The Role of Business Leaders: Developing Cities of the Future

Eric Karsh, Founding Principal, Equilibrium

Welcome by Master of Ceremonies

16:00 – 16:05

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.

Vanessa Mountain, VP Properties and Land Development, BC Indigenous Housing Society

Moderator

16:05 – 16:10

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 Housing Society. She brings a strategic and community-centered approach to advancing Indigenous-led land development initiatives across British Columbia

Valérie Lasek, Directrice Générale, EPA Bordeaux Euratlantique

Wood Construction is a Local Response to the Low Carbon City Challenge that Needs Public and Private Sectors Working Together

16:10 – 16:30

Valérie Lasek is a senior official at the French Ministry of Ecology, where she has worked in planning, urban development, and construction, particularly on sustainable cities. Since 2021, she has been leading the Bordeaux Euratlantique Public Development Authority, which has been committed to promoting 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.

Stéphane Vieban, Directeur Général, Alliance Forêts Bois

Wood Construction is a Local Response to the Low Carbon City Challenge that Needs Public and Private Sectors Working Together

16:10 – 16:30

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).

Yuma Kuno, Architectural Specialist, Sumitomo Forestry America

Introduction to Sumitomo Forestry Global Timber Initiative

16:30 – 16:50

Yuma Kuno joined Sumitomo Forestry in 2016 as one of the internal architects designing single-family custom-built houses using the Big-Frame method (a 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. Since 2021, he has worked alongside group developers of Sumitomo Forestry America, and is focusing on driving the global mass timber initiatives and promoting Sumitomo Forestry’s WOOD Cycle in the United States.

Anna Ervast Öberg, Operating Manager, Folkhem

Scalable Wood Innovation as Business Strategy for Housing Development

16:50 – 17:10

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, was a research student at the University of Tokyo and completed a 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 on developing the projects, portfolio, and the position of the company. Building expertise with the developer’s perspective within 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 to and manifest a push for the development of the sector. This means initiating and participating in several innovative research projects, such as the Eu-financed project Woodcircles, multidisciplinary collaborations and learning through the projects and development of the portfolio.

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

Vanessa Mountain, VP Properties and Land Development, BC Indigenous Housing Society

Q&A

17:10 – 17:30

Eric Karsh, Founding Principal, Equilibrium

Closing Remarks

17:30 – 17:40