David Alexander,
Councillor
City of Welland

David Alexander is a two-term Councillor in the City of Welland, Ontario.  For the past five years he has been elected by his peers to the Board of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.  He is Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and an active member of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.  David just finished a four year run as a judge of the FCM-CH2MHill Canadian Sustainable Communities Awards and was voted as Canada’s EcoCouncillor of the Year for 2005.  David is appointed to the Provincial Task Force on Climate Change with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.  David teaches at Brock University and he is a Community Advisor to Brock University’s Niagara Community Observatory, their locally-focused academic institute. He is involved in local organizations including the United Way and Welland Rotary.

Prior to his current experiences he was Professor of Environmental Management at Niagara College and the Senior Project Manager – Environmental for the Regional Municipality of Niagara.  Other key highlights of note include is work with the United Nations: editing the UNEP State of the Environment Report 1972-1992, the scientific and policy briefing for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio, Brazil.  In 2005 he was in Montreal for the UNFCCC and was instrumental in crafting the Municipal Leaders Declaration on Climate Change.

Thomas Beard,
Assistant Director of Community Operations,
Government of NWT

Thomas Beard manages the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Municipal and Community Affairs’ Financial Policy and Infrastructure Financing unit, providing NWT community governments with advice and assistance with respect to infrastructure development and financing activities.
Thomas graduated from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1994 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and is a Certified Management Accountant.  Thomas has worked with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs since he moved to Yellowknife in September of 2000.  Thomas has held various positions with Municipal and Community Affairs starting as a Senior Financial Advisor working directly with all 33 community governments on their financial planning and reporting and still holds a statutory appointment by the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs as a municipal inspector.  In 2003 Thomas was given a special assignment to explore innovative financing models to support the development of Community Public Infrastructure in the NWT, negotiate with the Government of Canada on new or revised Municipal Infrastructure funding agreements, and revamp the financial policy framework that distributes Departmental funding in excess of $75 million to communities - this lead to the establishment of the Financial Policy and Infrastructure Financing unit that Thomas is now responsible for.

Most recently, Thomas has taken the position of Assistant Director, Community Operations and is tasked with driving continuity between policy development and its ultimate operational impacts on community governments as well as integration within Community Operations’ multi-disciplined environment – from governance, to financial planning, to community public infrastructure planning and financing to policy development.  Thomas is also the Co-Chair to the Government of the Northwest Territories’ Innovation Working Group, which has been tasked by its Financial Management Board to explore innovation in infrastructure development across all GNWT departments.

Russell Crook,
Asset Management Program Coordinator,
City of Red Deer

Russell Crook has a diverse background in municipal operations over thirteen years at the County of Wetaskiwin in Alberta, initially in Public Works (roads) Department, then as the Director of Environmental Services (water, wastewater and solid waste).  For the past seven years he has worked at the City of Red Deer, in Land and Economic Development and, since 2008 has been managing the development of the Enterprise Asset Management Program .

Russell holds a Graduate Diploma in Management form Athabasca University and will receive a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Athabasca University by the time the conference is held.  His academic, and professional, interests are in demonstrating value to taxpayers from enterprise asset management programs and managing linear assets on a right of way basis rather than individually.

Russell is a senior member of the International Right of Way Association and serves on its International Asset Management Committee.

Richard Edwards,
Board Member of the Institute of Asset Management and
Deputy Chair of the Asset Management Committee,
European Federation of National Maintenance Societies (London, UK)

Richard Edwards is a Chartered Engineer who provides strategic advice to a range of infrastructure owners and regulators on the application and benefits of asset management and other business related issues. After graduating from Oxford University he worked in the rail industry for 15 years before moving into strategic asset management consultancy.  He has been a Director of AMCL for 12 years and has been the nominated Independent Reporter for Asset Management to Network Rail and the Office of Rail Regulation in the UK since 2005.  Richard is a Board Member of the Institute of Asset Management and the deputy chairman of the EFNMS Asset Management Committee. 

