Woodrise 2025
Program

Alar Just is a professor at Tallinn University of Technology and a researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. He completed his dissertation on fire resistance of timber frame assemblies in 2010. 

Dr. Just has been working as a Chief Engineer at the structural design office for 15 years where lead the design of many timber buildings and bridges. From 2010 he works as a researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden where his research is related to fire resistance of timber structures. He has conducted more than 250 fire tests. Dr. Just is a professor of Structural Engineering at Tallinn University of Technology. He is currently supervising 4 PhD students in the field of fire resistance of timber structures and reclaimed timber structures. Beside home university he has regular courses at Linneaus University. Dr. Just is reviewer for several scientific journals, in the scientific board of the conferences Structures in Fire, Wood Building Forum and Wood and Fire. 

Alar Just is a head of Estonian delegation in CEN TC 250 SC 5 and member of the Estonian mirror committee EVS TK13. He is a vice chair of the Project Team TC250 – SC5.T4, drafting the next generation of EN 1995-1-2. 

Dr. Aleksandar is a researcher at the InnoRenew CoE and an Assistant Professor at the University of Primorska’s Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies. Holding a Ph.D. in Computer Science, his foundational research interests in optimization, algorithms, distributed computing, and sensor networks now drive his work at InnoRenew CoE. There, he develops sensor-based solutions for structural health monitoring and indoor well-being, with his Woodrise presentation focusing specifically on sensors for moisture content monitoring in wood buildings.

Alexander is Professor of Timber Structures at the University of Bío-Bío, Chile, and Associate Researcher at the National Center of Excellence for the Wood Industry (CENAMAD). Additionally, he currently serves as the Director of a Doctoral Program in Engineering applied to industry. The primary research line that Alexander has developed is related to the structural health monitoring of timber buildings—a highly relevant issue in countries with high seismic activity, such as Chile. A significant milestone in this research line was the construction of a five-story cross-laminated timber (CLT) building prototype on the campus of the University of Bío-Bío. Monitoring this building for two years has provided insight into the variation of its dynamic properties throughout different seasons and evaluated its structural performance during seismic and wind gust events. These results have contributed to updating Chilean regulations on wood design and construction, as well as to improving the community’s perception of this type of building.

Ana Belizário is the Sales Director at Urbem, a Brazilian mass timber manufacturer aiming to transform the construction industry through innovative structural systems. Since 2017, Ana has led Urbem’s efforts with a focus on urban development through faster, more efficient, and more sustainable building solutions. With over 20 years of experience in the real estate market, Ana is an architect and a PhD candidate at FAU-USP, specializing in timber structures. She believes in the urgency of engaging experts to tackle climate change by reducing carbon emissions in the construction sector.

Professor Andre Barbosa is the Cecil and Sally Drinkward Professor in Structural Engineering at Oregon State University (OSU). He holds an Honorary Professor position at the University of Bristol and an Adjunct Professor position at the Composite Materials & Engineering Center at the Washington State University. His research focuses on the development of experimental testing programs and numerical tools and techniques geared towards improving structural performance and resilience of the built environment to multiple hazards. Barbosa has co-authored more than 100 journal publications in top-tier peer-reviewed journals and has delivered more than 50 international conference presentations. He has received various awards, such as the 2017 State of Oregon Daily Journal of Commerce Newsmaker for contributions to the Cross-Laminated Timber Industry and the 2023 ASCE Croes Medal for work on soil-structure interaction. Before joining OSU in 2011, Barbosa completed a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering at the University of California in San Diego (UCSD). Prior to starting his Ph.D. in 2005, he worked for seven years as a structural engineer in Portugal.

Andreas Linderholt works at the department of Mechanical Engineering at Linnaeus University since 2010. His research area is numerical and experimental structural dynamics. Except applications within mechanical engineering, Linderholt’s research has for many years also been within wind induced vibrations of timber buildings. Andreas hold a PhD degree from Chalmers University of Technology, and he has been working in industry for several years.

Andrew is a Founding Director of Waugh Thistleton Architects, a practice dedicated to delivering beautiful buildings and places that acknowledge their impact on the environment. He is a world-renowned spokesperson for low carbon architecture and innovative construction, and lobbies and lectures internationally, communicating the urgent need for change to mitigate the climate crisis. Andrew demonstrates his commitment to driving forward a green transition in the construction sector as a member of the steering committee for Architects Declare as well as a Senior Fellow for Architecture 2030. A pivotal player in the global shift towards renewable, bio-based materials, Andrew’s innovative approach to design has been acknowledged by many awards including the RIBA President’s Award for Research and a Stirling Prize nomination in 2018 and the UK Practice of the Year award for 2023. The practice is currently engaged on both research and design projects throughout Europe and North America.

Anna Ervast Öberg, operating manager at the housing developer company Folkhem, has a degree in architecture from The Royal Institute of Technology KTH in Stockholm, as a research student at the University of Tokyo and a completed master’s thesis in collaboration with Columbia in New York. 

After seven years as an architect at the Swedish architectural firm SandellSandberg and as a teacher in urban planning at the KTH School of Architecture in Stockholm, Anna has been working at Folkhem for over ten years, responsible for the company’s development and portfolio containing 1,600 housing units in eleven different timber projects.  

Folkhem decided in 2012 to exclusively develop and build in timber due to the climate benefits and has since developed the world’s largest pure portfolio of multi-housing projects in various building systems in timber in urban contexts. 

Anna has worked dedicatedly since 2014 with developing the projects, portfolio, and the position of the company. Building an expertise with the developer’s perspective within the field of large-scale housing projects in various timber structures with a vision of participating in a green shift of the building sector through timber, bioeconomy, and architecture. 

She was the head project manager of the most famous project Cederhusen with its 14 stories and 240 apartments, the first CLT-project to be built in the inner city of Stockholm, on top of three traffic tunnels and one of the biggest urban housing-projects built in CLT in the world. 

Setting the agenda for the company’s market positioning includes being a front-runner, meaning every project is given a task to contribute and manifest a push for development of the sector. This means initiating and participating in several innovative research projects, such as the Eu-financed project Woodcircles for example, multidisciplinary collaborations and a learning through the real projects and development of the portfolio. 

Anna is based in Stockholm, mother of three, and with a passion for playing cello. 

Antoine Béreyziat is a research and expertise engineer at the Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (CSTB) in France. He obtained his PhD in 2022 from École Centrale de Lyon, with research focusing on the fire resistance of steel-timber composite structures. Since joining the CSTB, he has been actively engaged in research and expertise activities contributing to progress in the fields of structural engineering and fire safety.

Asif Iqbal is an Associate Professor in School of Engineering at University of Northern British Columbia. He completed his PhD at University of Canterbury, New Zealand. His research
interests include seismic analysis and design, and structural control systems for seismic applications.

Presentation title:
Low-Damage Mass Timber Walls and Frame Systems for Seismic Resilience: New Zealand and Canadian Initiatives

Born in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture. Experienced the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake at the age of 15. Earned a Ph.D. from Osaka University. Served as an assistant professor at Osaka University and an associate professor at Nara Women’s University before joining the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Osaka Institute of Technology in April 2021. Specializes in seismic structural design of wooden buildings.

