Our Trainers
Our team consists of the industry’s leading experts in:
- Green building
- Building science
- Designing, building and selling high performance homes
- Mechanical and systems engineering
We’re proud to say that some of the industry’s best building experts and educators work with BKI. It’s our team’s experience that allows us to help our clients to build better homes, and better businesses.
 Mark LaLiberte is a recognized industry trainer, author and consultant with more than two decades of experience. His focus is to help the building industry learn to build better homes and better businesses. Mark has a deep personal commitment to his work and strives to help his clients increase the performance of the homes that they build and translate those changes into business success.
In high demand, Mark reaches more than 8,000 builders in the U.S. a year through his private services, and has been a featured speaker at such events as the NAHB International Builders Show, PCBC, Sunbelt Builders Show, and JLC Live conferences. He was a co-creator of the Houses That Work™ program, an educational series provided by the Energy and Environmental Building Association (EEBA) which is based on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Program, and has served in an advisory capacity on the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® Program and the Minnesota Energy Code Advancement Project. On an international scale, Mark has provided training to members of the Warsaw, Poland housing industry and the International Housing Symposium in Tokyo, Japan.
In addition to being the onscreen guide for BKI’s Building Better Homes Series, Mark’s media involvement includes his role as a spokesperson for the Ad Council’s Energy Hog Campaign, and appeared as an on-camera content expert in TLC’s Home Pro and Home Savvy series and the PBS Hometime series.
Return to Top
 For the past two decades, Gord Cooke has been an effective and passionate educator and advocate for better building practices, improved indoor air quality and energy efficiency. He has a unique talent of taking the complex issues of building science and breaking them into easily understood elements with practical real-world applications for all audiences.
Gord’s building science training curricula covers the gamut from creating and delivering basic and advanced building science principles through managing indoor air quality to HVAC system design to an intensive sales workshop. He has pioneered new training programs designed to assist builders in the sales and marketing of higher performing, energy efficient homes – helping builders more effectively tell their story to customers, increase their margins and sell more homes.
Gord has delivered sessions at such conferences as the NAHB’s International Builders Show, Energy Design Conference, JLC Live, West Coast Green and the National Green Building Conference and is an active Energy & Environmental Building Association (EEBA) board member and certified trainer. He authored the Build Comfort Program and provided instruction for both the Union and Enbridge Gas companies. Additionally Gord has authored and co-authored numerous white papers and research studies related to indoor air quality and home performance issues, contributes a monthly IAQ column to HPAC magazine, and is a certified R-2000 Design Evaluator and Trainer.
Return to Top
 For
the past eleven years Tony has been the director and a professor of
Residential Building Technology at Yavapai College, in Prescott
Arizona. In the past four years his RBT program has been awarded
five Gold National Association of Home Builder’s Awards for Green
Building and Energy Efficiency in both the custom and affordable
house categories-moderate climate. He teaches students to design,
manage, and build crafted, healthy, safe, comfortable, durable,
environmentally responsive houses using appropriate, climate
specific, materials, systems, and technologies. The program
emphasizes applied building science principles incorporated into
mainstream construction practices.
Tony is certified by the Energy and Environmental Building
Association as a Master Builder, and as a National Trainer for the
EEBA’s Houses That Work workshops. He also is an Environments For
Living Diamond Certified builder. In a building career that has
spanned 30+ years he has built, and/or helped to build, hundreds of
houses throughout North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.
He’s held general contractor licenses in North Carolina, Georgia,
Florida, and currently for the past eleven years in Arizona. His
company consults, and builds select green custom homes when time
permits.
In addition to presenting Houses that Work workshops in Arizona and
New Mexico, on numerous occasions, he has presented to local and
state organizations on energy efficiency, green building, applied
building science, and healthy houses. He also has presented at the
National Association of Home Builder’s ‘International Home Builder
Show’.
Tony has an insatiable desire to learn and teach so he is constantly
researching and reading, and attends select building conferences,
workshops, seminars, and expositions as frequently as possible to
stay current with cutting-edge building technologies. He constantly
tells his students “never stop learning”, “always prepare yourself
for opportunities”, and “what about the concept of making money and
doing the right thing”.Return to Top
 During his professional tenure as an educator, innovator, and leader in the residential construction industry, Tex McLeod has evolved into one of Canada's leading presenters on energy, housing and indoor air quality. Tex is an international speaker delivering training across Canada and the US and recently traveled on behalf of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) International Training Team to South America, Europe and China.
