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LaShira Champion King never applied to work at Walbridge. She got a call for an internship she had not asked for, planned to be an architect in a black turtleneck, and instead became the company's lean champion because her managing director liked how "our lean champion is L. Champion" sounded in a meeting. Twenty years later she is Director of Quality, Lean, and Innovation at one of the largest privately held builders in the country, and the resident systems thinker in a 110-year-old firm.
Carolina sat down with her solo to ask what a quality and lean leader actually does on a job site, and got a story she did not expect: a burly superintendent, tough as nails, in tears at the end of an ISO audit. Not because of the non-conformance. Because, in his words, "I wish I could describe myself the way you just described me."
That line changed how LaShira does everything, and it is the thread through the whole episode.
In this episode:
LaShira is a repeat featured speaker at Advancing Construction Quality, September 21 to 23, 2026 in Phoenix. Use code BUILDPERSPECTIVES10 for 10% off registration.
Build Perspectives is co-hosted by Carolina Baffigo and Tim Seims. Each episode is designed to give you immediate value while introducing you to the people broadening perspectives in the construction industry.
Callie Johns went to Northern Arizona University undeclared until her uncle staged an intervention over dinner. Ten years later she is a Quality Manager at JE Dunn, running the quality program on a hyperscale data center in Ohio after stints in Phoenix, Oregon, and Austin. She started as a project engineer, hated pushing change orders, fell in love with the exterior enclosure mock-up, and asked to move into quality right as COVID hit. When her boss quit three months into her first quality role, her dad told her to throw her hat in the ring. She did.
Carolina and Tim sat down with Callie to find out what the quality manager on your job site is actually thinking when she walks up to your installer, and what she wants from the manufacturers whose products she inspects.
The short answer: she is not a quality cop, she does more homework than your rep, and she holds the warranty.
We get into the modular unit vendor who sealed a penetration on one side and could not see why both mattered, the "just put a bead of butyl" answer that fails in two years, the client-mandated quality collaborative where competing GCs share lessons learned, and why substitutions are the best reset button a project gets. Then Callie answers our closing question with the thing she thinks the industry should be talking about: the learning opportunities we walk past every day because nobody takes the ten minutes.
In this episode:
Callie is speaking on the emerging leaders panel at Advancing Construction Quality. Find her on LinkedIn.
This episode is supported by Advancing Construction Quality, September 21 to 23, 2026 in Phoenix. Use code BUILDPERSPECTIVES10 for 10% off registration.
Also supported by Project Fluent, field-ready sales training for people new to construction sales, at spectoscale.com/project-fluent.
Build Perspectives is co-hosted by Carolina Baffigo and Tim Seims. Each episode is designed to give you immediate value while introducing you to the people broadening perspectives in the construction industry.
Matthew Biehl is a Senior Construction Risk Engineering Consultant at AXA XL, the largest provider of subcontractor default insurance in the country. He paid for college loading plywood and laminate at a lumberyard, spent years on the general contractor side including a run as a director of QC, and now walks job sites for the insurer that reimburses GCs when a sub goes down. Which means he sits on something almost nobody else in our industry has: the claims data on why subcontractors actually fail.
Carolina and Tim asked him to open it up.
The headline number: when AXA XL runs a real root cause on a default, 70% of the issues happened before a shovel ever got in the ground. The top three causes are schedule and manpower, insolvency, and a third one that keeps creeping up the list: quality. And more and more of those quality notices trace back to equipment and material that showed up on site missing parts or not working. Matt's advice to his GC partners is to go audit the manufacturer. If you make a building product, this episode is about you.
In this episode:
Find Matt on LinkedIn:
He is speaking at Advancing Construction Quality, September 21 to 23, 2026 in Phoenix.
Use code BUILDPERSPECTIVES10 for 10% off registration.
Build Perspectives is co-hosted by Carolina Baffigo and Tim Seims.
Each episode is designed to give you immediate value while introducing you to the people broadening perspectives in the construction industry.
Corey Zussman is a forensic architect who crossed over to the contractor side in 2006, when almost nobody was doing it. Today he is QA/QC Vice President at AECOM Hunt, with 30+ years, more than 2,000 projects, 200 published Lessons Learned, and over 500 AIA presentations behind him. Carolina sat down with him solo (Tim was out) to find out what a quality professional sees that the rest of us miss.
The short answer: it is never the product. It is what happens next.
We get into the joint between two cladding systems that nobody was contracted to own, the multimillion-dollar surgical pavilion floor that failed because nobody tested the old roof underneath it, the waterproofing rep who confidently spec'd the wrong product over an electrical room, and the sealant that passed the entire submittal process even though its own limitations said it could not go in CMU. Then Corey answers our closing question with the thing he thinks the whole industry should be talking about: the "industry standards" we follow because we always have, even when the code, or the chemistry, says otherwise.
In this episode:
Corey's Lessons Learned, bulletins, and speaking schedule live on the AECOM Hunt QA/QC page.
Find him on LinkedIn.
This episode is supported by Advancing Construction Quality, September 21 to 23, 2026 in Phoenix.
Use code BUILDPERSPECTIVES10 for 10% off registration.