Since Nara has a large number of historically significant wooden buildings, I have also conducted extensive research on cultural properties and other historically significant wooden structures. Recently, I have become interested in experiments on the joints of large-scale wooden structures and earthquake monitoring research.

Dr. Blériot Feujofack is the Manager of Education at the Canadian Wood Council (CWC), where he leads national efforts to advance wood education through innovative programs, strategic academic partnerships, and advocacy for wood’s role in sustainable construction.
Blériot holds a Ph.D. in Timber Engineering from the University of British Columbia, where his research focused on the development and optimization of resilient connection technologies for mass timber panels. Before immersing himself in the field of timber structures, he pursued studies in both Civil and Mechanical Engineering. His academic achievements include a Master of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Quebec, as well as a Master of Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree, both in Civil Engineering.
With his diverse expertise and strong commitment to innovation, Blériot is helping shape the future of wood education and sustainable construction across Canada.

Bob van der Zande is Urban Strategist. Advisor of Cities, Regions, Investors and Developers. Focus on building-in-wood and mass timber, social impact, inclusive area development, public-private collaboration (Triple Helix).  

He is Director Mass Timber Programme in residential development in the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam (MRA): 20% of all new homes are to be built biobased/in mass timber by 2025. Successful in accelerating the timber movement together with 140 subscribers of the Timber Covenant (2021- 2025) and 30 real estate partners.  

In March 2023 he became member of the Board of Built by Nature Foundation that stimulates the use of timber and other natural materials in the building sector worldwide with grants. He is chair of the National Houtivation Foundation that is scaling up the use of timber in the real estate industry. Also chair of the National Knowledge Center for Biobased Construction. 

Chair of Urban Land Institute (ULI) the Netherlands for 4 years, past chair of the European Urban Regeneration ULI Council and Global ULI Trustee since 2018. 

Bob van der Zande has been working in the public sector for decades at the City of Amsterdam and the MRA (30 municipalities, 2 provinces).  

Director Residential Markets for the City of Amsterdam 2009-2019, responsible for several residential programmes in the city and the region, such as speeding up midsegment rental housing, the self-built housing programme and student and youth housing.  

He graduated as urban designer at the Delft University of Technology in 1978.   

Born in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), February 2nd 1953 

Bruce has over 37 years of experience as a professional forester and biologist, primarily focused on fire and forest ecology, forest management, wildland/urban interface planning, forest policy, and practice audits and reviews. Bruce is considered a provincial fire and fuels management expert and has managed numerous innovative fire risk identification and mitigation projects for the public and private sectors. He has provided expert opinion testimony and myriad interviews on wildfire in BC. Bruce assisted the Firestorm 2003 Review Team in developing forest management and policy recommendations to mitigate the risk of catastrophic fires in BC’s wildland/urban interface. In Alberta, Bruce has been involved with developing the provincial fire management planning standard and the first landscape-scale fire management plans and risk assessments. More recently, Bruce completed a wildfire risk analysis of the BC Hydro electrical system, and he is supporting the BC Wildfire Service in developing a Provincial Wildfire Risk Assessment. He has been a fire science and management instructor at the University of British Columbia and the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Cassandra Lafond is a Senior Scientist and Project Leader in the Building Systems group at FPInnovations. With over a decade of academic and industry experience, she helps drive innovation in wood construction systems to support building decarbonization.

A trained wood engineer with a master’s degree, Cassandra is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in wood and bio-based materials engineering at Université Laval. Her research focuses on the hygrothermal performance of bio-based building envelopes, combining finite element modeling with in-situ sensor monitoring to track moisture in wood structures and reduce durability risks.

Her work bridges innovation and practice, with a focus on optimizing wood products and systems for industrialized construction. She also contributes to the development of national standards as a member of the CSA A170 technical committee on Volumetric Modular Construction. Through close collaboration with academic, industrial, and regulatory partners, Cassandra is shaping the future of sustainable building.

Christian is a Lead Scientist in the Building Systems group at FPInnovations where his main research topics are fire resistance, reaction to fire, performance-based fire design, fire modelling and fire safety engineering. He participated in many performance-based designs allowing to build timber buildings that would have otherwise been required to be of noncombustible construction. He is the author of numerous technical publications and research reports on fire performance of timber elements and buildings. Moreover, he is actively involved in several technical committees on fire tests, fire safety engineering and timber design, such as ULC, ASTM and CSA. He is currently the ISO/TC 92 Canadian Mirror Committee Chair on fire safety, Head of delegation at ISO/TC92/SC4 related to international standards on fire safety engineering, and SC4/WG12 Convenor on the performance of structures in fire. He participates in many overseas standardization activities, namely the United States, Australia, China and Japan. Finally, he is an Invited Professor at Université Laval where he teaches a full course on fire safety in buildings and supervise graduate students. Christian is a member of OIQ and SFPE, and scientific committees for WCTE, Structures in Fire, Wood & Fire Safety and Fire Safety of Façades.

Clara Schmitz is Head of International Expansion at GROPYUS – a German-Austrian technology-based construction company focused on building aspirational, sustainable and affordable multi-story residential buildings using highly automized, off-site timber construction methods. In this role, she is leading GROPYUS’ international growth initiatives and is thus responsible for identifying new markets, developing market entry strategies and building strategic partnerships with key stakeholders, partners, and clients, currently focusing on Northern America and Australia. After receiving her MBA from Yale School of Management, she worked as Head of Business Development at another proptech company before joining GROPYUS in 2020.   

Craig Applegath is an architect, urban designer and biologist practicing at the intersection of the built environment and natural ecosystems.

Craig plans and designs buildings, campuses, and communities that are zero-carbon and climate adapted, and is an international expert on climate mitigation and adaptation through sustainable and resilient design strategies. Craig’s recent work integrates mass timber in the design of sustainable college and universities, and affordable modular housing. Craig’s commitment to the potential of mass timber has led him to Chair the Mass Timber Institute (MTI) based at the University of Toronto, and co-host MTI’s Mass Timber Today podcast.

Craig is the Founding Partner of DIALOG’s Toronto studio, a North American integrated-design firm. Craig earned a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of Toronto (UofT), a Bachelor of Architecture from Dalhousie University, and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University. Ongoing university teaching work includes a Climate Change Adaptation Seminar at the UofT’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture.

Craig speaks internationally about his research and design, and in all his work, Craig is driven by a passion for design that addresses the challenges of climate change and its environmental and human impacts.

Craig Mitchell is passionate about modular and off-site construction.  He has spent 28 years in the modular construction industry with the last decade in senior management roles working with clients in both Canada and the US.  He has been part of project teams that have delivered hundreds of temporary and permanent modular buildings worth nearly $1 Billion including a number of ‘firsts’ in the use of modular construction in Canada.

