Our presenters

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.

A trained design professional having practiced and part-time taught at the college level for over 15 years, Derek has collaborated on over $300 million inbuilt or contemplated ICI and residential projects working for clients like Chrysler Corporation, Penske Industries, University of Windsor, Nature Fresh, COCO Paving/Developments and more.  Pivoting in 2007 to association leadership, as the Executive Director of the London & District Construction Association, he acted as employer bargaining agent to General Contractors and Civil Contractors in a successful strike-free round (2010). He also chaired the Construction Lien Act Task Force for the Council of Ontario Construction Associations.   It was that task force work that ultimately led to prompt payment and adjudication in Ontario.  Derek was also at the table when the idea for the now popular Canadian Construction Association’s Construction 101 (and Beyond) course was born (2009). 

In 2015 he formalized Constructionlab to reconnect and continue honing his teaching and facilitating skills learned from his earlier days of teaching at St. Clair College in the architectural and engineering technology programs.   Constructionlab has expanded to undertake workforce development projects for governments and college clients as well as best practices guide writing for multiple clients.   Since 2015, Derek has been trusted by over 1000 small, medium and large construction firms, law firms, design firms, and real estate development firms to deliver best practice advice on labour, procurement, contract administration, and more.   He counts 12 mixed trade and labour relations construction associations as clients and recently invented, manufactured, and released a series of construction industry and design sector-themed board games to connect parents to high school-aged kids, connect colleagues and connect friends in spirited play and learning. 

Dina Alansary has over 15 years of experience working in the fields of construction disputes and project controls. She has a Bachelors Degree (BSc) in Construction Management and completed her Master of Laws Degree (LLM) in Construction Law and Arbitration in 2017. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) and a certified Project Management and Risk Management Professional (PMP and PMIRMP).

Dina’s experience includes time, cost, and change management of projects. She has worked on projects totaling in excess of $375 million. Her background in construction management has provided her with the skills needed to identify potential disputes and develop mechanisms for addressing risks. She has completed courses on scheduling techniques and software as well as forensic delay analysis methodologies, which she has successfully applied in analyzing claims and settling disputes among parties. Owing to her education and hands-on site experience, she is able to work with and interpret standard and custom forms of contracts used across the industry.

Dina brings her management, contractual, and legal knowledge to the field of claims and construction dispute resolution. As a Consultant at Revay, her main duties include the evaluation and preparation of construction claims, expert reports, forensic schedule analysis, productivity and change analyses and quantum evaluation.

Dina also enjoys giving back to the community and is currently volunteering as an Executive Member of the CIArb Vancouver branch. She is also a co-author of International Construction Contract Law – 2nd edition by Lukas Kle

Eleonora has been teaching for 25 years. She worked as an executive instructor and advisor in software programs for CEMEX, third largest concrete company in the world, and, twice in a row, was voted the best professor of the year at Tec of Monterrey, the best business school in Latin America.

Currently, she teaches Microsoft Office courses at PowerConcepts, Spanish at Okanagan College Continuing Studies and studies PID program.

Elisa is a Senior Principal and the Business Centre Managing Leader for our buildings group in British Columbia. Her role combines active senior team leadership and financial and studio management with managing significant projects, particularly of large-scale alternate delivery scope, IPD and those integrating Lean process.

Elisa’s accomplishments include Eric Hamber Secondary School Replacement Project, Vancouver; Camosun College Alex and Jo Campbell School of Health Sciences, Victoria; Canalta Centre, (2015)*, Medicine Hat, Alberta; Sault Ste. Marie Event Centre, (2006)*, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario; Youngstown Convocation Center, (2005)*, Youngstown, OH, USA; Rideau Carleton Raceway, (2000)*, Ottawa

As procurement manager of Fraser Health for 15 years, ElizabethZhu has built a procurement team specialized in public construction procurement. The ten-person team manages facility maintenance and construction projects across four health authorities in the BClower mainland. Elizabeth is also an acting procurement advisor to multiple BChospital redevelopment projects. She has a thorough understanding of federal and provincial public procurement policies, as well as various types of construction contracts. Ms. Zhu is an active member of the BC PublicConstruction Council. Her procurement team is well known for being the two-time recipient of the 2017 and 2022 BCCA Best of PublicOwner awards

Eric Tung is a Business Communications Instructor at SFU’s Beedie School of Business, and an English Instructor at UBC’s Extended Learning, where he teaches business and technical writing courses. Eric also designs and delivers customized workshops to engineering, construction, and consulting firms. He works with clients and coaches them on developing their effective communication skills, negotiation skills, and customer service and sales skills.

In addition to teaching and coaching, Eric is a business transformation and change management consultant, where he advises firms on large-scale organizational-wide changes.

Fazal ""Fuzz"" has been involved with conflict resolution since 1991. He is an active mediator/arbitrator, a Provincial Court Mediator and a member of several mediation rosters including the BC Mediator Roster Society (Civil) and the Public Service Labour Relations Board (Fed.). He has handled construction disputes as an arbitrator on the Better Business Bureau of Mainland BC roster as well other arbitrations for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

Fazal is a conflict resolution coach at the JIBC Centre for Conflict Resolution and an instructor at the Centre for Leadership. He has prepared and delivered training programs for the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association and other clients in the Lower Mainland. He is in charge of training for Vancouver Control Tower.