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Jessica Kelley lives in the Pennsylvania farm house she grew up in, and that her Mom also grew up in.  Her two-year-old son is the fourth generation in that house.  While she is obviously honours her traditions, she is also one of the great pioneers and innovators in our lean community.  She participated in the first IPD project with Sutter, helped drive the most successful Community of Practice in Northern California for LCI and worked with mechanical design/build leader Southland Corporation.  She is now director of Lean Delivery at Merck Pharmaceutical and joins us on the podcast to talk about what Owners need from the design and construction supply chain.

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There is much talk these days about women in construction. How about a woman who’s name is synonymous with thought leadership in construction?  Iris Tommelein describes herself as a secular humanist. She balks at being called the high priestess but she surely is a Grand Dame of lean construction. She leads, and founded with Glenn Ballard in 2005, the Project Production Systems Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley.  At Berkeley, she has guided, mentored and presided over the PhD journeys of some of the Lean Community’s most well-known academicians and luminaries.  

She was one of four founders of the Lean Construction Institute in 1997. She is among the leaders of the International Group for Lean Construction. The Project Production Institute recently recognized her with their 2022 Technical Achievement Award.  LCI recognized her with their prestigious Pioneer’s Award in 2015. She has been a member of the National Academy of Construction since 2019.  Join Dick Bayer as he spends an hour with the legendary Dr. Tommelein. 

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Will Lichtig is Executive VP and Chief of Staff at The Boldt Company. Many know Will by his informal title, "Chief Provocateur."  Will was the author of the original Integrated Form of Agreement and has been central to the development and implementation of lean processes for target value design, lean production planning and control, Built in Quality, lean problem solving, and other key processes that provide innovative approaches to project delivery.  Saying that he is a leader in the lean and integrated project delivery movement almost understates his importance to our community. He is a former Board member of the Lean Construction Institute and recipient of the 2nd Pioneer Award from LCI that “ recognizes individuals who have moved the design and construction industry forward in embracing and implementing Lean tools and techniques.”  He was preceded only by Greg Howell and Glenn Ballard.

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Dr. Andreas Phelps is an original thinker of the first order.  He has a phd in Construction Management from Penn State University and is the CEO of the Collective Potential.  He lives with his talented wife and two incredible kids off the grid in a tiny house in the Bay Area.  His Tiny House Presentation at the 2021 LCI Congress was so popular he was brought back to this year’s Congress to keynote the opening of the Congress, speaking on intentionality and leadership.  Join us as we discuss living an intentional life that is intentionally lean.

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Mike Casten started his construction career as a carpenters’ apprentice before attending Colorado State University as an Industrial Construction Management major.  He was working with Hensel Phelps when he was introduced to time lapse photography and Greg Howell.  He was an early pioneer in the quest for improvement of the productivity of the work at the construction crew level overall as well as overall project performance. Over the last forty plus years he has provided consulting services on projects of every size and type all across the US as well as in Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela.  He is currently completing a book on Crew Centered Construction.  Join us as we discuss improving the predictability and reliability of project work flow, the optimizing effectiveness and efficiency of the work at the crew level while supporting a culture of continuous improvement.

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Gerry McCabe is the Managing Director of Turner and Townsend in Canada.  He was a founding member of his own company that was acquired by Turner and Townsend in 2010.  He grew up in Belfast during the “troubles.”  He came to Canada to visit relatives originally and decided to stay.  He’s a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and one of the most interesting people you’ll meet.  Come join as we chat about how to estimate the cost of something that hasn’t been designed and what to look for in Canadian Supply Chains in the next 5 years.

View the PPI website:
https://projectproduction.org/

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Gary Fischer is currently the Executive Director of the Project Production Institute (PPI). After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University he spent 40 years in Chevron’s capital projects organization. Gary was responsible for Chevron’s project management system and led the group that provided functional expertise across the corporation’s capital projects portfolio. He pioneered Chevron’s implementation of Project Production Management on capital projects which he shares with us in this episode of the Podcast.

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Jennifer Kahn has been working at Ellis Don for more than a decade, focusing on inclusion, diversity and  people and culture.  In April, she was named Vice President with that same portfolio.  “I am proud to be part of the ongoing education, awareness and real conversations on Inclusive Diversity at EllisDon,” she says. “As a working mother of two boys, a visible minority with immigrant parents, who’s married to a Canadian Muslim, diversity is part of my everyday life and I hope to continue to provide a safe space for all employees to feel seen and heard.”  She joins us to discuss all those issues with a candidness and perspicacity we think you’ll enjoy.

Mark Konchar learned how to collaborate, growing up playing hockey.  He is one of the PhD’s that Victor Sanvido turned out of Penn State that has so influenced our community.  He and Victor collaborated on an early Design Build Study sponsored by the Construction Industry Institute.  He’s a co-author of Change Your Space, Change Your Culture with Rex Miller and others.  Mark served as chair of the Board of the Lean Construction Institute and was Balfour Beatty’s Chief Innovation Officer for a decade.  Now a senior vice president in charge of BB’s rail unit, he’s helping develop that much needed aspect of infrastructure.  And he’s a hockey coach for his kid’s team and, btw, in the Penn State Hockey Hall of Fame.  Enjoy an hour with Mark Konchar.

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