He is currently the Principal of his offsite construction advocacy company – BlackBox Offsite Solutions and Partner / Project Development Lead for 720 Modular, a leader in modular project execution across Canada.  He holds a current member role with the Wood First Advisory Committee at FII, and has also held board roles with both the Modular Building Institute (MBI) and with the Vancouver Regional Construction Association (VRCA), where in 2022, he served as Chair of the Board of Directors at the VRCA.

Often called upon by media to provide his insights on the adoption of offsite and modular construction in Canada, he also authored “The State of Prefabrication in Canada” in 2022 and is also a contributor to FP Innovations upcoming release of “The Offsite Construction Handbook”. He welcomes any conversation about how to leverage the power of offsite construction toward achieving high-performance targets in construction.

Dr. Cristiano Loss is an Associate Professor in the Wood Science Department at the University of British Columbia (UBC), specializing in sustainable structural systems with an emphasis on high-performance hybrid wood-based structures and performance-based optimum design procedures for a resilient built environment. Dr. Loss completed his master’s structural engineering program and obtained his Ph.D. in Engineering of Civil and Mechanical Structural Systems at the University of Trento, Italy. Before joining UBC, Dr. Loss worked with the Wood Design Engineering Research Group at the University of Northern British Columbia and other research Laboratories in Europe. Dr. Loss has an outstanding knowledge of wood in structural engineering, having conducted research within several multi-disciplinary research projects supported through funding programs in Europe, Canada, and Australia. He is a voting member in several subcommittees of the ASTM-D07, a designated member in two subcommittees of the CSA-O86 Canadian Standard, and a member of many International Scientific Committees, including the World Conference on Timber Engineering. Among successful knowledge transfers from academia to industry, he has been granted several patents.

Dorian Tung is currently the Manager of Technology Assessment at FPInnovations. Prior to this, he worked as a structural consultant in Canada and the US. As the Manager at FPInnovations, he has been working with scientists on projects related to structure, seismic, durability, energy, fire, acoustic, and vibration. With the evolving ecosystem, Dorian is active in many working groups to facilitate discussions, remove duplicates, accelerate processes, with the goal to maximize impacts for the forest industry NOW using applied research data. He has been leading the Building Monitoring and Testing program at FPInnovations to collect Big Data for wood-based buildings, and using the information with insurance companies to reduce construction wetting uncertainties.

Eric Karsh is the founding partner of Equilibrium, a globally recognized leader in timber engineering and construction since 1998, with offices in Vancouver, Atlanta, and Paris.

With over 35 years of experience as a structural engineer, Eric has played a pivotal role in shaping the international timber industry. His portfolio includes numerous landmark, award-winning projects, such as the Wood Innovation and Design Centre in British Columbia, Mass Timber One (MT1)—Google’s first mass timber office building, located in Sunnyvale, California, and the Créteil Schoolboard office building in Paris, France.

Renowned for his innovative design approach and dedication to sustainable construction, Eric has received international recognition for advancing environmentally responsible building practices. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers (UK) and a part owner of BC Passive House, a leader in the prefabrication of wood-based, high-performance building systems.

Erica Fischer, PhD, PE is an Associate Professor of Civil and Construction Engineering and the Glenn Willis Holcomb Professor in Structural Engineering at Oregon State University. Dr. Fischer’s research interests revolve around innovative approaches to improve the resilience and robustness of structural systems affected by natural and man-made hazards. Dr. Fischer performs research on a variety of different structural systems including steel, timber (CLT), composites (concrete-CLT and steel-concrete), and thin shells subjected to hazards such as earthquakes and fires. She has participated in post-earthquake reconnaissance team missions in diverse regions including Haiti, Napa, California, Italy, and Mexico City; and led post-wildfire reconnaissance after the 2018 Camp Fire, 2021 Marshall Fire, and recently after the 2025 Eaton and Palisades Fires in LA. Dr. Fischer has experience as a practicing structural engineer and holds a Professional Engineering license in the states of Washington, California, and Oregon. She is a voting member of AISC Task Committee 5 and AISC Task Committee 8.

As President and Chief Engineer at StructureCraft and former partner at Fast + Epp, Gerald’s inquisitive approach to engineering has given him a special love for elegant, efficient architectural structures. His most unique contribution to the building world came, however, when in 1998 he started StructureCraft, becoming both engineer and builder of his refined structures, thus creating a unique tool to ensure both elegance and efficiency.

His collaborations have resulted in award winning projects of nearly every genre, such as the Surrey Central City & Library, the Arena Stage Theater in Washington DC, the unique Wood Wave panels for the 2010 Olympic Speed Skating Oval, the Tianfu Agricultural Expo, and the Nancy Pauw Bridge in Banff (for which he won IStructE’s Supreme Award in 2023). Gerald is an honorary member of the AIBC and a recipient of the Meritorious Achievement Award from EGBC. He has lectured globally, including at RIBA in London, and twice at the World Conference on Timber Engineering. Under Gerald’s leadership, StructureCraft has engineered and built over 350 creative structures around the globe.

Professor Ghasan Doudak is a professor of structural engineering in the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Ottawa. His area of expertise includes multi-scale understanding of how complete structural systems function encompassing issues like how complete buildings respond to the effects of windstorms, ground shaking during earthquakes, or other actions like impacts and blasts.

Following his graduation, he worked as a structural engineer where he designed commercial and residential buildings. His PhD research was aimed at determining the load paths in wood light frame buildings under various stages of construction using a holistic design approach.

He has been actively involved in disseminating research outcomes to the engineering community and involved in the development of design standards, tools for designers and communicating to key audiences. Professor Doudak is an active member of several code and standard committees and has contributed to the technical content of the standards through several change proposals. He has been a voting member on the National Building Code Standing Committee on Structural Design. He is also a member of the Technical Committee on Design and Assessment of Buildings Subjected to Blast Loads (CSA S850) and has made significant contribution as Chair of the Design and Detailing Subcommittee. Professor Doudak is also a voting member and Chair of the CSA Technical Committee O86 “Engineering Design in Wood”. He is also a member on the committee on CSA S520 “Design and construction of low-rise residential and small buildings to resist high wind” and member of the Subcommittee on Timber Structures under the Highway and Bridge Design Code (CSA S6).

In addition, over the past 20 years, Professor Doudak has been teaching timber design at the undergraduate and graduate levels and he has given invited lectures and full-day training workshops to thousands of practising engineers and architects.

Dr. Guido Wimmers is the Dean of the School of Construction and the Environment at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). He holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Science and a Master’s in Architectural Engineering from Leopold Franzens University in Innsbruck, Austria. Before relocating to Canada in 2007, he collaborated on sustainable building projects across Austria, Germany, and Italy. In BC, he played a leading role in Canada’s first Passive House—the Austria House in Whistler—and co-founded the Canadian Passive House Institute (now Passive House Canada). At the University of Northern British Columbia, he was a tenured professor and founding Chair of the Master of Engineering in Integrated Wood Design, where he also led the creation of the award-winning Wood Innovation Research Laboratory (WIRL). Guido has provided consulting for the City of Vancouver and BCCA, and contributed to the BC Step Code. He continues to champion innovation, sustainability, and collaboration between academia and industry.