Perry Heath,
Manager of Infrastructure and Project Management,
Government of NWT

Perry Heath is the Manager of Capital Planning and Infrastructure for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, Government of the Northwest Territories.  Perry’s role includes Project Management, Strategic Policy Development, Asset Management, Preventative Maintenance and Management of the Departments Community Public Infrastructure Capital Program.
 
Perry has been involved in municipal sector for his whole career starting out as the project technologist with small municipalities in eastern Canada, then moving on to a project management role with the construction industry focusing on Municipal and Transportation Related work.  Perry has been with Municipal and Community Affairs for six years.  Two of these six years was spent in a regional setting providing direct support to five community governments, and the remaining four years has been at a headquarters level providing support to all five NWT regions and thirty-three community governments.

Perry is a Certified Project Management Professional and a Certified Engineering Technologist and is currently pursuing an MBA in Project Management. He is a part of the team responsible for the development and review of the policy framework that distributes Community Public Infrastructure funding to communities.   This new policy framework is a significant changes to the way that business, and in particular the development of community public infrastructure, has been done with NWT communities.  As part of the development of the policy framework, Municipal and Community Affairs entered into a range of pilot projects with community governments.  Perry is the Departmental lead on these pilot projects.

His portfolio also includes the management of the Department’s innovative projects including projects surrounding profit center procurement, vertical and horizontal bundling.

David Lapp, P.Eng.
Manager, Professional Practice,
Engineers Canada

David graduated with a bachelor’s degree in geological engineering from the University of Toronto in 1978. He is a professional engineer, registered in Ontario and presently works as Manager, Professional Practice with Engineers Canada and has been part of the Secretariat to the Canadian Engineering Qualifications Board since 1997.

His current work focuses on environment and sustainability issues as they relate to the practice of engineering. He has worked in the area of climate change adaptation and engineering since 2001. Responsibilities include the implementation of a 2004 engineer’s national action plan on climate change impact and adaptation, including a long-term project to evaluate the engineering vulnerability of public infrastructure to the impacts of climate change. Since 2007, David provides the Secretariat for the World Federation of Engineering Organizations Standing Committee on Engineering and the Environment, chaired by Engineers Canada.

Zoubir Lounis,
Senior Research Officer & Group Leader,
National Research Council Canada

Dr. Lounis is a Senior Research Officer and Group Leader in the Urban Infrastructure Research Program of the National Research Council Canada. His research interests are in risk-based infrastructure management, service life modeling of bridges, and bridge design, evaluation and maintenance.   He has authored/co-authored over 100 publications in Journals, conference proceedings, book chapters, and research reports.

He served as a principal investigator and project manager on several projects related to the life cycle performance assessment and management of infrastructure systems with emphasis on deterioration modeling, safety assessment, and maintenance optimization of concrete highway bridge structures.  He developed  models for the analysis, design , service life prediction and  management of  bridge structures as part of research projects that  included the  Decision support tools for life cycle management of highway bridge decks; Model framework  for performance assessment and management of Canada’s core public infrastructure; Life cycle environmental impact analysis of concrete structures; Survey for assessment of state of Canada’s core public infrastructure; Assessment of the causes of failure of a long span box girder bridge.  

Dr. Lounis is the recipient of the ASCE T.Y. Lin Award; CSCE Award of Excellence; and was nominated for the 2005 NOVA Award.  

He is a member of the ASCE-SEI Committee on Risk-Based Decision-Making; ASCE-T&DI Infrastructure Management Committee; IABSE-FIB-RILEM Joint Committee on Structural Safety (JCSS);  ACI Committee on Service Life; ACI Advisory Board on Sustainable Development; Durability Sub-Committee of the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code;  Structures Standing Committee of Transportation Association of Canada; Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee; Editorial Board of ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems.

David Macleod,
Senior Environmental Specialist,
City of Toronto

David is a Senior Environmental Specialist in the Toronto Environment Office, where he leads projects to help City divisions manage environmental risks.   He has worked for the City of Toronto for over six years and his main focus now is climate change risk management.

