Thomas Robinson is the Founder of LEVER Architecture, a design practice based in Portland, Oregon. His firm is widely recognized for material innovation and for pioneering work with Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT). Thomas’ projects encompass first-of-their-kind timber buildings for clients such as The Nature Conservancy and Adidas and include more than $1M in research to develop and test wood building assemblies. He has lectured on mass timber throughout the US, Europe, and South America, and served as the USDA Wood Innovation Grant Visiting Professor at the University of Arkansas. LEVER was recently recognized by Fast Company as one of the world’s most innovative companies; and in 2017, was named to Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard and to the Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices.

Steve Marshall helped launch the U.S. mass timber movement in 2013 with his creation of the U.S. Forest Service’s Wood Innovations Program and positioning mass timber as a central focus of that program. More than 100 federal investments in mass timber were made under Steve’s leadership. These included the U.S. Tall Wood Building Competition, The National Building Museum’s Timber City exhibition, Department of Defense Blast Testing of CLT, primary funding of WoodWorks, critical support of the 2021 IBC revision process, several state-wide mass timber strategies, creation of the International Mass Timber Conference series, and design and engineering work related to the first generation of mass timber buildings across the Country. In 2019 Steve retired from the federal government after 42 years of service and joined SmartLam. Most recently, Steve has gone out on his own and is serving as a mass timber strategist for those seeking to expand their role in the sector.

William Silva is a seasoned construction veteran who manages all aspects of design and preconstruction management for Swinerton Builders in Portland, Oregon. A graduate of Oregon State University with a B.S. in Construction Management, William has over 30 years of well-rounded experience throughout the West Coast markets, having worked both in project development and self-perform heavy civil, concrete, and mass timber operations. William joined Swinerton in 2004 and returned to the Portland market in 2014. He is a passionate advocate for mass timber buildings with a knack for finding efficient and eloquent solutions to project challenges, having applied those skills to successfully deliver numerous projects.

Sarah leads mass timber sales at Katerra, working closely with builders, designers, and developers seeking reliable, competitive, high-quality solutions for building with mass timber. Before Katerra, Sarah led strategy projects at AECOM, and provided strategic guidance to public and private sector clients on emerging markets as a management consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton. She holds a BA and MBA from Yale University.

Laura Doerges has been developing in the Los Angeles area for the last three decades. During this period she had the good fortune to collaborate with talented teams on interesting mixed use, entertainment, hospitality, residential and office projects. In 2019, she joined Redcar Properties, Ltd. as Head of Development. Redcar invests in and operates properties located near mass transit lines from Santa Monica to DTLA. Their primary focus is creative office which is curated for tenants seeking unique and high quality ambience.

Frank Freudenberger is a structural engineering consultant with over 17 years of experience with Arup. Before moving to Los Angeles in 2011, Frank has worked for Arup in several offices on three continents As a structural engineer and multidisciplinary design manager, he has delivered challenging and complex structures such as high-rise structures, healthcare facilities, transportation facilities and stadiums all over the world. Frank brings in-depths structural and seismic design experience in all materials to a project. Frank believes that total architecture or the consideration of all relevant architectural and engineering aspects together elevate the design outcome and achieve the best solutions. Mass timber has great potential in reducing the construction industries’ large carbon footprint with beautiful and innovative buildings. As part of the leadership of Arup’s Los Angeles structural group, Frank is committed in developing structural engineering solutions for local mass timber projects through utilization of own project experience, in-house research and Arup’s worldwide mass timber experience. Frank holds a structural engineering license in California and Nevada and a civil engineering license in California.