Livestream: Off-site with Hercuwall

Jason Rhees, CEO, has over 25 years of experience in the building materials industry in executive level roles throughout Oldcastle Inc. and CRH. Oldcastle, established in 1978, has become the largest building materials company in the US.

Ken Ritzman, COO, was an executive with SC Design, Inc., operating design centers and installing products for residential home builders. He started his career with RSM McGladrey and was Managing Partner of the San Diego office.

Mike is the President and Founder of SoDella Construction.  He is a licensed General Contractor, and has been directly responsible for the design, development, contracting and construction of over 1500 Multi-Family homes and 2500 Single-Family homes across Arizona. Over his 20 year career, he has also been integral to the operations teams of two quality and value focused builders, Meritage Homes and Homes by Towne.    In 2007 Mike joined Meritage Homes, Arizona. In 2010, he expanded his role to national level with Meritage Homes, covering 13 divisions in 7 states, tasked with the company-wide implementation of Meritage Homes’ Innovation, Home Performance and Sustainability Program. In 2011, Meritage set a new national standard in energy efficiency and integrated renewable design in offering cost effective Net Zero Homes throughout the US.     From 2012-2017, Meritage constructed over 10,000 Energy Star homes under Mike’s direction. Mike played an important role in all home design product development in the West region to ensure cost effectiveness and high customer value. Responsible for the operations team, he focused on standards that created quality, consistency, accuracy and predictability to ultimately drive operational excellence in construction.    Multi-Family construction became Mike’s expertise while on the operations team at Homes by Towne, from 1999 – 2007. With extreme focus on quality construction and efficiency in production management, he was responsible for all Planning, Entitlements, Contracting and Field Operations for over 1000 multi-family units across Phoenix, Scottsdale and Fountain Hills, Arizona.    Early career design and engineering work with Rick Engineering Company was the foundation for Mike’s technical and detail oriented work, from 1996 to 1999. He worked on dozens of development projects, while building relationships with municipalities and design firms in Arizona.    In 1996, Mike earned a Bachelors of Science at Clarkson University in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Environmental Engineering. He is a registered Civil Engineer in the State of Arizona. 

Greg Garrison, VP of Construction, is a seasoned building industry expert with multi-million dollar commercial and residential project construction experience. He brings extensive construction and value engineering expertise.

Dennis is a catalyst. An expert at driving market transformation programs, he knows people, money and how to get things done. As president of the Alliance, he leads our strategic vision and smart growth of our community. Prior to the Alliance, Dennis helped change the face of the housing industry in Saudi Arabia through two key initiatives: the Ministry of Housing’s Building Technology Stimulus Initiative (BTSI) and SABIC’s Home of Innovation™ program. In BTSI, Dennis helped to create a nationwide program to develop a modular housing industry—modeling 26 strategic initiatives that would jumpstart the creation of a robust construction ecosystem, evaluating 200+ global technology providers, and securing initial approval for $4B in government investment. Within one year, the commitment grew to $40B. Dennis was also a key player in SABIC’s Home of Innovation program, a $30M+ multi-year market engagement program focused on encouraging collaboration among the housing value chain and ensuring that better construction practices are adopted throughout the region. Together with his team, Dennis established and managed a global ecosystem of more than 1,000 subject matter experts, including 46 leading manufacturer partners. The program resulted in the Middle East’s first LEED platinum home, a pilot community of 1,200 LEED Silver homes and a LEED gold interactive exhibition center, which has become the epicenter for collaboration in the region. As of 2016, the program yielded 40+ business opportunities with more than $200M in new value creation. Before and after going global, Dennis acted as a consultant to and developer of residential and mixed-use real estate projects in southwestern PA, several of which are considered pioneering examples of placemaking in North America—including Venango Trails, Edgewater and Newbury. In his spare time, he enjoys big adventures with his wife and sons on the water and in the mountains and supports the efforts of other entrepreneurs—advising and investing in their startup companies.