A View From The Future

A View From The Future, June 5th, 2012
Speaker - Famed Futurist Edie Weiner, Weiner, Edrich, Brown
Panelists - Jane Chmielinski, Moderator, AECOM
Ana Bertuna, Related Companies
Michael De Chiara, Zetlin & De Chiara
MaryAnne Gilmartin, Forest City Ratner
Jurij Paraszczak, IBM Research

Event Co-Chairs: Jane Chmielinski, AECOM
and Jennifer Murphy, Plaza Construction

To register for the event, click here

Future Trends and Innovation in AEC Industry – Topic of June 5 Seminar

A View from the Future is the focus of a breakfast program hosted by BWAF on Tuesday, June 5, 2012 from 8:15 – 11:00 am at the CUNY Graduate Center Proshansky auditorium in New York City.

This program will illuminate the enormous transformation occurring in the industry over the last five years. Speaker, internationally acclaimed futurist Edie Weiner, joined by a panel of top experts will discuss emerging new opportunities in the architecture/engineering/construction (AEC) industry.

This transformation is unlike any the AEC Industry has ever witnessed. In terms of economic guideposts that define a recession, what the building industry is facing today is NOT a recession. It is NOT a shrinking, new normal based on the previous one. It is a new beginning. If firms are not aboard with innovation relating to current cross-disciplinary transformations, they will become obsolete.

BWAF brings to NY’s building industry speaker Edie Weiner, whose presentation will change your thinking. This new thinking can enhance your professional performance and perspective, whether a practitioner, planner, developer, realtor or educator. From a business standpoint, it will affect your thinking about your market share, employee engagement, your corporate social responsibility profile, and help increase your profits.

Women are an intrinsic part of this transformation. More than half the US labor force, 59.2%, is comprised of women. However, the low rate of entry of women into most sectors of the building industry coupled with the high attrition rate throughout means that the built environment continues to be created almost entirely without the voices and skills of women leaders. The future will require all the best available brainpower.

Research shows that the most profitable innovation comes when women’s views join men’s. And that innovation is minimized when women’s voices are lacking.

Following Ms. Wiener’s talk, the panel discussion, moderated by Jane Chmielinski, chief operating officer for AECOM Technology Corporation, will focus on applications to the AEC industry and real estate community. Among the panelists is Michael De Chiara, founding partner of Zetlin & De Chiara LLP, MaryAnne Gilmartin, Executive Vice President and Director of Commercial & Residential Development for Forest City Ratner Companies, and Jurij Paraszczak, Director of IBM Research Industry Solutions.

Edie Weiner is president of Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Inc., a leading futurist consulting group, and is recognized as one of the most influential practitioners in gathering and analyzing intelligence and trends. She is co-author of Future Think – How to Think Clearly in a Time of Change.

What others say:

“FutureThink stretches the boundaries of our perception and opens new avenues for development.”- General Wesley Clark, Former NATO Commander

“FutureThink helps to improve your insight and foresight in a time of rapid change. It also helps you to look beyond today in order to help create a better tomorrow.” – David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, U.S. Government Accountability Office

“Weiner and Brown have taken the innovative and far-reaching vision that earned them respect and admiration in the foresight community and translated it into practical advice for daily business decision-making. Their insights into social dynamics and corporate governance strategies are extraordinarily useful.” – Tim Mack, President, World Future Society

Event Sponsorship Opportunities

Firm sponsorships are available at $20,000 Platinum Level, $15,000 Gold Level and $10,000 Silver Level with substantial benefits. Contact Wanda Bubriski at director(at)bwaf(.)org for more information and other opportunities. Listening to Weiner’s knowledge is the best investment your firm could ever make in its future. Those who participate and those who are sponsors will be recognized by the industry as dominant industry leaders with their finger on the pulse of the market.

Keynote Speaker

Edie Weiner, photo courtesy of Weiner Edrich Brown

Edie Weiner is president of Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Inc., a leading futurist consulting group. Formed in 1977, WEB has served over 400 clients (corporate, academic, government) in identifying opportunities in the areas of marketing, product development, strategic planning, investments, human resources and public affairs. Clients have ranged from the U.S. Congress to many of the Fortune 500. She is acknowledged as one of the most influential practitioners of social, technological, political and economic intelligence-gathering.