Helen is an architect registered in the UK and has an MBA from the University of BC. She brings over 30 years of experience working on transformative solutions for the real estate and construction industries in Canada and around the world, and has become one of Canada’s leading advisors on innovative, low carbon construction policies, processes and technologies. She has also played an instrumental in coalescing British Columbia’s emerging timber technology ecosystem. She has been a member of the authorship team for both the CLT Handbook and Tall Wood Design Guide for Canada. She led the first State of Mass Timber report and data collection process for the federal government and continues to collect sector data and provide market to the BC government.  Currently, she is working with CSA Group to develop a national framework for circularity in the built environment. Helen sits on the BC Digital Construction Council and is a director of Building Transformations (formerly CANBIM). She also serves on BCIT’s Mass Timber Education Advisory Board and the University of Victoria’s Green Engineering Advisory Board.

Dr. Hiroshi Isoda received his Ph.D in Faculty of Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1995. From 1990 to 1995, he was a Faculty and an Assistant Professor in Architecture and Civil Engineering at Shinshu University where he taught in the area of Structural Engineering. He moved to the Building Research Institute (BRI), National Institute of Japan, as a Senior Researcher in 1995, where he involved in the revision of Japanese Building Standard Law. In 2000-2001, he was also a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Structural Engineering at the University of California in San Diego, where he analyzed the seismic response of four index wood buildings within the FEMA-funded CUREE-Caltech Woodframe Project. In 2006, He was a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo where he involved in the shaking table tests of the NEESWood Project. He moved to the Shinshu University as an Associate Professor in 2006 and was elevated to a Professor in 2011. He moved to the Kyoto University in 2013. He is now a Professor in Laboratory of Timber Science and Engineering at Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere of Kyoto University. 

Jarrett Hutchinson is the Executive Director of the Office of Mass Timber Implementation (OMTI) with the Province of British Columbia. He has been instrumental in advancing the use of mass timber in B.C. and across Canada. Highlights include creating the Building Code that allowed the 18-storey Brock Commons student residence at the University of British Columbia, and more recently, developing B.C.’s Mass Timber Action Plan which was released in 2022. Throughout his career, Jarrett has held leadership roles in the development, application and enforcement of codes, standards and built environment policies locally, provincially, nationally and internationally.

Jason is AWC’s Senior Director of Fire Engineering. He leads AWC’s efforts related to fire safety and acoustical performance of wood construction, serves on several technical committees and participates in the model code development process on behalf of AWC. Prior to joining AWC, he worked for the International Code Council Evaluation Service (ICC-ES) and the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS). Jason is a licensed professional engineer and a graduate of Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in Wood Science and Forest Products and a master’s in Civil Engineering.

Jason currently leads SMT with the largest team of technical people in the area of construction leak detection systems in the world. He has contributed to over 11 patents in the area of; hybrid wired/wireless data acquisition systems, leak detection solutions for inverted plaza deck assemblies and for moisture detection in conventional roofi ng and mass timber structures.
SMT has systems installed in the Tomb of Jesus in Israel, historic castles in Slovenia, Manhattan’s convention center – the Javits Center, covered bridges of Iowa, schools in New Zealand and mass timber buildings in Australia. The SMT technology is being used in every state in the USA, and on six of the seven continents.
Locally the SMT team is involved in many of Vancouver’s “Signature Projects” – recent projects include UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver House, The Post, and 9.5 acre green roof on Oakridge Park (mall redevelopment). Beyond buildings, Jason has worked with Tesla on condensation sensors, US Navy for submarine prop transmission leak detection systems, and Atomic Energy Industry in the monitoring of heavy water contamination.
Jason achieves a work/life balance by simply mixing the two – calling it work/life blending. Have fun at work, and work at fun (don’t get him started on this topic!). He supports his family in their careers and in school endeavours, takes on gravity fed west coast sports like skiing, mountain biking, also enjoying the slower side.

Jean-Marc Dubois is the Director of Business Development for Nordic Structures, the building systems division of Canadian lumber manufacturer Chantiers Chibougamau. His career spans over 45 years in the building products industry with regional, national and international corporations, focusing on value-added, engineered wood and Mass Timber products. Dubois’ penchant for delivering customer solutions through value engineering and process optimization led him to join the structures division of Nordic Structures, collaborating with design professionals and their clients to provide sustainable built Mass Timber solutions across North America.

Jean-Marc is a passionate advocate for sustainability, serving on a number of industry councils; he is a founding member of Timber Edge, an advocacy group leading to the development of Boston’s Timber Accelerator program; was a founding board member of the International Mass Timber Alliance; and also serves on the American Wood Council’s Green Building Committee. He has been a keynote speaker at Holzbau and Woodrise Congresses, featured guest on a number of podcasts, and a guest lecturer at universities as well as architectural, engineering, and sustainability conferences across North America, Scandinavia and Japan.

Jean-Philippe Letarte, a professional engineer from Quebec, brings over a decade of innovation and expertise in structural hardware to his passionate commitment to the mass timber industry. As a key member of the engineering team at MTC Solutions, Jean-Philippe has significantly contributed to pioneering technical documents and design guides, lending support to more than 2,000 timber and mass timber projects across North America. Advocating for hands-on approaches, he has spearheaded the simplification of engineering solutions, exemplified by user-friendly technical literature for self-tapping wood screws and pre-engineered beam hangers tailored for the North American mass timber market. Beyond his technical achievements, Jean-Philippe is recognized for his role as a mentor, highlighting his unwavering dedication to advancing the field and nurturing the next generation of engineering talent. 

John Patkau founded Patkau Architects with Patricia in 1978. He is licensed in a number of jurisdictions in both Canada and the United States. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Manitoba. He is a Fellow of the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada, an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects, a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art, a recipient of the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada’s Gold Medal, and a Member of the Order of Canada.

Dr. John W. van de Lindt is the Harold H. Short Endowed Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University. He has conducted more than 50 research projects related to buildings and other systems related to earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes and floods. Van de Lindt led both the NEESWood and NEES-Soft project teams between 2005-2013 which consisted of two-story, four-story, and six-story shake table tests on the world’s largest shake tables including in Miki Japan and San Diego, California.  He is the past Chair of ASCE’s Technical Administrative Committee for the Structural Engineering Institute.  He is the Co-director for the National Institute of Standards and Technology-funded Center of Excellence (COE) for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning headquartered at Colorado State University.  Professor van de Lindt led the project to introduce cross laminated timber (CLT) into U.S. building standards and codes as an approved seismic force resisting system, served as a Co-PI for NHERI Tallwood and NHERI Converging Design Projects.   He has published more than 450 technical articles and reports including more than 260 journal papers, served on a number of editorial boards, and is the Editor-in-Chief of the ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering. 