Build Perspectives is co-hosted by Carolina Baffigo and Tim Seims. Each episode is designed to give you immediate value while introducing you to the people broadening perspectives in the construction industry.
Turner Construction is the largest general contractor in North America, the number-one green builder 17 years running, and carries a net zero Scope 1, 2, and 3 commitment for 2040. Imani Hamilton is the person working the supply chain side of that promise. In this episode we sit down with Turner's Sustainable Supply Chain Manager for a conversation that runs from product design to procurement power — because before this seat, Imani spent a decade as a sustainable design consultant helping manufacturers build low-carbon, low-toxin, low-waste products. She has been on both sides of the table, and it shows.
We cover:
Her message to the big, established brands that have relied on name and track record: table stakes are EPDs now. Where product category rules don't exist yet (MEP is a massive data gap), pre-competitive collective action — like NRMCA's industry EPD calculator — is how categories catch up.
Whether you're on the manufacturer side trying to stay on the bid list, the GC side building your carbon literacy, or the capital side looking for supply chains worth funding — this is the episode.
Episode SponsorBrought to you by Hanson Wade's Advancing Construction event series and Project Fluent. Imani spoke on the Day 1 panel "Bridging Owner Ambitions with Construction Reality" at Advancing Construction Decarbonization in Denver.
Discount code: BUILDPERSPECTIVES10 for the upcoming
Advancing Construction Quality event in Phoenix, AZ
Register here.
Connect
In this episode of Build Perspectives, we sit down with KP Reddy. Investor, civil engineer, author, and one of the clearest thinkers in construction tech.
We get into the real questions founders should be asking: What makes a problem venture-fundable? Why does pricing determine your visibility? And why do so many startups build for the wrong customer?
KP started coding at 13 on an IBM PC his father handed him, funded his first startup on a Discover card, and pivoted a 1996 web-based project management tool into telecom - two people to 1,200 and an IPO in three years. Three decades later he's writing checks into material science, robotics, and the hard problems some VCs won't touch.
We explore:
If you're a founder, VC, builder, or building products leader, this is a masterclass in thinking clearly about innovation, adoption, and creating businesses that survive market cycles.
Links:
KP Reddy
Books
The AEC Summit
Also mentioned
Build Perspectives
Timestamps:
01:00 — Second-generation civil engineer, an IBM PC at 13, and being told he'd replace his dad's whole team 03:30 — The first startup: 1996, web-based project management, and a general contractor telling him the internet was a fad 04:30 — "My first investor was Discover" — credit card limits and the WorldCom pivot that took him from 2 to 1,200 people 06:15 — Pricing as a visibility strategy: why $29/month goes nowhere and $50,000 gets you the CFO 08:00 — Targeting the wrong customer: ICON, $300K starter homes, and why the second move-up buyer was the real market 09:45 — Why anything new can't launch into the affordable segment — the iPhone analogy and the 50-acres-with-a-creek pattern 13:20 — OneBuild: cataloging panels, 3D printing, and offsite methods into SKUs, then handing builders the integration layer they don't have R&D teams to build 16:45 — Why 25-year-olds think in brand: "Powered by OneBuild" 17:45 — Why real estate investors make terrible VCs — and why he never asks early-stage companies about revenue 20:00 — Monumental Labs, robots chiseling stone, and why our buildings got so boring 21:00 — The lost trades: masonry, constrained labor, and why every building looks the same 22:20 — The sushi-in-Kansas-City theory of building materials distribution 23:45 — Material science as the industry's real unlock — and why AI-driven drug discovery is the model 25:00 — Greenbuild, adoption curves, and how green went from specialty catalog to core catalog 26:30 — Three reasons KP isn't sold on EVs 28:40 — Highway 1, the daily drive as meditation, and the ranch he almost bought 32:45 — The Summit, year nine — and Vibethon: 18 teams who'd never written code, 14 working prototypes in six hours 34:45 — Why every non-technical SaaS CEO should clear two days and try to build their own product 36:00 — What he looks for before writing a check: pattern of thinking, not domain credentials 37:00 — "I worked at Turner for 15 years, so this is the answer" — the trap of experiential product design 38:15 — "You're not venture fundable" is not an insult, it's permission to own more of your company 39:45 — Why he stays in this industry: investors who write $20K checks because they want you to succeed 43:30 — The incubator model: 20 companies, no exit pressure, and the CEO role he's hiring for 46:00 — Three books, a fourth in progress — and why he's writing fiction 47:50 — The Carolina Question: most AEC leadership is C+, and it's because tenure is the promotion criteria
Joe Rozza, Chief Sustainability Officer at Ryan Companies, doesn't run a sustainability strategy. He runs a sustainability business strategy, and the difference is the whole episode.
Joe spent almost half his career at Coca-Cola managing water risk across 1,000 plants in 200 countries before bringing that methodology into commercial real estate. Now he's applying it at a $5B developer-builder-owner: sustainability in the BD pipeline, decarbonization roadmaps for 23 classes of construction materials, and buildings designed to the same secondary modifiers insurers use to price flood, hail, and wind.
