Our presenters

Heading up our Victoria office, Marcia McNeil has practiced in the areas of labour, employment and human rights law since 1990 and represents employers in the private and public sectors, particularly municipalities, Police Services Boards and high-tech companies. Marcia has been recognized consistently since 2012 in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory in the area of employment law.

She was the Chair of the B.C. Industry Training Appeal Board and the Vice-Chair of the Community Care and Assisted Living Appeal Board of British Columbia.

In 2013, she was a sessional lecturer in Employment Law at the University of Victoria. Marcia began practicing in Vancouver after clerking with the British Columbia Court of Appeal. She subsequently became a senior counsel at the B.C. Labour Relations Board and later transferred to a position with the then Public Service Employee Relations Commission providing advocacy and bargaining services to the Government of British Columbia.

Marino Sveinson has practiced exclusively in the area of workplace law throughout his career. Marino strives to provide strategic result-oriented advice and representation to employers for all aspects of workplace law in unionized and non-union environments in both the provincial and federal sectors.

Marino represents employers on human rights matters, wrongful dismissal matters, labour relations issues, collective agreement grievances, employment contract drafting and interpretation, privacy obligations including access to information requests, workers compensation, corporate restructuring and acquisitions and disputes over obligations of departing employees.

He also acts as an independent investigator for bullying and harassment complaints and provides training services. Marino has represented clients at all levels of the courts in BC, federal court, collective agreement arbitrations, human rights tribunals, provincial and federal labour relations boards, workers compensation tribunals, and regarding complaints to the office of the information and privacy commissioner of BC.

Mark is the President of Bernhardt Contracting Ltd. and CEO of Energy Code Solutions. For the last decade, he and his team have spent their time developing, building, retrofitting, and consulting on some of Canada’s highest-performance homes. 

Mark is a Registered Energy Advisor and Passive House Consultant, and over the past few years has spent much of his time helping other builders gear up for Step Code and higher-performance buildings. He serves on several provincial code committees and is CHBA BC President and past chair of the technical committee.  

Mark Braidwood is a principal of SHK with more than 22 years’ experience. He is a litigation lawyer with expertise in the areas of construction, commercial and insurance law.

Mark has conducted trials and appeals in all levels of British Columbia courts, and has acted as counsel in arbitrations, administrative hearings and mediations. Mark’s construction practice includes representing all parties involved in construction disputes, including owners, developers, construction managers, contractors and engineers.

Mark’s broad commercial practice includes cases involving shareholder disputes, director and officer liability, contract and business disputes, product liability, leases, sale of goods, and related issues. In Mark’s insurance law practice, he acts for both insurers and insureds, defending claims and prosecuting subrogated claims. Mark lectures and provides seminars to industry and legal professionals.

Mark enjoys acting as a Moot Court judge at the University of British Columbia, and he regularly provides pro bono legal services for Access Justice.

Mark recently retired from the University of Calgary where he was responsible for the delivery of capital projects across the organization. The annual workload entailed approximately 400 capital and renovation projects per year with an annual project spend of approximately $150M.

During his 12- year tenure as Director, the Project Management Office delivered 9 new buildings including multiple teaching and applied research buildings, major infrastructure renewals, new residence halls and a new main library. Mark was actively engaged with procuring design and construction teams and negotiating and overseeing a wide variety of contracts including Design Build, Construction Management at Risk, Lump Sum and performance-based engagements.

Mark brings 30 plus years of public sector experience with both post-secondary and health organizations including the Calgary Health Region and Age Care Senior Communities.

Mark takes pride in building strong teams, mentoring the next generation of project professionals and engaging diverse stakeholders in achieving outstanding results.

Mark is the Director of Training for BGC Partners Inc. His career in the construction industry spans the past thirty years with experience and a unique perspective from both the general contracting and consulting engineering sides of the business.

Mark is a Gold Seal Certified project manager and served many years in the industry as a senior project manager and estimator. His earlier career was field based, providing years of valuable experience as a project superintendent, general superintendent of field operations and surveying.

Graduating with honours from the BCIT Geomatics Technicians program, Mark joined the Applied Science Technologists and Technicians Association of BC in 1997.

With over 19 years of surety experience, Mathew is a Principal and Client Executive at Wilson M. Beck Insurance Services. He is a Canadian Accredited Insurance Broker (CAIB) and has held client executive positions at several brokerages always specializing in contract bonding and insurance for commercial contractors. ​

Michael Atkinson was President of the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) from March 1993 to October of 2017. He joined CCA in 1981. In November 1982, he was appointed Secretary to the Canadian Construction Documents Committee (CCDC), a position he held until 1993. Michael has emerged as a leading expert in the area of standard construction contracts and practices in Canada. In 2013, he was awarded one of 38 Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medals designated for Canadians demonstrating outstanding service in the construction industry in Canada.

Michael served as the Private Sector Vice-Chair of the Municipal Infrastructure Forum established by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. He was a member of the Federal-Industry Real Property Advisory Council, the Industrial Security Advisory Board, the CORCAN Advisory Board, and a long-time member of the Construction Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association.

Morgan is a Bluebeam Certified Instructor. He has over a decade of hands-on experience in the construction industry, including owning his own construction company and working for one of the largest GC's in North America. He also holds a bachelor's degree in construction management from BYU-Idaho.

Most importantly, he's a trusted expert in using Bluebeam technology on the construction site. Morgan's classes and training have helped some of the top construction companies in North America to improve processes, workflow, and project management with Bluebeam Revu.

Pamela Bragg is the owner of Sarkany Management Inc., a Human Resources Consulting firm, which offers a broad range of HR services. Pamela has a comprehensive background in executive-level human resources and holds a Master's Certificate from Stanford in Diversity & Inclusion as well as a Masters Certificate in Strategic Human Resources & Organizational Change.