After joining the public service in 2007 as a territorial engineer, Julien HERBERT worked for several years as a public contracting authority for the construction and renovation of schools. He then joined the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion where he was Deputy Head of Office in the Office of Stakeholders, Products and Innovation in Construction. Since 2019, he has joined the AQC (Agence Qualité Construction) where he has been a project manager to support some project owners such as SOLIDEO in mastering innovation, particularly in the field of bio-based construction. He is now the manager of partnerships and territorial initiatives within AQC.

Kelsey Winter is the mother of three young girls and her and her husband are grateful to be able to raise their family on the traditional lands of the lək̓ʷəŋən Peoples, today known as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. She is the Manager of Wildfire Operations Research at FPInnovations, a national not-for-profit that specializes in creating solutions that accelerate the growth of the Canadian forest sector. Winter’s team utilizes operations research projects and empirical evidence to assist wildfire agency partners in increasing their positive impacts in the wildfire management ecosystem. She has a background in Natural Resources, Fire Ecology and Fire Management and before FPInnovations worked for the British Columbia Wildfire Service managing the FireSmart program. 

After a PhD in the field of the structural mechanics and timber engineering, I worked at FCBA as a timber construction engineer for 18 years. My missions included technical support for designers, assessment of timber structural components and fasteners, training courses for timber engineers and European and French standardizations such as Eurocode 5 and 8. Since 2019 I am now the national expert for timber construction at SOCOTEC Construction which is one of the main control body in France and still strongly involved in the European timber construction standardization.

Leanne Sawatzky is Director of Renewable Cities, a special initiative of Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue. With 20 years of experience advancing sustainable, livable and resilient communities, her leadership emphasizes systems-thinking, partnership and collaboration. Renewable Cities convenes stakeholders to address complex challenges, such as prefabricated mass timber adoption and has published guides and resources for local governments and the building industry on design solution considerations for mid- to high-rise buildings, and strategies to reduce sector risk.

Mr. Lu is the Deputy Director General of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. Formerly a senior government official and technical leader in green and low-carbon development for urban and rural construction in Jiangsu Province, he has contributed significantly to making the region one of China’s most proactive in advancing sustainability and a national frontrunner in modern wood construction. He has played a key role in aligning Jiangsu’s urban and rural development strategies with China’s dual-carbon goals, with a strong focus on policies, regulations, and technical solutions.

As a strong advocate for modern wood construction, Mr. Lu has championed the use of wood in public projects, most notably the main timber pavilion of the 10^th Jiangsu Horticultural Expo—an iconic structure spanning 4,500 square meters. He also facilitated the establishment of the Provincial Innovation Centre for Modern Wood Construction Engineering. These initiatives underscore Jiangsu’s enduring commitment to incorporating renewable materials and low-carbon approaches into the sustainable development of urban and rural environments.

Deeply engaged in policy formulation and standard development, Mr. Lu also led the drafting of the Green Building Development Regulations of Jiangsu Province and has overseen the release of more than ten local standards in areas such as green buildings and prefabricated construction. He has spearheaded over 20 major research initiatives, including the Research and Demonstration of Green Smart Buildings (Next-Generation Housing). His work has earned national recognition, including the National Green Building Innovation Award, the Huaxia Construction Science and Technology Award, and the Jiangsu Science and Technology Award.

Under his leadership, Jiangsu has achieved more than 1.5 billion square meters of green buildings and launched over 1,300 demonstration projects in high-quality green buildings and eco-districts—maintaining a national leadership position. The province has published more than 60 local engineering standards related to green and low-carbon development and supported over 1,600 green building technology research projects. The province’s project on Renewable Energy Applications in Buildings was honored with the UN-Habitat Dubai International Award for Best Practices in Improving the Living Environment.

Mr. Lu has also played an instrumental role in launching the Jiangsu Green and Low-Carbon Building International Expo, a comprehensive, full-chain service platform for the construction industry, where wood construction technology has been showcased as a key highlight of green and low-carbon development. He further led the establishment of China’s first provincial pilot zone for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in the urban and rural construction sector, where wood is promoted as a sustainable building material.

Lucas is a senior engineer with Natural Resources Canada. His primary focus is on supporting the home building and renovations industry’s transition to affordable and high-performance housing. Lucas hosts in-person engagements with regional housing industries across Canada to better understand their challenges and barriers, and uses these learning to develop and deliver resources, best practices, and education to advance housing in Canada.

Lucas Epp is the Vice President and Head of Engineering at StructureCraft and is a leader in the fields of timber engineering and computational design. His work has a deep focus on implementing efficient, sustainable structures through a computational and creative design approach – exemplified in projects such as the KF Aerospace Centre for Excellence at the Kelowna Airport, the Taiyuan Botanical Garden Domes in China (which won ACEC’s Award of Excellence and Ambassador Award, IStructE’s Structural Award, and ENR’s Global Best Project Award), and Beedie’s Fraser Mills Presentation Centre in Coquitlam. Lucas has lectured widely, and has taught at the Architectural Association, ETH, Imperial College, and the University of British Columbia. Lucas is also the founder of Branch — a software revolutionizing structural analysis, design, detailing and manufacturing for mass timber and beyond.

Marie Johansson has been working as a researcher at RISE since 2014. Here research areas at RISE have mainly been timber engineering, with areas such as tall timber buildings, connections, prefabrication and material properties.  Marie was the project coordinator for the international project DynaTTB – Dynamic Response of Tall Timber Buildings under Service loads as well as several national projects regarding Tall Timber buildings. She has a PhD from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden and has been Professor in Building Technology at Linnaeus University. 

Marjan is a Lead Scientist in the Building Systems Group at FPInnovations. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Wood Science at the University of British Columbia, and at the Centre for Integrated Wood Design, at the University of Northern British Columbia.

Marjan has 35 years of research and technical experience in seismic performance of buildings, specializing in mass timber buildings. He is an author and co-author of over 200 scientific and technical publications, textbook chapters, and special publications such as the Canadian Technical Guide for the Design of Tall Wood Buildings, two editions of the Canadian CLT Handbook, and the Canadian Technical Guide for Mid-rise Wood Frame Construction. He has been on the forefront of the introduction of CLT as structural material and system in Canada.

Over the years Marjan has been member of several Canadian and International Technical Committees (TCs), including CSAO86, the Canadian TC on Engineering Design in Wood, the National Building Code of Canada Standing Committee on Earthquake Design, and the Canada-Japan-USA Building Experts Committee.

A registered architect and mechanical engineer, Martin brings over two decades of experience and leadership to DIALOG design. His recent project work includes the new LEED® Gold certified Campus Energy Centre at UBC and the new Exchange Residence and UBC Bus Exchange at the university. He led the sustainable design strategy and LEED® certification process on the University of Calgary’s U-District neighbourhood, Canada’s largest ND Platinum project. Martin also led the rezoning of the Heather Lands, a 21-acre development in Vancouver with the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations, in partnership with Canada Lands Corporation.