In this episode:
Resources:
Build Perspectives is made possible by Spec to Scale and the Advancing Construction Event series. Join us at Advancing Construction Decarbonization in Denver, July 28–30. 10% discount code: BUILDPERSPECTIVES10
LEED V5 got pushed to June 30, 2027 — and if your team hears "delay" and relaxes, you're going to be underwater. In this episode we sit down with Kristin Brubaker, Head of Sustainable Construction Solutions at Green Badger, to walk the industry through what actually changes and what a smart GC, sustainability director, or building product manufacturer should be doing with the runway.
Kristin brings her environmental science background, four years at Whiting-Turner, and a front-row seat to thousands of LEED projects into a conversation that is equal parts masterclass and gut check. We cover:
Why sustainability submittals are still one of the most manual, RFI-heavy pain points in construction — and how Green Badger's 125,000+ product database (now integrated with EC3 and the HPD Collaborative) removes the busywork
The mandatory embodied carbon assessment coming in V5 for structure, enclosure, and hardscape — and the carbon literacy your GC team needs to build now
The commingled waste shake-up: new third-party facility rules, the East Coast / West Coast infrastructure gap, and what it means for anyone building data centers or campuses in the middle of the country
The product selection credit that just tripled in scope — from documenting a few products to tracking every product in a category
Buy Clean: the nine-state policy putting embodied carbon thresholds on public projects with real teeth
The single most important document a building product manufacturer can invest in right now (hint: it's a product-specific Type 3 EPD)
Green Badger Academy — the free sustainability curriculum designed for the project engineer, APM, or rep who just got handed a LEED project
Whether you're on the GC side wondering how to prepare your teams, on the manufacturer side trying to stay on the shortlist, or on the ownership side making the business case — this is the episode.
Episode SponsorBrought to you by Hanson Wade's Advancing Construction Decarbonization. Denver, July 28–30, 2026. Kristin is speaking on day one and Green Badger has a table throughout. Use the 10% discount code below to register.
Discount code: BUILDPERSPECTIVES10
Register: HERE
ConnectKristin Brubaker on LinkedIn
Green Badger: https://getgreenbadger.com
Green Badger Academy
We're joined by Denyse Von Opbergen, Director of Climate and Sustainability at EllisDon — one of Canada's largest general contractors — to work through what decarbonizing construction actually looks like inside a project, not on a slide.
Denyse walks us through the influence-versus-control frame she uses to move the needle on scope 3 emissions a contractor can't dictate, the "no silver bullet" filter that weighs Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) against lead time, cost, and constructability, and why the transition to a decarbonized industry doesn't run brown-to-green — it runs through the murky green middle, including the roads and infrastructure that make sustainability possible in the first place.
What we cover:
Chapters:
About the guest: Denyse Von Opbergen is Director of Climate and Sustainability at EllisDon, one of the largest general contractors in Canada. She started in public policy in the Netherlands, moved through consulting in Toronto, and now runs EllisDon's climate strategy across a decentralized global construction business. Denyse will be a headliner at Advancing Construction Decarbonization in Denver, July 28-30.
About Build Perspectives: Build Perspectives is a podcast for building products sales leaders, construction executives, and the investors and innovators shaping where the industry goes next. Hosted by Carolina Baffigo (Spec to Scale, Project Fluent) and Tim Seims (Profit Arc). New episodes weekly.
Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Advancing Construction Decarbonization in Denver, July 28-30.
Homepage: https://ter.li/flqg1e1v Full Event Guide: https://ter.li/u995rat5 Registration: https://ter.li/7ioh2p6wUse Discount code BUILDPERSPECTIVES10 for 10% off admission.
Connect:
Recorded live at Advancing Prefabrication 2026 in Dallas, Tim walks the expo floor with James Haas, who leads modular and prefab efforts at Nichiha. (At the time of recording, Tim was also wearing a Nichiha hat. He's since moved on to a new adventure.)
The conversation everyone's having at Advancing Prefab this year? Data centers. But not the windowless boxes of yesteryear, municipalities are now mandating warmer, more inviting exteriors, and grid entropy is forcing data centers closer to urban cores where looks actually matter. That's a facade opportunity hiding in plain sight.
James pulls back the curtain on Nichiha's new AIA-certified CEU course tackling the industry's oldest bugaboo: mate line and plate line transitions. The unlock is a deceptively simple two-piece trim - base plate installed in the factory, face plate popped on after modules are stacked and stitched - letting manufacturers ship facades 85–90% complete instead of leaving whole panel runs off for field weaving. Proof points range from 7 Brew coffee shops delivered with 100% of the facade installed to major healthcare expansions hitting 80–90% factory completion.
CATCH THE LATEST IN MEP PREFAB Advancing Electrical Prefabrication: Dallas, July 22–24, 2026 Listeners get 10% off with code BPMP63295 https://advancing-electrical-prefabrication.com/
Also in this episode:
Thanks to our sponsors ProjectFluent and Advancing Prefabrication (Hanson Wade) for making this episode free for listeners. Connect with James Haas on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-haas-0a4832b0/ to learn more about Nichiha's prefab facade solutions.
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