David is a Certified Environmental Auditor and Environmental Management System Lead Auditor, in the field of ISO 14001 and regulatory compliance.  Prior to joining the City, David was an environmental management consultant to over a dozen industry sectors in Canada and the US, nearly all of which operated major built assets.  David was an Adjunct Professor at Ryerson University, teaching in the field of Environmental Management Systems.  He maintains strong ties with local universities in an advisory and liaison capacity for the City.

Don MacIver,
Mayor,
Township of Amaranth

Don MacIver is the Mayor of the Municipality of Amaranth and  a County Councilor in Dufferin County. Over the last ten years in politics, Don has served as Chair of Public Works, Fire Boards, and Police Services Boards and served on Provincial Offences Boards, Waste Management Committees, Community Development Committees, Economic Development Committees,  Museum Boards and Budget Committees.

Don MacIver is also the Director of the Adaptation and Impacts Research  Division  at  Environment Canada.   He has a long and distinguished research record with over 100 scientific publications to his credit and the Nobel Peace Prize. Don has considerable international experience having represented Canada at numerous scientific meetings of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), UNFCCC Conference of the Parties, Inter American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), World Meteorological Organization (eg. Co-Chair of the Organizing Committee for the World Climate Conference – 3), UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.  He has been a Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution. Don has served as a Professor at York University and as an adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto.   He worked as a Forest Biometrician and Mensurationist at the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources before joining Environment Canada as a forest meteorologist and adaptation scientist.

Outside of work, Don has Chaired two Environmental Groups and with his family has been a farmer for over 30 years.

Sherry Magnuson,
Chief Administrative Officer,
Town of Kindersley, Saskatchewan

Sherry has been the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for the Town of Kindersley since September 2007. Prior to entering the municipal sector, Sherry operated her own research, facilitation and communication consulting business for two years. During the 1990s, Sherry worked in the Saskatchewan regional college system in a number of positions, including industry program coordination, marketing and research, enrolment management and corporate planning.

From 1998-2004, Sherry served as Executive Director of the Southeast Education Foundation, based in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, focusing on fund development and fundraising to support post-secondary education and training.

Sherry is trained in mediation and group facilitation and has served on a number of boards, clubs and committees at the local and provincial level, in Saskatchewan.

Michael Mortimer, P. Eng,
Program Manager – Built Environment Standards,
Canadian Standards Association

Mike Mortimer is Program Manager, Construction and Structures Standards, at the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). His group supports approximately 1,000 volunteer experts and more than 300 standards related to buildings and other civil infrastructure. Since early 2005, Mike has been involved in numerous capacity-building initiatives in order to foster change in codes and standards, facilitating climate change adaptation, and more sustainable built municipal infrastructure. This work continues today.

CSA works with industry, government, academia and consumers to develop a range of standardized approaches to improve safety, quality, performance, environmental stewardship, climate change adaptation responses, and competitiveness in the areas of buildings and built civil infrastructure works.

Canadian Standards Association publishes more than 2,600 standards, along with numerous training programs. CSA has 9,000 members, many of whom serve as volunteer experts on a wide variety of CSA technical committees. CSA is an operating division of CSA Group.

CSA Group is an independent, not-for-profit membership association serving business, industry, government and consumers. Other operating divisions are:  CSA International, which provides product testing and certification services, and OnSpeX, a provider of consumer product testing, inspections and advisory services.

Norah Prior,
President,
Prior & Prior Associates Ltd.

Norah Prior, the President and a principal of Prior & Prior Associates Ltd., founded the company in 1980 to provide technology consulting services. Since that time, she has been active in the provincial and municipal sectors, with personal consulting and providing project management services. As a senior project manager, she often leads Prior & Prior consulting teams, such as the Red Deer Enterprise Asset Management and the York Region Asset Management & Service Delivery Strategy projects. Norah Prior has been able to rely on experience gained in hundreds of municipal assignments and IT and GIS Strategic Plans.

The asset management gap analysis process is a critical first step to understanding the focus and culture surrounding infrastructure management. Many of Norah’s consulting assignments work towards enabling municipal programs through business re-engineering and technology. When time permits, she is an avid cook and cottager.