Prior to joining DIALOG, Martin led the design and construction of UBC’s Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS), a LEED® Platinum certified and Living Building, considered one of the greenest institutional projects in North America. He has taught at the UBC School of Architecture and Faculty of Engineering and has served as chair of the UBC Advisory Urban Design Panel. Martin is currently serving on the Squamish Nation Advisory Design Panel and has served as chair on the City of Vancouver Urban Design Panel.

Matías Abergo is President and Co-founder of Arboreal, the largest Mass Timber facility in South America and the only one in Uruguay. With more than 16 years of experience in the construction industry, he is recognized as one of the region’s leading voices in the promotion of timber-based structural systems.

Driven by a strong commitment to decarbonizing the construction industry, Matías co-founded Arboreal to offer structural solutions based on renewable materials that capture and store carbon. His vision was to build a fully integrated operation combining structural engineering, BIM modeling, CLT and GLT production, and advanced CNC technology—supported by international certifications that ensure quality and traceability throughout the process.

As part of a strategic plan led by Matías and the founding team, Arboreal first acquired a pine sawmill located near forest plantations. The decision to place both the sawmill and the Mass Timber industrial facility on the same site was key to maximizing logistics efficiency and ensuring consistent access to raw material.

Today, Arboreal exports over 5,000 containers of pine products annually to more than 30 countries and contributes to architectural projects ranging from single-family homes to mid- and high-rise buildings. Through his leadership, Matías continues to drive the global expansion of Mass Timber as a scalable and sustainable alternative for the building industry.

Dr. Michael (Mike) Burnard was born in the USA where he worked in the forest sector for more than a decade. In 2013, Mike moved to Slovenia to complete his PhD. Now, Mike is the deputy director of the InnoRenew CoE, a research organisation creating solutions for sustainable construction with renewable materials. His research interests are focused on enhancing human health and using wood in the built environment as well as advancing sustainability through intelligent use of renewable resources, particularly in buildings. Mike also works in many other areas including business management, innovation, data science, and ICT. During his professional career in the US, Mike was a board member (6 years) and President (1 year) of the Portland Wholesale Lumber Association. He is now President InnovaWood, an international network of wood education and research organisations. Mike is an associate professor at the University of Primorska in Slovenia where he teaches and mentors students in sustainability, data science, ethics, and human health in the built environment.

Michael Green is an award-winning architect, speaker, and author known for using design to create meaningful, more sustainable built environments that benefit both people and planet.
A leader in wood and bio-based construction and innovation, he has completed some of the most significant timber buildings in the world, and has been recognized with over fifty international awards for design excellence, including the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Firm of the Year , Architizer’s Revolution in Design Award in 2023, Best in North America Firm Award in both 2021 and 2022, four Governor General’s Medals, two RAIC Innovation Awards, and the American Institute of Architects Innovation Award.
Michael lectures internationally on the future of design and construction, including his TED talks, “The Natural Building Blocks of Sustainable Architecture” in 2023 and “Why We Should Build Wooden Skyscrapers” in 2012. He serves as a government policy advisor on mass timber design and is the co-author of the first and second editions of ‘The Case for Tall Wood Buildings’ and ‘Tall Wood Buildings: Design, Construction and Performance.’
An avid traveler and adventurer, Michael has explored remote regions of every continent.These journeys through nature are what inspire his work.

A nationally and internationally recognized city builder, architect and urban strategist with over 30 years’ experience guiding organizations and leading diverse projects, Michael Heeney joined the Surrey City Development Corporation (SCDC) as President and CEO in 2017. He came to SCDC from Bing Thom Architects where he was Managing Principal. For over 28 years with that firm, he led local and international projects, often ones without precedent and in highly complex situations and jurisdictions. Amongst others, these projects included the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC, the Central City complex in Surrey, Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, Texas and Arena Stage in Washington DC.

Michael Sørensen is the Global Market Director at Henning Larsen. Based at the international design studio’s headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, he oversees strategic market development and client engagement. Previously, Michael led Henning Larsen’s New York studio for five years, directing projects across North America.   

As Design Director, he leads large-scale initiatives, collaborating with multinational teams to ensure a consistent design vision through all stages of design. His leadership reflects his belief that architecture should create meaningful human connections and positively impact communities. Michael’s portfolio includes notable projects such as the Downsview Framework Plan in Toronto which reimagines the 250-acre former airfield into a human-scale, people-first community.

Known for its holistic approach, Henning Larsen creates environments where transformative ideas flourish. The studio has earned prestigious accolades, including the International Architecture Award, Architizer A+ Awards, Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Award, and the Mies van der Rohe European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture. 

Dr. Li was trained as a structural timber engineer. Before joining UBC Wood Science, he was an associate professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. He has researched extensively on high-performance engineered wood products and connection systems, multi-storey mass timber and timber-steel hybrid structures. He has a strong interest in developing robust and innovative timber building solutions via experimental, analytical and numerical techniques.

Dr. Monireh Aram is a scientist in the Building Systems group at FPInnovations. She earned her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the Université de Sherbrooke in 2023, where her research focused on fire events related to building façades and smoke control in fires involving building-integrated photovoltaic systems. With extensive experience in modeling of complex building materials and experiments, she has been actively involved in research, modeling, and experimentation of timber structures, wood-based materials, and timber construction techniques since joining FPInnovations. Her work has resulted in several impactful articles, reports, as well as the development of guides and technical sheets

Nick Milestone. BSc. BSc (Hons) MSc. Is the Chief Operating Officer, for Mercer Mass Timber, Director of Wood Works USA and former Chairman of the Timber Research and Development Association UK (TRADA) and Vice Chair of Timber Development UK.

Prior to joining Mercer Mass Timber LLC, Nick was a main board Director of Remagin (Sigmat) UK Ltd. A hybrid Light Gauge Steel (CFS) and Mass Timber modular building system solution provider.

Nick previously held the position of Senior Vice President of the US Softwood Lumber board, Director for Mass Timber and Hybrid Solutions for Katerra Inc, North America and the Director for Off-Site and Innovation for the Wm Hare Group (UK, UAE and Singapore) developing building systems in Mass Timber, Structural Steel and load bearing Light Gauge Steel structures.

Following a brief spell working in Singapore for the Tiong Seng Construction Group in 2017. Nick was with the Bowmer & Kirkland construction group from 2002 to 2017 and was the Managing Director of B & K Structures Ltd, the UK’s largest and most successful structural steel and mass timber design and construction business, developing sustainable and low carbon building systems.

The learnings and innovations gathered from 39 years’ experience in the UK and international ‘off-site’ construction industry have helped develop a successful hybrid construction business utilizing the key components of structural steel, glulam, cross laminated timber, structural timber cassettes and light gauge steel framing technology for the residential, education, leisure, commercial and retail markets delivering over 350 landmark projects for Blue Chip Clients.

Through TRADA and in consultation with Industry heads such as Arup, Nick led the UK’s first ‘National Structural Timber Specification’ covering the design, manufacture and installation tolerances for solid wood construction, other key publications include The design and performance of Cross Laminated Timber and Hybrid Structures in construction.

