Mike Allen is one of Washington’s most influential and well-connected journalists. He is the co-founder and executive editor of Axios, a disruptive media company delivering news and insights on politics, business, media, and tech. The company, whose name means “worthy” in Greek, specializes in high-quality news and analysis easily shared among the country’s influential readers and across social platforms. He is also the co-creator and executive producer of Axios on HBO, a documentary-news series that interviews the world’s top leaders and covers the most consequential topics of the day, fusing together the “smart brevity” of Axios’ digital reporting with cinematic, documentary storytelling. In addition to starting Axios, Allen was a co-founder at POLITICO, the digital media company that upended and revolutionized political and policy journalism in Washington, New York, and Europe. He not only reported on but also drove the day’s conversations in and around the Beltway. His sharp journalistic experience and coveted insider status make him an ideal choice to discuss the latest political happenings. In presentations, he offers his non-partisan, energetic and up-to-the-minute insider perspective on the political issues of the day, the Trump administration, the Republican Congress, and building a business in an unsteady economy. Exclusively represented by HYPERLINK "http://www.leadingauthorities.com/" Leading Authorities speakers bureau, he has been praised for his dedication, passion, and unmatched ability to give a political story dimension and context.

Rob Eaton, Director of Purchasing & Business Analytics for Townsend Building Supply, is a retired Army Aviation Warrant Officer. He has been with Townsend Building Supply since 2012, with a 2 year hiatus as Chief Operating Officer of a portable buildings manufacturer.

Craig Webb is president of Webb Analytics, a consulting and research company that helps construction supply companies identify and then respond to trends, threats, and opportunities. Webb is one of the nation’s leading experts on building material dealers and distributors. He spent 12 years as editor-in-chief of ProSales, the nation’s most honored publication for building material dealers, as well as five years as editor-in-chief of Remodeling magazine. Webb Analytics builds and expands on Craig’s lifelong career in the news and information businesses. He has worked for The Wall Street Journal, McGraw-Hill, United Press International and a variety of magazines, newsletters and newspapers in the U.S. and Europe. He has traveled to 49 states and several foreign countries visiting dealers, builders and remodelers. That legwork is the foundation of the services that Webb Analytics has provided since its founding in September 2018. Webb was born just outside Washington, D.C., grew up in South Bend, Ind., and received his bachelor’s degree in journalism and history from Indiana University in 1976. He lives in Washington.

As the Representative of the 3rd Congressional District of Missouri, Blaine is committed to representing the interests of hard-working people by being a strong voice for them in Congress. Representing the 13 counties that make up the 3rd Congressional District of Missouri, Blaine is a native of St. Elizabeth, MO where his family has lived for four generations. Along with his strong agriculture background, Blaine is a small businessman, having been in the banking and insurance industry for over 30 years. He also served as a bank regulator for the state of Missouri earlier in his career. From 1999 to 2005, Blaine was elected to the Missouri State House of Representatives. During his time in the Legislature, he served as Chairman of the Financial Services Committee and was elected by his colleagues to be the House Republican Caucus Chairman. After leaving office, he was appointed by Gov. Matt Blunt to serve as the Director of the Missouri Division of Tourism. Blaine has represented the 3rd Congressional District of Missouri in the United States House of Representatives since 2009. In the 117th Congress, he serves on the House Financial Services Committee, as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Small Business. In the 116th Congress, he served on the House Financial Services Committee, as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions and on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. In the 115th Congress, Blaine served on the House Financial Services Committee as Chairman of Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee and as Vice Chairman of the House Small Business Committee. In the 113th Congress, Blaine was ranked Missouri's most effective lawmaker. The Legislative Effectiveness Project, run by professors at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, measures how successful a given representative is at getting things done. The average score for members of Congress was 1.0. Blaine received a 2.344. Blaine is a member of the Knights of Columbus, Eldon Chamber of Commerce, Missouri Farm Bureau, National Rifle Association and a lifelong member of St. Lawrence Catholic Church. He is a graduate of Lincoln University in Jefferson City, MO, where he earned a degree with distinction in political science and a minor in business administration. Blaine and his wife, Jackie, have three children and six grandchildren.

Congressman Adrian Smith has earned praise for his leadership, hard work, and dedication to Nebraska common sense. Smith has tackled issues ranging from biofuels and other forms of domestic energy to transportation research and development to fashioning legislation promoting rural America. Smith has consistently voted against tax increases, government bailouts, and was unwavering in his opposition of the Obama administration's misguided health care bill now creating massive uncertainty for our nation's job creators. He has earned a reputation as a solid conservative through his votes to protect the rights of gun owners, efforts to limit the scope of government, and his strong pro-life voting record. Smith, who serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means, actively promotes access for Nebraska agriculture products in Asia, South America, and throughout the world. He supports trade agreements which will continue to create new opportunities for our agriculture producers and their products to keep Nebraska’s economy strong. He has also fought for tax relief for Nebraska families, ag producers, and small business owners, including helping to craft the first tax code overhaul to be signed into law in a generation. Smith serves as ranking member of the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, and as a member of the Subcommittee on Health. The Gering native, whose family has called Nebraska home for six generations, was first introduced to politics by his grandfather. Prior to his election to Congress, Smith served his hometown as a member of the city council. He then represented District 48 for eight years in the Unicameral. He and his wife, Andrea, reside in Gering, Nebraska, with their son, Ezekiel.

