Our team consists of some of the industry’s leading experts in:

• Green building
• Building science
• Designing, building and selling high performance homes
• Mechanical and systems engineering
• Media development and production

We’re proud to say that some of the industry’s best building and media production 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 & 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 appearances as an on-camera content expert in TLC’s Home Pro and Home Savvy series and the PBS Hometime series. 

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As CEO, Steve Northway brings a strong combination of business savvy and hands-on construction expertise to the BKI team. With over two decades of experience in the construction industry, Steve has a proven track record of helping both residential and commercial clients to improve their business practices.

After co-founding Nor-Son Inc. in 1978, Steve's tenure there included roles as president, CFO and CEO. He helped grow the new company into a $50 million construction services firm featuring design-build, bid, and construction management delivery systems. Under his guidance, the company earned five National Construction Awards of Excellence and twelve National Safety Awards from the Associated Builders and Contractors. His firm was also named nine times as one of Qualified Remodeler Magazine's top 500 contractors in the United States.

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As Senior Producer of Multimedia for BKI, Steve Wright brings an extensive background in multimedia production to the BKI team. Unique to BKI, Steve’s production experience is paired with a strong background in residential construction, which enables him to effectively lead the multimedia products effort within BKI. Steve is responsible for the development of the acclaimed Building Better Homes™ education series, and produces homebuilder sales and marketing videos, along with other educational and marketing video and web-based solutions for our clients.

After three years as the Executive Director of the 1995 Jimmy Carter Work Project and Project Manager for Habitat for Humanity - Los Angeles, Steve joined Broadview Media in Minneapolis. He was recruited to Broadview Media in 1996 to assist in building the programming group's "how-to" cable television series, "HOME Savvy" airing on The Learning Channel.

Steve was the Production Manager and in-house content expert for several television series, including "Before & After", "HOME Savvy", and "The Great Indoors", and was also Co-Executive Producer of the HGTV series, "New Spaces." Steve's construction, business, project management, and television production background bring a unique and appropriate blend of experience and skills to BKI and their building industry clients.

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As the President of Research for BKI, Jay is instrumental in the company’s mission to develop and promote educational tools and national programs to improve the performance of homes. With over 20 years of experience in sustainable building design and development, Jay is an expert in market transformation, building energy efficiency, and indoor environmental quality.

Having earned a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University, Dr. Hall’s professional skills include design and development of voluntary market-based programs, program implementation (i.e., marketing, outreach, and communications), market and technology assessment, and program evaluation.

Jay has worked for the last 16 years as a consultant to the EPA’s ENERGY STAR for Homes Program, and recently has been the lead consultant and Acting Program Manager to the U.S. Green Building Council's new Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes initiative (LEED for Homes).

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Jill Carey is the Program Manager of BKI’s Training Services.  Jill brings 15 years of conference and event planning experience to the BKI team.  Jill is the expert when it comes to pairing the specific needs of our customers with the expertise of our trainers.  She manages the scheduling, contracts, session documentation and promotional materials for our trainers.

Jill has worked in the field of energy efficiency and program development since 1999. In this time, she successfully managed professional speakers and has worked with many exceptional individuals and organizations that share the vision of building better homes and communities, while respecting our resources and the environment.  As an enthusiast for enjoying life, Jill practices yoga, sails, hikes, cross country skis, gardens and can't get enough of the tropics.

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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 the 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 & Environmental Building Association's Board President and as a member of the Minnesota Energy Code Advisory Committee.  

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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 & Environmental Building Association.

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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 training 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.

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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 for moderate climate. He teaches students to design, manage, and build crafted, healthy, safe, comfortable, durable, environmentally responsible 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 & 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 Builders' 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”.

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