Nick also led and chaired the working committee for the Mass Engineered Timber Handbook for Singapore, developed in conjunction with the BCA, building construction authority, Singapore

Nick has been in the construction industry since 1986, starting off as a trainee quantity surveyor progressing through to senior quantity surveyor / senior construction manager / construction director / managing director.

Notable accolades and awards include.

Winner of the UK National business award for innovation in mass timber / hybrid building systems – 2008

Finalist at the European business awards for innovation – 2009

Judge and award winner for the UK national structural timber awards

Advisor to.

Project Director – Nanyang Technical University, Mass Timber Structure, Singapore

Fellow of the Leeds Sustainability Institute, Leeds Beckett University, UK

Committee member of the Council for Tall Buildings in Urban Habitat (CTBUH) Chicago, USA

Build X Studio, A low cost affordable and social housing build system in mass engineered timber, Nairobi, Kenya

US Softwood lumber Board, Senior VP

Dr. Noureddine Bénichou is a Principal Research Officer at the National Research Council of Canada. He holds a Ph.D. from Carleton University in Civil and Environmental Engineering and has developed into an international fire expert through an extensive experience in the experimentation and modeling of fire phenomenon. His research areas include fire resistance modeling and experimentation of structures, fire safety in buildings, fire risk analysis, and wildfire impacts on the wildland-urban interface (WUI). He led and completed large R&D projects to advance understanding of fire conditions and its impact on the occupant population, and assessing this impact in terms of risk and cost, including projects on the development of tools, guides and standards to increase the resilience of the built environment against WUI fires. Dr. Bénichou is the author of over 350 technical publications. He was elected as a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2024, and received the 2023 Public Service Award of Excellence, the 2022 Fire Researcher of the Year from the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs in, and the 2021 Sjölin Award from the International FORUM of Fire Research Directors, for his global reputation and outstanding lifetime contributions to fire-safety engineering and practices.
Dr. Bénichou represents Canada in ISO Sub-Committee 4 on Fire Safety Engineering; is a member of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, and Conseil International du Bâtiment; and is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carleton University.

As founder of Fast + Epp, Paul Fast has emerged a leader in architecturally-exposed structures and is recognized for his unconventional use of materials, including hybrids of timber, concrete and steel. For over three decades, Paul has been the design lead for many of the firm’s most significant award winning projects, including the Richmond Olympic Oval, the Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre, the Kingsway Pedestrian Bridge, and the 18-storey Tallwood House at UBC. In 2021, he was awarded IStructE’s Gold Medal for his contributions to the advancement of structural engineering worldwide. Paul is a Clinical Professor at the College of Fine + Applied Arts, University of Illinois and is an Honourary Member of the Architectural Institute of B.C..

Paul is CEO of Built by Nature, a not-for-profit organisation whose vision is a built environment in unison with nature.  Previously Paul was Managing Director, Sustainability and Social Impact, Lendlease Europe. He was the founding CEO of the UK Green Building Council. Before that, he worked for WWF-UK as Director of Campaigns, Campaign Director for WWF’s One Million Sustainable Homes campaign and co-founder of One Planet Living. Paul was a trustee and Vice Chair of the Board of Centre for London, the city’s only dedicated think tank, and a director of BeOnsite, a not-for-profit focused on bringing unemployed people from disadvantaged backgrounds into sustained employment.  

Paul was Chairman of the public/private sector Zero Carbon Hub and a member of the Zero Carbon Homes 2016 Task Force, established by the UK Government to translate the zero carbon homes policy ambition into reality. He was a member of the UK Government’s Green Construction Board and Chair of its Buildings Working Group. On an international level, he was a member of the Board of the World Green Building Council and Chair of the WorldGBC Europe Network. 

Operations Director

Philipp was born in Switzerland, training first as a carpenter and foreman and then as a Project Manager for a Zurich-based Architectural office specialising in timber buildings. Philipp then studied at Bern University of Applied Science, Architecture, Wood & Civil Engineering in Biel, qualifying as a timber Structural Engineer in 2007. He went on to work at Blumer-Lehmann AG as a Project Engineer before moving to London to work as the Design Director at Eurban. He currently directs and manages Eurban’s team of Engineers and Architects.

Pierre is professor of timber design at the University of Auckland and Chief Technical Officer at Tectonus. He served as the Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 2011 to 2017. 

Structural engineer specializing in timber structures, Pierre’s expertise is with timber connections. 

His work on timber connections under earthquake loads led his research group to develop a resilient damper that re-centres buildings, reducing the need to demolish buildings following an earthquake event.  

He co-founded Tectonus in 2016 to commercialise the resilient damper and conducted R&D to demonstrate the damper advantages in steel, concrete and timber buildings (for new builds and retrofits). 

The resilient damper is in use in buildings in New Zealand, in Canada and under consideration for building projects in the USA and Japan. 

I’m part of the Green & Resilient Buildings team in the Sustainability division of Planning, Urban Design and Sustainability, where I’ve worked for twenty years. My work on green buildings includes creating incentives in Planning policy, reviewing applications, as well as advising staff, consultants, and applicants. Some of the topic areas I deal with are Passive House, mass timber, Net Zero energy standards, embodied carbon, and the related sections of the zoning by-law. 

Dr. Shiling Pei received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University in December 2007 and joined the faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado School of Mines in Fall 2013. His research focused on traditional and innovative timber systems, performance based engineering, structural dynamics, and large-scale testing. Dr. Pei received the 2012 ASCE Raymond C. Reese Research Prize for his work on a full-scale 7-story wood-steel hybrid building test at Japan’s E-defense shake table. He led the NHERI TallWood Project and completed shake table test of a full-scale 10-story mass timber building, which earned him recognition by Engineering News-Record as one of the 25 News Makers in 2023. Dr. Pei currently serves as the Chair of the ASCE Technical Committee on Wood Design, and also manages an Open Forum for timber engineering at https://timberengineering.org/

Shinobu Homma grew up in the Niigata Prefecture in Japan, in a household that practiced traditional Japanese joinery. He received his Bachelor of Technology in Architecture degree at the Tokyo University of Science before immigrating to Canada in 1980. He was the Technical Principal at Bing Thom Architects and then Revery Architecture for over 30 years, until his retirement in 2024.

Exuding endless energy, Shinobu is a respected mentor for the next generation of designers, with a breadth and depth knowledge of fine detailing, technical knowledge, and design sensitivity.

Shinobu is also a passionate and well-known volunteer in the community and was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013 for his service, achievements, and contributions to Canada.

Dr. Nakashima has a background in both engineering and agriculture. Before joining BRI Dept. of Structural Engineering, he engaged as JSPS research fellowship at RISH, Kyoto University, and served as an assistant professor at Utsunomiya University. His research focuses on the development of structural design methods for joints in mass timber buildings, as well as the seismic resilience performance of wooden structures, including both traditional wooden houses and modern mass timber buildings. 

