speaker introductions
Allison Scott
Allison Scott
MC, Director, Customer Experience & Industry Advocacy
Founder and CEO - Timothy Cocaro has the unusual mix of being a builder by trade and holder of a computer science degree. At canibuild, we are builders who understand technology. canibuild was developed to solve the many pain points of our industry by reducing the amount of friction to contract.
Dave Cooper
Dave Cooper
Co-Founder & Host, Dave Cooper LIVE
Dave Cooper is a super connector in the global industrialized construction sector who has built a multi-media highway of case studies featuring industry leaders who drive business forward.
As host of the livestreaming Dave Cooper LIVE Show, he has interviewed close to 2000 professionals in the ecosystem of the built environment including the largest construction companies, c-suite executives, fabricators, supply chain experts and start-ups. Dave is a community builder where membership is inclusive and viewers are encouraged to participate in the conversation.
Dave has spent the last five years touring smart cities, net zero master planned communities, manufacturing facilities, skills training academies, job sites and more seeking out the emerging building products, technology and advanced building processes around the world. His award-winning work has been featured in dozens of outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Forbes.
Before becoming a custom home builder, Dave served as a combat medic in the U.S. Army. During the pandemic, he took the Dave Cooper LIVE Show on the road living fulltime in a motorhome with his wife and three children as they travelled throughout the United States.
Brandon Ionata
Brandon Ionata
Senior Director
Immersed from a young age in the built environment through his family’s construction business, Brandon Ionata has leveraged that life experience into his professional career at StrucSoft over the last 11 years. An expert at enabling customers to bridge the gap between design and manufacturing, Brandon leads the StrucSoft team as they push the boundaries of 3D BIM workflows, development of Revit add-ons and bespoke custom programming projects, for wood and light steel framing.
Brandon is a family man and father to his 2 year old little girl and stays connected to his hands-on roots through hunting, fishing, and restoring vintage Harley Davidsons in his spare time.
Magdalena Kowalczyk
Magdalena Kowalczyk
Research Engineer
Magdalena is a research engineer within the Autodesk Research Industry Futures organization and is based in London, UK. For most of her career, she has worked with customers to develop innovative solutions using cutting-edge design and manufacturing technologies. Her specialties include part performance optimization through generative design, additive manufacturing technologies, and design for manufacturing and assembly with over a decade of experience working across different industries such as aerospace, automotive, industrial/tooling, medical, and more. Currently, Magda’s research focus is the Industrialization of Construction, where she’s been conducting research on the state of the industry, exploring technologies and trends, and identifying opportunities for innovation and growth within the sector. Her work seeks to apply a wealth of manufacturing expertise to the convergence of manufacturing strategy and construction demands.
In her free time, Magda enjoys watching documentaries and reading books, especially on naval history.
Amy Marks
Amy Marks
VP, Enterprise Transformation Practice
As Autodesk's VP, Enterprise Transformation Practice, Amy informs strategy on business outcomes, platform solutions, and consulting for customers incorporating transformational methodologies including industrialized construction, sustainability and new ways of working. Prior to joining Autodesk, she defined the language, process and frameworks that are adopted by companies, universities and countries around the world reflecting the convergence of Design-Make-Operate models.
Before joining Autodesk, Ms. Marks was the CEO of XSite Modular and pioneered a path to become the world’s preeminent prefabrication consultant and is often called the Queen of Prefab - literally creating the role as the first prefabrication consultant. Ms. Marks champions the integration of transformational and innovative methods of working across many building types including high-tech, healthcare, hospitality, data centers, residential and commercial buildings. She has strong relationships across the world with many owners, architects and engineers, and supply chain partners. She is a unique and outspoken agent for change that is well-respected across many industries and is a highly sought-after keynote speaker and chairperson of conferences on business transformation, prefabrication and sustainability.
She is a mom to her daughter Mackenzie, and also an avid sports fan having played competitive rugby for almost 15 years.