At 29, Ms. Weiner was the youngest outside woman ever elected to a corporate board. She has been a guest lecturer at Wharton, Harvard, The U.S. Army War College, and a number of other universities. Her articles have appeared in numerous publications, including The Harvard Business Review, The Futurist, and The Wall Street Journal. She has co-authored four books with her partner Arnold Brown: Supermanaging (McGraw-Hill 1984), Office Biology (MasterMedia 1993), Insider’s Guide to the Future (Bottom Line, 1997), and FutureThink (Prentice Hall, 2006). She has keynoted over 300 conferences.

Throughout the 1990s, she founded and chaired the Esteem Teams, an innovative program in which dozens of inner city, at risk girls were mentored by executive women.

She serves on numerous Boards and Advisory Boards, including the US Comptroller General’s Advisory Board, Women’s Leadership Exchange, and The SyFy Channel. In the past, she has been on the Board or Advisory Board of the José Limón Dance Foundation (Chair), UNUM Corporation, First Unum Corp., CompUSA, the Fashion Group International, ThinkQuest New York City (Chair), Boardroom Inc., Independent Agents & Brokers of New York, and the Women’s Forum. Ms. Weiner is a member of the Women’s Forum, a co-founder of the Belizean Grove, the first recipient of the Fashion Group International’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award (1998), NOW New York’s 2011 Woman of Power and Influence Award, and The World Future Society’s 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Panelists

Jane Chmielinski, photo courtesy of AECOM

Jane Chmielinski is the Chief Operating Officer for AECOM Technology Corporation (NYSE: ACM). AECOM is an $8-billion global provider of professional technical and management support services with 45,000 employees — including architects, engineers, designers, planners, scientists and management and construction services professionals — serve clients in more than 130 countries around the world.

In this position, Ms. Chmielinski is responsible for all AECOM operations and provides operational leadership oversight to ensure coordination across AECOM’s geographies, business lines and government professional technical services operations, while continuing to advance and better align its corporate services. She has also successfully led a number of corporate initiatives, including the launch of the unified AECOM brand, the companywide safety program, and the global performance-management system.

Prior to her current position, Ms. Chmielinski transitioned from president of legacy DMJM Harris to serve as group chief executive, Corporate Development, during early 2008. In that role, Ms. Chmielinski led the AECOM Office of Corporate Development, a central office that serves as the focal point for corporate services that span across AECOM’s global operating groups — including Corporate Communications, Human Resources, Information Technology, Global Business Lines, Safety, and other AECOM-wide initiatives and activities.

Ms. Chmielinski understands the responsibility of corporate stewardship within her community and her profession and is personally involved in a number of professional associations, including the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) and the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the March of Dimes; the Board of Directors for the New York Chapter of the Women’s Forum; and the Board of Directors for the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation.

A Fortune 500 company, AECOM provides a blend of global reach, local knowledge, innovation, and technical excellence in delivering solutions that create, enhance and sustain the world’s built, natural and social environments. For more information, visit www.aecom.com.

Ana Bertuna, AIA, is vice president of design and construction for Related Companies, a real estate firm. Bertuna coordinates consultants, construction managers, and various city agencies with an emphasis on construction logistics, procurement, budget and schedule. Prior to joining Related, Bertuna worked at SOM for 11 years.

Soon after joining Related, her role expanded to include involvement in complicated parts of the Time Warner Center project ranging from the exterior wall to freestanding signage. She acted as the liaison between Time Warner Inc. and Columbus Center LLC to work on Time Warner Center. She works on both commercial and residential projects.

Bertuna serves on the scholarship committee for WX and New York Women Executives in Real Estate. She is a board member of the ACE Mentor Program, which helps prepare high school students for careers in design and construction.

Michael De Chiara, photo courtesy of Zetlin & De Chiara LLP

Michael K. De Chiara, Esq., is a founding partner of Zetlin & De Chiara LLP, a construction law firm that provides legal and business advice to AEC industry professionals. He is experienced in law relating to the design and construction industry. Mr. De Chiara serves as general counsel to many large engineering and architectural firms, and represents owners, developers, engineers, architects, construction managers, contractors, and other professionals in the construction industry. He has successfully handled some of the largest design and construction cases in the past two decades and has represented clients in proceedings before the United States Senate.

