The US construction economy continues to flourish as we enter 2018, but this bull run will eventually come to an end. In addition, the current bull market is causing performance issues on construction projects due to the extreme shortage of skilled craftworkers and inflationary headwinds. Moreover, despite the significant increase in put-in-place construction revenue over the past decade, there has not been an associated increase in premium to the contract surety industry. Bill McConnell will address these issues and many others in his presentation.
William J. McConnell, PE, JD, MSCE, CDT, is the co-founder and CEO of The Vertex Companies, Inc. Bill has a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Maine, a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Denver, a Master of Science degree from Columbia University, and he is working towards his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado. Bill also completed a part-time three-year business program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bill has worked in the construction industry for nearly his entire life. He rose through the ranks from a union construction worker during high school and college summers, to a project engineer at a top 50 construction company, to a senior executive at Vertex. In addition, Bill is a top expert witness for construction disputes as he has testified over 150 times, most notably for cost and/or standard of care opinions. Many construction, engineering, and law organizations have published his articles and reports over the past two decades.