Our presenters

Clinton Connell is the Executive Director of the BC Association for Crane Safety. Clinton has 12 years of experience with the Board and over 20 years in the industry. Clinton has also sat on the BC Trucking Association Board since 2008 and is an active participant on various technical expert committees in multiple jurisdictions.

Colin Gaudet is an Environmental Civil Engineering Technologist from Conestoga College. Since his graduation, he has gained valuable industry experience through his involvement with a variety of municipal engineering, land development, and environmental design projects. His contract administration and site inspection experience have fostered a skillset for producing functional and easy-to-implement design solutions. In his work experience, Colin held a lead technical role where he developed skills in subdivision design, road reconstruction design, contract administration, landfill gas treatment facility design, asset management, and CAD standard management. He takes pride in understanding his clients’ needs to develop solutions tailored to them.

At SolidCAD, Colin is a key member of the Infrastructure/GIS team, where he provides training, implementation, and support on Autodesk civil engineering products with a focus on AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Vehicle Tracking, and Recap. He leverages his software experience and his past work experience to help clients achieve innovative solutions, streamline project workflows, develop standards, and maximize drafting and design efficiency

Craig Munroe is a leading labour and employment lawyer and litigator. Representing many of the largest and most prominent companies and organizations in British Columbia and nationally, Craig provides strategic, solution-based advice to clients facing complicated labour relations issues.

In representing and advising public and private clients, Craig regularly appears before various courts and tribunals including the British Columbia Labour Relations Board, the Canada Industrial Relations Board, grievance arbitration panels, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, and the provincial and federal courts.

Craig is Past-President of the Canadian Association of Counsel to Employers, is listed in the International Who’s Who Legal and has been recognized as a leading practitioner in Chambers Canada, Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, and Best Lawyers in Canada.

Craig is currently the Director of Development at UBC Properties Trust, where he acts as the owner's project manager for all new capital projects at the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus and Kelowna region.

Craig started his construction career as a steel stud and drywall tradesman working on some of Vancouver’s most significant projects pre-Olympics like the Richmond oval, BC place renovation, and Queen Elizabeth Theatre renovation. Craig then joined Task Construction Management, a boutique CM firm managing projects such as the Vernon Library and South Surrey Rec Center. In 2012 Craig joined Bird Construction where he was part of the team that delivered the new UBC Student Union Building, Kelowna RCMP, and the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre @ UBC Vancouver. Craig holds a degree in Construction Management and a Diploma of Technology as a graduate of the Architectural Building Engineering Technologies program, both at BCIT.

Craig is a LEED Green Associate, A registered Professional Quantity Surveyor (PQS), and has earned his Gold Seal in project management. Craig is currently leading exciting projects such as the UBCO Interdisciplinary Collaboration &Innovation (ICI) Building, which is a 150,000-square-foot research facility, as well as the new UBCDowntown Kelowna Campus.

Darcy is an industry leader in the area of Public Operations, having served the public for more than three decades. Darcy's passion for this industry has led to numerous leadership roles throughout Western Canada, including senior managementpositions within Waterworks, Sewers, Landfill, Public Works, Sustainable Operations, Solid Waste and Underground Utilities, prior to his retirement from the role of Regional Director, Environmental Services, in Northern Alberta. Darcy is also recognized as one of the best trainers the industry has to offer, and he has long since been a primary contributor in developing training curriculum and delivering programs throughout Western Canada.Since retiring from the public sector, he remains focused on training and consulting.

David was born and raised in Kelowna. He graduated from Okanagan College in 1992 with a diploma in Computer Informative Systems. Afterwards he worked in IT as a programmer for Okanagan College for 5 years and taught various Microsoft programs in Continuing Studies at Okanagan College. He also had his own software development company for 25 years. He built custom Microsoft software solutions for small to mid-sized companies in the Okanagan and Lower Mainland. He has also been teaching part-time at PowerConcepts for many years and expanded his teaching more recently.

David Turpin is a CPA who has been involved with commodity tax for over 20 years. Mr. Turpin has extensive experience with the British Columbia provincial sales tax and he has also worked at the Canada Revenue Agency administering GST and HST. David has a passion for public speaking and the power of creating innovative solutions through diverse teams.

David Hein is a consulting Civil Engineer with over 35 years of experience in the design, evaluation and management of pavement infrastructure.  He recently retired from Applied Research Associates, Inc. of Toronto, Ontario.  He is the past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers Transportation and Development Institute, long term member of the Transportation Association of Canada and has represented Canada on the World Road Association pavements and asset management committees since 2002. 

He has been involved in numerous national and international projects including many of the public/private/ partnership highway construction projects across Canada and the United States.   

Mr. Hein has completed numerous pavement design, evaluation, and management projects throughout British Columbia including both design and management of the Sea to Sky Highway and is a regular instructor completing specialty design, construction, and maintenance courses for the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation. 

Dean Slater is a Professional Engineer APEGA Life Member with 40 years of 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, and 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.

Since retiring in January 2018, Dean has embarked on new roles as a fundraising volunteer with Wellspring Calgary and the Children’s Cottage Society of Calgary Building Committee.  Due in part to his volunteer efforts, Dean was recognized in 2018 with CCA’s “Person of the Year” award.

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.