Our Facilitators

Dean Slater is a Professional Engineer APEGA Life Member with 40 years’ experience in the construction and development industry.  He is a Past President of the Calgary Construction Association (CCA) and has held various executive level positions working in General Contracting, Development, and the Alberta Health Services (AHS) project management group.

Dean has worked on many significant projects in Alberta including Calgary’s Petro-Canada (Suncor) Centre, the Olympic Saddledome, the Hyatt Hotel, Telus Convention Centre, SMART Technologies Building, major hospital expansions, and the South Health Campus. His roles spanned estimating and construction management as both the General Contractor with CANA (Vice-President) and Ledcor Construction, Project Manager on the Smart Technologies Building, and Project Owner’s representative / Vice-President with AHS and Triovest Realty Advisors.

Retiring in January 2018, Dean has embarked on a new role as a fundraising volunteer with Wellspring Calgary – a cancer support group providing programs and education to individuals diagnosed with cancer.  Due in part to his volunteer efforts, Dean was recognized in 2018 with CCA’s “Person of the Year” award.

DSH Consulting

With a comprehensive and varied education background, learning has been at the core of her career.   As former President of the Southern Interior Construction Association in BC for 22 years, liaising with the buyers of construction services, architects, engineers and contractors in advocacy and education brings a solid base to her expertise.  In addition, her experience as the owner representative for the construction of the new Clubhouse for the Kelowna Yacht Club has provided additional perspective. She has been fortunate to work with the Alberta Construction Association to facilitate industry dialogue on “Optimizing the Flow of Money” and “Non-Standard Contract Clauses and their Costs”.  Through these experiences, with a lot of passion and enthusiasm, Debbie is able to bring both knowledge and insight into her work and presentations for the construction industry.

Managing Senior Principal, Stantec

Elisa Brandts, AAA, OAA, NSAA, FRAIC, is the managing senior principal for our British Columbia Buildings business centre. Her role combines senior level team leadership, client liaising and account management, operations and studio management of offices, and managing significant projects—particularly large-scale alternate delivery work.

Elisa is passionate about creating livable, sustainable cities, and she works to support the design teams in the transit and civic sectors to achieve this goal. She’s committed to building strong client relationships and is an advocate for Lean design and integrated project delivery, having led teams on multiple design-builds and public-private partnerships.

Administrator of Commercial Inspections, City of Winnipeg

Geoff Mikolayenko, Eng. L., C.E.T. is currently the City of Winnipeg’s Administrator of Commercial Inspections. He is a certified engineering technologist and graduated in 1993 with a diploma in Structural Engineering Technology from Red River College. In 2018 he achieved his Specified Scope of Practice Licence from the Engineering Geoscientists of Manitoba as a licensed practitioner. He has 26 years of experience within the industry.

In the spring of 2018 Geoff took on his present role as commercial inspections administrator. He is responsible for the overall direction and leadership of the Commercial Building Inspection services, encompassing construction methods, bylaw compliance, and correction of dangerous conditions involving electrical, mechanical, plumbing, building, fire and life safety systems.

Director, Capital Development - Hamilton Health Sciences

George graduated from Royal Military College of Canada. He spent twenty years in the Canadian Forces as a Military Engineer in various roles. George then began working in healthcare and has worked in several hospitals in Ontario.  He is registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario and holds both the Canadian Certified Healthcare Facility Manager from CHES and the Certified Healthcare Facility Manager Designation from the AHA, the first in Canada to do so.

He has been actively involved in both CHES and ASHE for the past 20 years He is a member of the Canadian Certified Healthcare Facility Manager Certification Advisory Panel and the Canadian Healthcare Construction Course Sub Committee.  He is a member of the Technical Sub Committee for CSA Z8002 Operation & Maintenance of Healthcare Facilities and the Technical Sub Committee for CSA Z317.13 Infection Control in construction, renovation and maintenance.  George is an instructor for the CSA Z317.13 standard on Infection Control in construction, renovation and maintenance and the CHES Canadian Healthcare Construction Course.

President, Totbox Productivity Solutions

In the last 19 years, Gilles has delivered more than 2,000 workshops to both public and private sector organizations, individuals and teams.

For the past five years, Gilles has been partnering with construction associations and companies across Canada to provide training that helps their members and teams increase productivity through the effective use of technology. His client list includes companies like PCL, Modern Niagara, Brookfield, EMCO and many more.

Gilles is a firm believer that people are an organization’s most valuable resource. That’s why for the past several years he has worked with hundreds of organizations to equip their teams to excel and achieve their full potential.

Principal, Wordclear Specifications

With an honors degree in religious studies and psychology from the University of Waterloo and having studied for a M.Div. at McMaster University Seminary, at first glance, Glenn Chatten may not seem to be considered a likely candidate for work in the Construction or Architectural Design Industry. Add also the fact that he is a well known, award winning, singer/songwriter, CFMA nominated, professional finger-style guitarist and an accomplished touring recording artist, the chances of seeing him in at construction or design meetings would seem remote.

Yet, Glenn has carved out a niche for himself in the world of construction by his varied experiences ranging from being a steel worker at Inverleigh Bridge Construction in the mid-eighties; the CEO of an award winning Ontario contracting firm in the nineties; the Architectural Sales Representative for Western Canada for General Paint Inc; to a successful specification writer working in partnership with Specworks Inc. in Vancouver, BC.

The strong thread that has tied all these experiences together has been his continued intent and focus on, awareness of, and ability to utilize his finely tuned and engaging communications skills.

For the past ten years as the Principal of Wordclear Specifications, Glenn works not only as an architectural consultant creating construction documentation and specifications for the West Coast industry but also offers education in the importance of specifications by providing presentations, lectures and workshops to firms, associations, college and universities; and teaching all of the courses (PCD, TR, CA, Specifier) offered by Construction Specifications Canada (CSC).

He brings with him an extensive knowledge of, and experience in - construction design, communication, building envelope sciences, specification writing, contract documentation and project management.

His seminars and lectures are both informative, educational and some would even say, entertaining.

President, Teegor Consulting Inc.

Hugh’s career in the construction industry spans over 40 years.  Hugh has held senior management positions related to contracts and risk management. He earned a B.A.Sc (Civil) in 1980 and a M.A.Sc (Construction Management) in 1986 from the University of Waterloo, is a retired Professional Engineer registered in the Province of Ontario, and is a Gold Seal Project Manager.

Hugh has been actively involved in industry associations over the years, having served as an Executive Member of the Canadian Construction Association, Chairman of CCA’s Standard Practices Committee, CCA’s Trade Contractor Representative to the Canadian Construction Documents Committee and Chair of CCDC’s Insurance and Surety Sub-Committees.  He was also President of the Mechanical Contractors Association of Kitchener - Waterloo, a Board Member of the Mechanical Contractors Association of Ontario, and as a National Director of the Mechanical Contractors Association of Canada.

President, Quality Dynamics Inc.

James Johnston, P. Eng., CM-Lean is an Industrial Engineer, Lean Construction coach, an Approved Trainer with the Associated General Contractors of America and one of the authors of the newest version of the Lean Construction Education Program. 

He is a construction, operations and quality specialist with over 30 years of experience focusing on business process analysis & improvement, Lean implementation, strategic planning and business development. Jim has worked extensively as a Management Consultant & Educator, leading organizations through lean transformations, quality system implementation and process optimization projects. He has coached & facilitated the implementation of Lean Construction tools and methodologies on projects of all sizes, has trained thousands of construction professionals internationally and continues to develop programs that improve project outcomes industry wide.