Scott Mitchell
Scott Mitchell
Founder & CEO
Scott Mitchell is the founder and CEO of STUD-IO, a computational construction company. Scott works to bridge STUD-IO’s software development with its project consulting, enabling some of the most complex projects being built today. Before founding STUD-IO, Scott worked as a software engineer at Autodesk as part of the AEC Generative Design Group. While working at Autodesk, Scott had access to a Howick roll-forming machine, which he experimented with in his free time, before ultimately leaving to focus on the development of STUD-IO full time.
Scott studies and practices film, music, architecture, and computer science—in other words: “making things”. He enjoys composing for the guitar, producing videos and animations, and experimenting with software development and fabrication research. Scott teaches at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.
For the past several years, Scott and his wife Brenna, their son James, and their golden retriever Lou, have lived a modern nomadic lifestyle, living in various cities across the US including: Boston, Massachusetts; Laguna Beach, California; Austin, Texas; and Tulsa, Oklahoma (where Scott was born and raised). Scott and his family currently live in Laguna Beach and are expecting a new member of the family this fall.
Amr Raafat
Amr Raafat
Chief Innovation Officer (CIO)
Technology Leader and Expert in the Construction industry’s most cutting-edge technologies to streamline projects procurement. With more than 20 years of experience combining architectural, construction, and engineering expertise. In recognition of his pioneering work in Construction Technologies, Amr received the Global 2019 Innovator of the Year award at the Autodesk AEC Excellence Awards.
Amr leads Windover’s VDC team and the Innovations for Design, Engineering and Automation, IDEA™ platform providing 4D planning, MEP/BIM coordination, laser scanning, drone mapping, virtual and mixed reality, prefabrication, robotics, additive manufacturing and automation to enhance planning, scheduling, site logistics, and safety throughout all construction phases. Amr received his master’s degrees in architecture from the Boston Architectural College.
A fun fact about Amr is that he earned his black belt in karate when he was 16 years old. In his free time, Amr enjoys traveling to historic places with his family. He currently lives with his wife and two young daughters in Lexington, Massachusetts
Jim Stoddart
Jim Stoddart
Research Scientist / Engineer
Jim Stoddart is a Research Scientist in the AEC Industry Futures group within Autodesk Research and a core member of The Living, an Autodesk Studio. His work explores how new design, construction, and material technologies will lead to a better built environment for our planet and its inhabitants.
Jim has collaborated with a wide range of industry leaders to demonstrate the value of new design technologies—including bio-materials, machine learning, and Generative Design—on real-world applications and built projects. Jim has authored several peer-reviewed papers, holds patents for key generative design applications, and contributes articles to industry publications. His design projects have been widely published, won multiple industry design and innovation awards, and have been exhibited at international venues.
Jim lives in Atlanta, GA with his wife and two kids. In his free time, he likes reading books and comics, cooking, and learning new crafts.
Russell Wills
Russell Wills
Director of Plant Operations
Russ has been in the manufacturing world for the past 20 years from high output production lines to one off custom structural steel fabrications. Of these past 20 years he has spent the last decade in offsite light gauge fabrication. He believes there is always a better, faster, cleaner way to build and he focuses on how to get there.
This is why he has invested the last 10 years into offsite prefab and modular building techniques. From researching automation, visiting plants, and having in depth conversations with companies that use automated production floors to breaking down labor analysis of non-automated factories and everything in between. It is the driving force on how Russ and his team do what they do, and what separates them in this ever-evolving industry.
Russ uses a hands on approach to leverage his knowledge and skills to uplift not only his products and their quality, but his employees lives and company culture.
Hamish Coubray
Hamish Coubray
Director
Hamish Coubray, General Manager of Rollforming Services (RFS) and Director of the Howick Group, of which RFS is the product manufacturing arm, is third generation of the family owned business. A mechanical engineer by trade, he has been involved in all aspects of the Howick Group businesses since he was a teen – from machine assembly and manufacture, training, installation and technical support to product development, business development and management.
Hamish’s passion for always seeking a better, more efficient way to do something is perfectly suited in the construction industry, where there is so much opportunity to break away from the status quo and do things differently, and more effectively. By asking questions like ‘how can we do things better and smarter’, Hamish has proven that when you push the boundaries, think creatively, you can consistently deliver a practical, commercially viable, better result.