services in both the HVAC (Comfort-Air Engineering Inc.) and plumbing divisions (Primo Plumbing Inc.) for the construction and service markets. He is one of the five original (one cousin has since passed) “GEN II” to take over from their “founding” fathers. Tom began his career in 1993 after graduating from The University of Texas in Austin and has managed both the sales and operations position for all aspects of the organization.
Tom has been an active participant in the local ASA chapter and has served as a past president of the local chapter. Tom and his wife of 28 years have three sons and continue enjoy the many relationships that the industry has afforded them. Especially those relationships that have developed over time with the direct involvement of ASA San Antonio.
Chris is the writer/editor of Business Intelligence Briefs and a writer for the Black Owl Report – both publications from Armada. He is an economic analyst for the Armada Strategic Intelligence System and is responsible for the Credit Manager’s Index from NACM as well Fabrinomics from the FMA.
Chris Kuehl - presenter
Dr. Chris Kuehl is a Managing Director of Armada Corporate Intelligence. He provides forecasts and strategic guidance for a wide variety of corporate clients around the world. He is the chief economist for several national and international organizations.
Prior to starting Armada in 1999, he was a professor of economics and finance for 15 years – teaching in the US, Hungary, Russia, Estonia, Singapore and Taiwan. He holds advanced degrees in economics, Soviet studies and East Asian studies.
Chris is the writer/editor of Business Intelligence Briefs and a writer for the Black Owl Report – both publications from Armada. He is an economic analyst for the Armada Strategic Intelligence System and is responsible for the Credit Manager’s Index from NACM as well Fabrinomics from the FMA.
Ben Lowery - panelist
Ben Lowery is a dedicated professional, serving as the Vice President of Cornerstone Flooring Companies, where he spearheads strategic initiatives and drives operational efficiency. Beyond his corporate role, Ben is the current President of the ASA of Greater Baton Rouge. He is passionate about growing organizations by developing people and is driven to share his passion with others.
Stephane McShane - presenter
Stephane McShane is a Director at Maxim Consulting Group responsible for the evaluation and implementation processes with our clients. Stephane works with construction related firms of all sizes to evaluate business practices and assist with management challenges. With a large depth of experience working in the construction industry, Stephane is keenly aware of the business and, most specifically, operational challenges that firms face. Her areas of expertise include: Leadership development, executive coaching, organizational assessments, strategic planning, project execution, business development, productivity improvement, and training programs. Mrs. McShane is an internationally recognized speaker, mentor, author, and teacher. Her ability to motivate, inspire, and create confidence among your work groups is extremely rare and very effective.
Stephane possesses the rare combination of talent from being in the field as an apprentice, electrician, foreman, then working her way through each operational chair within a successful electrical construction firm. Her ability and drive defined her to be "best in class" at each position held. This talent is what makes her tremendously effective at operational and organizational assessments today. She has successfully conquered every operational position from being an estimating trainee through executive management. She has built, trained, and led her teams to become the undisputed leaders in their markets. She is able to quickly identify organizational positives and negatives and assess appropriate action steps and throughputs.
Patty Peterson - panelist
Patty Peterson is the Director of Organizational Development for Tindall Corporation, a Precast/prestress Concrete Company with 5 divisions in the southeast.
She started her career with Ceco Concrete Construction in Connecticut after earning her Certification in Architectural & Civil Drafting & Design. During her eight years there she pursued a degree in Civil Engineering. In 1995 she began working with Tindall Corporation’s VA Division Engineering Team focused on large projects including prisons, micro chip plants and numerous parking garages. She coordinated Tindall’s subs both during the design & fabrication stages and then again in the field. In 1999 became a Project Manager, and sometime later a Sr PM, and over the years learned a great deal about construction law and the multiple states the VA Division worked in allowing her to negotiate many multi-million-dollar contracts.
Tindall is a member of the Metro Washington Chapter of ASA where she was a board member at large and a past president. She recently completed two plus terms on ASA National’s board and very active in committees and a past board member of PCI. She now serves on both ASA & PCI’s Foundations.