Gordon Sparks,
Department of Civil Engineering,
University of Saskatchewan

Dr. Gordon Sparks is a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He holds a B.Sc. (University of Alberta) 1967, M.Sc. (University of California, Berkeley) 1969, and a Ph.D. (University of California, Berkeley) 1971. Dr. Sparks has over 30 years experience in contract research and consulting in the area of transportation engineering, engineering economics, decision analysis and asset management. Dr. Sparks recently completed a multi – year research program funded by ISIS Canada on Life Cycle Engineering & Costing related to infrastructure. In addition to his teaching and research at the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. Sparks is a Managing Partner, with Vemax Management Inc., a Canadian - based company with offices in Saskatoon and Edmonton as well as Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. VEMAX provides and supports the Asset Management Systems used by two Provincial Highway Departments in Canada as well as several cities in Canada and a number of Counties and Shires in Australia.  In addition to being a registered professional engineer, Dr. Sparks is a Certified Management Consultant, Registered Community Planner, and Member of the Boards of Canadian Environmental Technology Advancement Corporation - West and CAA Saskatchewan.

Larry Todd Wilson,
Founder and Director,
Knowledge Harvesting Inc.

For over 17 years, hundreds of subject matter experts (SMEs) have entrusted Wilson to help them articulate and transfer their hard-earned insights. In collaboration with the SMEs Wilson has produced award-winning commercial learning systems, content for patents and proprietary knowledge assets; authored dozens of articles, book chapters, conference presentations, and workshops; and served as a knowledge management thought leader for several organizations. 

Wilson's capability comes from a unique confluence of learning theory, problem-solving methodology, visual-arts communications, systems thinking, and software engineering. He delivers a rare and valuable result - tangible knowledge assets.

Wally Wells, P. Eng.,
National Asset Management Working Group, Canadian Public Works Association;
Local Government Asset Management Working Group – BC;
Wells Infrastructure Group Inc.

Mr. Wells has strong background in municipal asset management and waste management and His initial experience was with the predecessor to the Region of York Government of Ontario. He became a consultant with Dillon Consulting in 1973.  Over the last 18 years he has developed expertise in integrated municipal asset management focusing on water, sewer and roads systems and integrated asset management. He 37 years of consulting of consulting and government experience and is very familiar with local government structures across Canada.

During his career he has been or is:

• Board and Executive member of the Ontario Public Works Association (President in 1991)
• Board member of the Canadian Public Works Association (President, 2001 – 2002)
• Member of the Management Committee for the Technology Roadmap: Civil Infrastructure Systems
• Founding Member of the Working Group to establish a National Roundtable for Sustainable Infrastructure
• Founding Member of the Canadian Public Works Association / Infrastructure Canada Working Group on Asset Management.
• Founding Member of the Local Government Asset Management Working Group of British Columbia
• Facilitated on-going series of international meetings on asset management and municipal infrastructure for Infrastructure Canada with United States, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico.
• Member of the Governing Council of InfraGuide (National Guide for Sustainable Infrastructure. Chair of the Relationship Infrastructure Committee (National Guide for Sustainable Infrastructure).

Tarek Zayed,
Associate Professor, Department of Building,
Civil & Environmental Engineering Concordia University

Dr. Tarek Zayed, Ph.D., P.E., Associate Professor, Graduate Program Director, Dept. of Building, Civil & Environ. Eng., Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. Dr. Zayed has a Ph.D., M.Sc., and B.Sc. in Construction Engineering and Management. He received his Ph.D. from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA, in May 2001. He conducted research in infrastructure management, simulation and AI applications in construction, underground system performance, and life cycle cost analysis. He has 21 years of professional experience working in the construction industry training and in academic posts in USA, Canada and abroad. Dr. Zayed is extending his expertise in infrastructure management systems to develop life cycle cost analysis for constructing and rehabilitating highway, water, and sewer systems. In addition, he developed models that optimized budget allocation and risk assessment for infrastructure systems.