In addition to litigation and contractual matters, he advises clients on financial affairs and general business matters covering partnership, corporate, and employment laws, and professional practice matters such as ownership transition and licensing issues.

Mr. De Chiara is recognized by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 USA Guide, Super Lawyer Magazine, and Best Lawyers of America as a leading litigator in construction law and has received the notable AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell. He received the American Institute of Architects New York State President’s Citation for Outstanding Service, and the March of Dimes’ Thomas E. Diana Spirit of Volunteerism Award in recognition of his dedication to the community.

MaryAnne Gilmartin, photo courtesy of MaryAnne Gilmartin

MaryAnne Gilmartin is the Executive Vice President and Director of Commercial & Residential Development for Forest City Ratner Companies in New York. During her 17 years at Forest City, Ms. Gilmartin has played a pivotal role in the creation of civic public/private development throughout the city.

Ms. Gilmartin oversees the company’s most visible and prestigious projects: The Barclays Center — the future home of the NBA Nets franchise — collaboratively designed by Ellerbe Becket and SHoP Architects and the feature component of the 8 million square foot Frank Gehry-master plan for the Atlantic Yards redevelopment project; and the Frank Gehry-designed 1.1 million square foot 8 Spruce Street residential project in lower Manhattan, which is the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere.

Ms. Gilmartin also developed the 1.5 million square foot New York Times Building in midtown Manhattan, which was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano and opened in 2007. In addition to these projects, Ms. Gilmartin currently manages the commercial portfolio at MetroTech Center in Brooklyn, which consists of 6.7 million square feet of Class A office space.

Ms. Gilmartin graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Fordham University, where she also completed her Masters Degree in 1990. Ms. Gilmartin began her real estate development career as a New York City Urban Fellow in 1986 at the Public Development Corporation. Ms. Gilmartin served proudly for over 7 years on the New York City Ballet Advisory Board. Currently, Ms. Gilmartin serves as a board trustee for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM); a board member of the American Institute of Architects NY (AIA); REBNY’s Board of Governors; Executive Committee Member of New York Building Congress (NYBC) and Executive Committee Member of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.

Ms. Gilmartin has been recognized as a top professional in her field by WX as its 2007 “Woman of the Year,” by Crain’s in 2003 as one of its “40 under 40,” in 2007 as one of New York’s Most Influential Women and again in 2011 as one of New York’s 50 Most Powerful Women. Ms. Gilmartin lives in Westchester with her husband James and her three children, Devin, Aidan and Tess.

Jurij Paraszczak, photo courtesy of Jurij Paraszczak

Dr. Paraszczak is Director of IBM Research Industry Solutions and the leader of the Global Research Smarter Cities program focusing on helping cities manage the complex set of demands placed on their infrastructure by their constituents and on the optimization of flows of energy, people, water and other resources through this infrastructure.

As the IBM Research lead for Smarter Cities, Dr. Paraszczak is responsible for aligning the 10 Research Laboratories around these opportunities emerging around the globe dealing with many tens of projects over the last 3 years. As a consequence of this work, he co-founded the Urban Systems Collaborative, a group of academics, companies and government leaders who are focusing on the integration of the city-from planning, architecture, engineering, operations and development in a quantitative, verifiable and structured manner.

Previously Dr. Paraszczak was Chief Technology Officer of the IBM Venture Capital group and also Director of Technology for the IBM Research Emerging Business Group, where he was responsible for identifying and harvesting all sources of innovation for IBM’s solutions and products from the global venture community and the research division. In this role, he helped IBM establish deeper relationships with the venture community, integrated startups in IBM’s sales opportunities, identified startup acquisitions for IBM and created new approaches to venturing.

Dr. Paraszczak has over 55 publications in various areas of telecommunications, technology and systems and over 18 patents in a wide variety of fields including communications, plasma chemistry, microlithography, materials manipulation and chip fabrication, packaging systems, media delivery and characterization, smarter cities analytics and models.

Dr. Paraszczak has broad experience to draw on to help span a wide variety of disciplines and to synthesize new approaches to old problems. He obtained his PhD and BSc from the University of Sheffield, UK.

Relevant Links:

future.bwaf.org