In 2021 started her new role at Tindall with their HR Team. She’s heading the charge for the Learning Management System, Individual’s Development Plans and Succession Planning. Since taking on this new role she’s gained certifications as a Coach, DiSC Trainer & Administrator, a DDI Facilitator and The Six Types of Working Genius Facilitator along with just completing certification from ATD (Association of Talent Development) “Creating Leadership Development Programs”.
Kelly Riggs - presenter
Kelly Riggs is an author, speaker, and business consultant for executives and companies throughout the United States and Canada. Widely recognized as a powerful speaker and performance coach in the areas of sales, management leadership, and strategic planning, Kelly is a former sales executive, a two-time national Salesperson-of-the-Year, a business owner, and a member of the Forbes’ Coaches Council since 2019.
He has written two books: 1-on-1 Management: What Every Great Manager Knows That You Don’t and Quit Whining and Start SELLING! A Step-by-Step Guide to a Hall of Fame Career in Sales.
His third book is the award-winning Counter Mentor Leadership: How to Unlock the Potential of the 4-Generation Workplace, co-written with his Millennial son, Robby Riggs. It was selected as the 2019 Gold Medal winner in the leadership category by Axiom Business Books Awards. Note: No trophies were awarded during the writing of this book. For more information, visit www.BizLockerRoom.com.
Dick Roberts - panelist
Dick Roberts is the Founder and President of DTR Landscape Development, now in business for 43 years. In 2018, Dick was awarded Arizona's Landscape Contractor’s Commercial Contractor of the Year. He is a certified Landscape and Irrigation Auditor.
But in addition to running a successful business, Dick has managed to immerse himself in numerous volunteer causes as well, serving as chairman of the Alzheimer’s golf tournament for 12 years, being on the safety and legislative committees for Arizona Landscape Contractors Assoc., VP of Arizonans for Fair Contracting for 5 years, serving on the Alzheimer's Board of Directors Southwest Chapter, and immersing himself in ASA - both serving as president of the Southwest Chapter, and as a board member at the national level.
He is proud of his efforts to help combat several bills in the state legislation that would hurt contractors on the both the city and state levels. He also helped establish the ASA University in the Arizona Chapter of ASA, to benefit all subcontractors throughout the state. Dick assisted in establishing the Build Her Up program at ASA to benefit the women who are entering the construction industry. ASA also tapped his golf organizing expertise to establish the ASA golf tournament that is now a complete sellout each year. Dick has also brought the chapter into the 21st century with a newly designed and functional website and smart phone app.
Tom Woodcock - presenter
Author Tom Woodcock is nationally known as the most dynamic construction industry sales trainer and consultant in the country. He routinely speaks to thousands of contractors, sales personnel and suppliers concerning the sales skills necessary to compete in this intensely challenging construction industry.
His personal success in sales is well documented and highly regarded. His latest book; “You’re Not Sellin’, They’re Buyin’” is comprehensive in developing the proper sales skills, persona and methodology to rise above the competition. His video series can be used as an individual or corporate training program. He’s been featured on CNN and in USAToday as well as dozens of media outlets across the country.
Tom is extremely entertaining in his approach and well studied in the dynamics that occur in bidding, quoting and developing customer brand loyalty. His high energy approach combined with practical applications can bring results immediately after his seminars. His corporation, Seal the Deal, is sought after by trade associations, contractors, corporations, suppliers, construction expos and publications regularly.
He currently writes for 4 publications, has 20 regular contractor clients and speaks to in excess of 10,000 construction industry professionals a year.
Tom turned a Caterpillar rental territory from 2.5Mil to 10Mil in revenue in 18 months while raising net margins by 2%! He also trained 325 sales reps for a 750Mil nationwide equipment firm. In his first sales position at 19 yrs of age he took a 150K contractor sales territory to 2.5Mil in 1 year. His customized training programs hit areas targeted for improvement head on. He knows how to get people to buy and manage a sales effort to success!