Realizing the highest priority of infrastructure systems worldwide, Dr Zayed had previously developed deterioration, life cycle cost (LCC), and budget allocation models for steel bridge protection systems in Indiana, USA. This study developed a maintenance plan that is currently implemented on Indiana steel bridges. He also developed risk indices for highway projects and bridges. In his ongoing research, Dr Zayed concentrates on investigating underground municipal infrastructure systems (i.e. water and sewer). A productivity index was designed for trenchless technology application to water and sewer pipelines. Condition rating, deterioration, and life cycle cost models for water and sewer mains as well as water treatment plant elements, using the web as a platform, are recently developed. Based on the developed performance models for water mains, budget allocation model and plan as well as a risk model of water main failure are recently developed. Literature reviews on the impact on environment, due to water main projects, and municipal resource management have been recently completed. Finally, reliability assessment and rehabilitation scheduling are in the development process for water networks. Dr Zayed started recently to look at the three municipal main infrastructure systems, i.e. water, sewer and roads, collectively in order to develop informed decision support system(s) to municipal engineers.
In addition to developing models and tools for sustainable underground infrastructure (asset) systems, Dr Zayed developed condition assessment, deterioration models, and life cycle cost analysis to select the optimum rehabilitation scenarios for tunnels and metro stations. Reliability analysis of metro network (including tunnels and stations) are undergoing in collaboration with Société de transport de Montréal (STM).

Paul Graham,
Chief Administrative Officer,
Town of The Blue Mountains

Paul Graham is a graduate of the University of Guelph Engineering Program.

He has a strong engineering history in environmental engineering including water and waste water treatment.

During the past 10 years, Paul has notably expanded his engineering portfolio through an increased focus on energy and sustainability issues.

He is currently the Chief Administrative Officer of the Town of The Blue Mountains in Thornbury, Ontario.

His reputation as a corporate strategist is confirmed through his commitment through the Town’s Senior Management Team who view it to be their responsibility to build a thriving vibrant community; a community “Built to Last”!

Peter Steblin,
City Manager,
City of Coquitlm

Peter Steblin received his degree in Civil Engineering from the University of British Columbia in 1977 and attained his Professional Engineer’s designation in 1979.

Mr. Steblin joined the City of Coquitlam in February 2008 as the City Manager and oversees the broad requirements of the organization. Mr. Steblin is responsible for the execution of Council’s decisions and the work of City departments comprised of more than 1200 employees with a total Capital and Operating budget of over $200 million.

Prior to joining Coquitlam, Mr. Steblin was the General Manager of Environmental Services & City Engineer for the Corporation of the City of London from December 2002 until February 2008. He was responsible for the overall planning, organizing and administration of 21 divisions of the Department comprised of more than 800 staff with total Capital and Operating budgets of over $300 million. Mr. Steblin was also the Chief Administrative Officer for the Joint Boards of Management for the Elgin Area Primary Water Supply System and the Lake Huron Water Supply System.

Mr. Steblin’s municipal government experience is complemented by his experience in the private sector as a consultant specializing in management and engineering services. With over 30 years of progressively responsible management experience in Municipal Government, Mr. Steblin began his career with the City of Vancouver where he remained until 1995. He then joined the City of Delta as Director of Engineering and was later promoted to Chief Administrative Officer.

Mr. Steblin is a past Chairman/President of

• The Municipal Engineers Division of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia
• British Columbia Chapter of the American Public Works Association.
• The Decision Making and Investment Planning Technical Committee of InfraGuide.
• Regional Public Works Commissioners Ontario

Mr. Steblin is currently the Chair of the Canadian Water Network Board of Directors as well a member of a variety of municipal organizations.

Accomplishments:

• Mr. Steblin was a Canadian representative for CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) in a tsunami relief mission in Sri Lanka and he was a speaker at a variety of National and International conferences.
• In 2007 Mr. Steblin was elected as a Top Ten Public Works Leader from across North America. This award recognizes outstanding career service achievements of individual public works professionals in both the private and public sectors.
• He has received nation-wide recognition for efforts to promote a better way to select Consulting Engineers – including the Consulting Engineers of Ontario Award of Recognition given for the first time to a public servant.