Stéphane Viéban, a forestry engineer by training, began his career in Congo and then at the Regional Forest Property Center in Cantal. His time at the La Rochette Group (forestry operations and paper industry) allowed him to develop an interest in “environmental and quality” approaches and development projects.
In 2000, he entered the world of forestry cooperatives, which he has remained involved with ever since. For more than 20 years, he has worked on the structuring of forestry cooperatives in the southwestern quarter of France, starting with the management and development of the FORESTARN cooperative.   

By diversifying the activities of forestry cooperatives, he strengthened their roles and multiplied the services offered to cooperative members.
Since 2013, he has been the General Director of the Alliance Forêts Bois group, which has become the leading French forestry cooperative, a national leader in the management, silviculture, and harvesting of wood in private French forests. He is also responsible for numerous subsidiaries of the cooperative (nurseries, forest work companies, wood industries, etc.), all contributing to the group’s cooperative objectives: to add value to the production of its forestry members, while adapting their forests to current and future global changes (climatic, societal, health, etc.). 

Convinced of the importance of synergies to be developed with all the actors in the sector, he has also been actively involved in professional bodies throughout his career. He is currently the President of the Board of Directors of the technological institute of the French forest-wood sector: FCBA (Forest/Cellulose/Wood/Furniture). 

Since 2010, Stephen has been a leading champion for the mass timber industry in North America. As the Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Smartlam North America, he educates clients on the design possibilities and benefits of using mass timber as a sustainable alternative to concrete and steel. Stephen worked with the design leaders for companies like Google and Microsoft and helped them turn their mass timber goals into reality. He led the negotiation and implementation of mass timber for one of the tallest wood buildings in the world, Brock Commons in Vancouver Canada and played a key role in negotiating the largest wood constructed roof in North America at Rocky Ridge Recreation Center in Calgary, AB, Canada. Both projects won awards for their innovative use of mass timber.

As a member of the team that brought mass timber to North America, Stephen was responsible for developing an industry-standard design guide for architects and engineers to learn how to design with mass timber.

With his master’s degree in Wood Science and 30 years’ experience in the engineered wood industry, Stephen works with his clients to ensure the right engineered wood product is being used for the right application.  He takes great pride in the relationships he has built across North America, Asia and New Zealand and he maintains high levels of client retention.

Steve Pryor is a structural engineer from earthquake-prone California in the western region of the United States.  He has been with Simpson Strong-Tie for 27 years and currently serves as their Advanced Research Manager.  Prior to joining Simpson, Steve was a practicing structural engineer in California designing residential, commercial, and industrial facilities.  Steve has participated on a number of building code committees and has authored numerous papers.  With a career dedicated to understanding the seismic performance of structures, Steve has led Simpson’s partnerships with many universities in ground-breaking research into performance-based seismic design, soft-story retrofits, post-tensioned mass timber rocking walls, and has developed new structural steel lateral force resisting systems.  Along with many others at Simpson Strong-Tie, Steve has a passion for trying to find practical solutions to difficult structural problems. 

Born in London and raised in Jamaica, Steven studied biology at Western University and architecture at the AA, graduating with honours. As a partner with ArtBuild architects, he steers the development and application of bio-adaptive design principles, seeking new ways to fuse ethics and aesthetics. The practice’s internal Lab works with biologists, academics, industrialists, and research groups to develop biomimetic concepts which can be transferred to mainstream construction practice. Steven lectures widely on subjects that bridge biology and the built environment, exploring the very nature of intelligence informing architects and the building sector at large.

For more than 6 years I have been working at the FCBA as a research engineer and research coordinator of the timber construction department. Specialised in civil engineering and structural mechanics, my doctoral thesis focused on dynamics and finite element analysis. At the FCBA I lead projects on seismic behaviour of buildings, non-destructive testing, vibrations in lightweight floors and modelling of timber structures.

Thomas Tannert joined the University of Northern British Columbia in 2016 as BC Leadership Chair in Tall and Hybrid Wood Construction. He received his Ph.D. from UBC, a Master’s degree in Wood Science and Technology from the University of Bio-Bio in Chile, and a Civil Engineering degree from the Bauhaus-University Weimar in Germany. Before going to UNBC, he worked in multi-disciplinary teams in Germany, Chile, and Switzerland and at UBC Vancouver. Dr. Tannert holds a Canada Research Chair and is member of the executive of the technical committee for CSA O86 “Engineering Design in Wood

Tomoyuki Gondo has been working as a researcher at the University of Tokyo since 2017. He got a PhD from the University of Tokyo, Japan in 2011. He has served as a member of several national and association committees related to wooden architecture and resource utilization. His research areas include 1) the history of prefabricated housing and high-rise construction, 2) the field surveys on construction industries in several regions and countries, and 3) the development of new construction methods for complex shapes including tensegrity or bending active. He got the AIJ (Architectural Institute of Japan) Book Award twice. In his educational programs in graduate school, he integrated the design and construction process: the students constructed such GFRC (Glass-Fiber Reinforced Concrete) shell mock-ups, or they deconstructed empty houses in Japanese local island and designed from the reclaimed materials. 

Valérie Lasek is a senior official at the French Ministry of Ecology, where she has worked in the fields of planning, urban development, and construction, particularly focusing on sustainable cities. Since 2021, she has been leading the Bordeaux Euratlantique Public Development Authority, which has been committed to timber construction in the new districts south of Bordeaux since 2015. As co-organizer of Woodrise in Bordeaux in 2023, the EPA is a founding member of the French association Woodrise Vallée, which brings together industry stakeholders in a single location to accelerate training, research, and the integration of wood construction methods to decarbonize urban planning and the real estate sector.

Vanessa Mountain, a proud member of the N’quatqua Band of the St’at’imc Nation, carries the traditional name Kayaya. She has also been honored with the name T’sundi’gumgila’ogwa, gifted by her husband’s family.

Vanessa began her professional journey in the financial services sector, steadily advancing through leadership roles at a major financial institution. Her career evolved toward Indigenous economic development, where she designed and implemented programs that support capacity building within Aboriginal organizations. In particular, she has focused on fostering entrepreneurship by equipping individuals with access to capital and the business knowledge necessary for sustainable success.

In addition to her executive leadership, Vanessa contributes to several governance roles. She serves on the Board of Directors for The Bloom Group Society, which provides vital support services in Vancouver’s Downtown East side. She is also a Trustee for a significant trust on behalf of the St’at’imc Nation and was recently appointed to the Board of TTQ Development Corporation, the economic development entity of the Douglas First Nation.

Vanessa currently applies her diverse expertise in her role as Vice President of the BC Indigenous Land Development Society. She brings a strategic and community-centered approach to advancing Indigenous-led land development initiatives across British Columbia

Yuma Kuno joined Sumitomo Forestry from 2016 as one of the internal architects designing single-family custom-built houses using the Big-Frame method (Patented technology of Sumitomo Forestry) in Japan. He holds a master’s degree in architectural environmental engineering from Yokohama National University’s Institute of Urban Innovation with a strong interest in sustainability in architecture and community development. From 2021, he has been working alongside group developers of Sumitomo Forestry America, focused on driving the global mass timber initiatives and promoting Sumitomo Forestry’s WOOD Cycle in the United States.