Speakers

Rich Karlgaard
Monday, March 16, 2009: 8:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m
“The U.S. and Global Economies, 2009”

Rich Karlgaard is the publisher of Forbes, the nation’s highest-circulation business publication, and editor of Forbes ASAP, a magazine covering the major developments, trends and implications of the Information Age. Karlgaard joined Forbes in 1992 to start Forbes ASAP along with the writer and futurist George Gilder and Forbes chief executive Steve Forbes. While editing ASAP, Karlgaard worked with writers such as Tom Wolfe, Mark Helprin, Camille Paglia, Peter Drucker, Robert Kaplan, Stanley Crouch, Esther Dyson, Gore Vidal, William F. Buckley, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, William Gibson, Kurt Vonnegut, and many others. Before starting ASAP, Karlgaard co-founded and edited Upside magazine, a monthly publication covering the computer industry and high-tech investments. Karlgaard also co-founded the 2,500 member Churchill Club, a nonprofit public affairs organization in Silicon Valley. For this effort, he was named a Northern California winner of the 1997 Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award. In 1997, as a hobby, Karlgaard co-founded garage.com with Guy Kawasaki and Craig Johnson. garage.com is the leading Web-based startup capital firm in the world, whose investors include Compaq chairman Ben Rosen. Karlgaard remains a board member of garage.com. Karlgaard is a regular guest on CNN/FN's "Digital Jam,” an acclaimed industry speaker, and has written several Manager's Journal columns for The Wall Street Journal. In 1998, he was named to Upside magazine's Elite 100 in the computer and communications industries. He earned his degree at Stanford. He lives in Northern California with his wife and two children. He is originally from Bismarck, North Dakota.


Scot Horst
Monday, March 16, 2009: 9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m
“Concrete and Revolution”

Scot Horst serves as chair of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC), LEED Steering Committee and is widely recognized as a leader in the sustainable design movement. During his chairmanship, he has overseen the development of LEED for Core and Shell, LEED for Schools, Revisions to LEED for Existing Buildings, LEED for Neighborhood Development, LEED for Homes, LEED for Healthcare and extensive work on the next version of LEED that will establish a new structure for a single LEED known as the LEED bookshelf. For this work, he is the 2008 recipient of the USGBC’s Leadership Award in the LEED category.

Mr. Horst also serves as President of 7group, a green building consultancy, and the Athena Institute International, a non-profit organization that focuses on sustainable materials and life cycle assessment.


Chris Nelson
Monday, March 16, 2009: 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
"Housing Review – Mega Trends"


Arthur C. (Christian "Chris") Nelson, PhD, FAICP is Presidential Professor of City and Metropolitan Planning and Director of Metropolitan Research, University of Utah

Dr. Nelson's work has been front page news on the USA Today and the Wall Street Journal, and has also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Financial Times, among numerous other newspapers. He has been interviewed for National Public Radio, CBS, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, and ABC.

Dr. Nelson has received numerous distinctions for his work including three university teaching honors, a university scholarship award, and a university research award. His students have won numerous awards including the national prize for the best planning student project.

He is also an academic leader. Dr. Nelson founded the graduate real estate certificate program at Georgia Tech and he founded the urban planning program for Virginia Tech at its Alexandria Center where he was also co-director of the Metropolitan Institute. He recently accepted an appointment to a part of the country where he is from as one of a dozen Presidential Professors among a faculty of 2,000 at the University of Utah where he is the founding Director of Metropolitan Research.

In 2000-01, Dr. Nelson served HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research as a special advisor in the Clinton and Bush administrations. In this capacity, he facilitated new and expanded graduate programs in urban economics that are training the next generation of urban scholars in economics and related fields.

Dr. Nelson has 18 books and more than 200 other publications to his credit many of which are standards in the fields of urban development management, real estate and public policy, and infrastructure finance.


Robert Garbini
Monday, March 16, 2009: 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m
"State of the Industry"

Robert Garbini joined NRMCA in December, 1991 as the Marketing Director of Building Systems, and was named president in 1998. Prior to joining NRMCA, Mr. Garbini was the owner of Foundation Constructors in McLean, Virginia, a design/build construction company.

Mr. Garbini holds a Masters of Science degree in Structural Engineering from The George Washington University in Washington, DC and a Bachelor of Science in Business from Penn State University. He is a registered professional engineer in 7 states and the District of Columbia.