Tex worked to develop training materials for a variety of clients including: CMHC, Ontario Hydro, SAWDAC, NRCan, Atlantic Homebuilders Training Board and Ontario First Nations Technical Services. His contribution to the Ontario First Nations Technical Services – R-2000 program on housing and indoor air quality has taken him from coast to coast into over 40 different communities delivering over 200 workshops. Tex was part of the original team that put together the IAQ materials for Virginia Salares and has since become one of the lead trainers for the Let’s Clear the Air workshop as well as the three day Indoor Air Quality Investigators Course.
Tex has leant his leadership skills to non-profit organizations as a board member for the Energy and Environmental Building Association, and the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association (HPBA) located in Washington, DC.
Return to Top
 Randy
is a mechanical engineer who concentrates on applied building science and
sustainable construction technology. He is a founding member of the US Green
Building Council and has been working extensively in energy efficient
building technologies since the early 80’s. Randy has been involved with
more than 20,000 systems engineered buildings and has worked hands-on in all
phases of construction from foundations to roofing, including designing,
building, performance evaluation and testing.
As one of the first energy raters in the United States, Randy has
performed more than 800 blower door tests and home energy ratings. He
was involved with the design and construction of the initial American
Lung Association Health Homes and the first US DOE Zero Energy Building
in the Pacific Northwest. He has traveled throughout the United States
and Canada for twenty years presenting seminars on building science and
performance technologies to thousands of builders, architects, engineers
and code officials. He takes an active role in the ICC code hearings,
primarily working on advanced assemblies and code official education, as
well as being an AIA-CES trainer and ICC LU presenter.
Randy has extensive experience in indoor air quality issues,
ventilation solutions and moisture control strategies. He has been
featured in Home and Garden TV series, presented at JLC Live conferences
and numerous state HBA and code official conferences. He has served on
the Energy & Environmental Building Association (EEBA) Board of
Directors and was instrumental in developing the Three Day Builder’s
Track offered at the annual EEBA National Conferences.
Return to Top
 As a trainer, consultant, energy rater and former builder, David Richmond has dedicated over 30 years to the residential and commercial building industry. His commitment and perseverance to improve the quality and energy efficiency of residential construction in the
marketplace has crossed most of the residential and commercial disciplines including architectural design, sales, construction management, purchasing and customer service management.
Besides work as a presenter at the Afforable Comfort Conference, American Gas Assocation, Midwest Energy Efficiency Association (MEEA), Northern Kentucky HBA, David brought his leadership to the Energy and Environmental Building Association (EEBA) as board president in 1999. He is currently a certified trainer with this non-profit organization as well as for the International Code Council. Additionally he is a certified RESNET Energy Rater for the Wisconsin Energy Star Homes, Building America Project.
Recently David created a curriculum on the EPAct 2005 Tax Credits with an emphasis on Energy Star criteria. His technical experience is showcased in the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) for both residential and commercial construction with all their versions including all ASHRAE 90.1. David created this course curriculum for both code officials and the building community. These courses vary in length from half day on specific sections of the code to multi-week training and implementation programs for municipal building code departments and the building community.
Return to Top
 Patrick O’Malley is the Director of Operations with Building Knowledge Consulting. With ten years experience in building-related energy efficiency and quality control projects. His areas of expertise include research, diagnostics, testing, data monitoring, technical assistance, consultation and training.
Pat was project and technical manager for the Minnesota Department of Commerce energy code study Evaluating Minnesota Homes and as an outside contractor managed the Xcel Energy Premier Homes Program in Minnesota from 1996 to 2003.
At the local level, Pat works with Building Science Corporation in support of the Department of Energy’s Building America Program. Activities include planning and energy analysis, builder site assistance, consultation, testing, commissioning and reporting for production builders. He has also delivered training and technical consultation services for the Building Association of Minnesota, the Builders Association of the Twin Cities, and the Energy and Environmental Building Association.
Return to Top
 As President of Building Knowledge Consulting, Ed advocates the house as a system approach to home design and construction, in accordance with building science principles.
With over 20 years of progressive construction project management experience, Ed VonThoma is a seasoned veteran of building industry. Ed has extensive expertise in the development of innovative single- and multi-family homes with a commitment to prove that better design creates value for the builder, and the homeowner.
Ed has served as the Energy and Environmental Building Association - Board President and as a member of the Minnesota Energy Code Advisory Committee.
Return to Top
|
Let us help you with your training needs. Click here.
|