Prianka Sharma currently serves as Assistant Chief Counsel at the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. In this role she has worked closely with the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Interior, and Commerce, business and trade groups, and the White House’s Office of Management and Budget to ensure that the voices of small businesses are heard within the regulatory process. Prianka’s issue portfolio includes agriculture, energy, and natural resource law and policy. Prianka is also active in and holds leadership positions in various organizations that support her interest in environment, energy, and natural resource policy including the American Bar Association’s Section on Environment, Energy and Resources, Women in Government Relations’ taskforce on Energy, Environment and Agriculture, and the Environmental Law Institute. She also sits on the Board for the Washington Council of Lawyers, and handles a variety of pro bono matters for clients in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the Office of Advocacy, Prianka served as a Judicial Law Clerk at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and as a Litigation Law Fellow for the D.C. Volunteer Lawyer’s Project. Prianka received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and her Juris Doctor degree from The American University Washington College of Law. She is a member of the bars of Illinois, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Larry has worked in the Department’s motor carrier safety program for 32 years. His office is responsible for strategic planning, program evaluations to assess the effectiveness of FMCSA safety initiatives, leading the Agency’s regulatory development activities and the preparation of the associated economic and environmental analyses to support rulemaking actions, evaluating petitions for rulemaking, and evaluating requests for waivers and application for exemptions from the safety regulations. His office also has responsibility for managing the Agency’s Medical Review Board, a Federal Advisory Committee comprised of five private-sector physicians, and the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners program which provides minimum training and testing requirements for more than 35,000 State-licensed healthcare professionals conducting physical examinations of interstate truck and bus drivers. In addition, his office manages the Agency’s Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) and serves as the FMCSA’s liaison with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Government Accountability Office (GAO), and the Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). He began his Federal career in 1989 as a Mechanical Engineer responsible for developing truck and bus safety regulations for the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Motor Carriers. He served as Chief of the Vehicle and Roadside Operations Division from 1999 through February 2005, and Director of the Office of Bus and Truck Standards from 2005 to July 2007, when he was appointed Associate Administrator for Policy. He holds a B.S. in Physics from American University and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from George Washington University.

Mr. Stanley is the Director of the Office of Materials Industries (OMI) in the Industry & Analysis (I&A) unit of the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA). Mr. Stanley oversees an office of 10 industry and trade specialists that monitor a wide range of sectors, including critical minerals, building products, chemicals, forest products and ferrous and nonferrous metals. The office undertakes industry trade analysis, shapes U.S. trade policy, participates in trade negotiations, and organizes trade promotion and facilitation programs to improve the global competitiveness of the U.S. materials industries. The office works with other U.S. agencies in developing a public policy environment that advances U.S. competitiveness at home and abroad. Mr. Stanley joined the Commerce Department in 1983, after graduating from North Carolina State University.

Matt leads analysis on some of the toughest building product topics, including product-level insights for our forecasts. Prior to joining John Burns Real Estate Consulting, Matt worked as the Senior Manager Economic and Market Analytics for Fortune Brands Home and Security.  There he led econometric forecasting and research which drove the market outlook process.  Most recently he was the Senior Manager Economic Planning for TTX Company where he led modeling and forecasts of North American intermodal rail loadings and provided updates to stakeholders on economic conditions. Matt has a BA (Honors) in Economics and a MA in Economics and Finance from the University of Alberta.   He is a CFA® charterholder, a Certified Business Economist® (CBE)  and has a Graduate Certificate (with distinction) from the Harvard Business Analytics Program. In his free time, Matt enjoys watching and playing basketball.

Danushka Nanayakkara-Skillington is NAHB Assistant Vice President for Forecasting and Analysis. She oversees the activities of the Forecasting & Analysis section of the Economics group which includes housing market analysis, industry surveys, developing and maintaining national, regional, long-term, and remodeling expenditures forecasts. Before being promoted to Assistant Vice President, she worked at NAHB as a Senior Economist, responsible for state and local analysis. Prior to joining NAHB, Danushka worked at J.D. Power as a Senior Economic Analyst in the automotive industry. She holds a B.A. degree in Economics and Business Administration from Otterbein University and M.A. degree in Applied Economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Michael Fratantoni is MBA's Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of Research and Industry Technology. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing MBA's industry surveys and benchmarking studies, economic and mortgage originations forecasts, industry technology efforts, and policy development research for both single-family and commercial/multifamily markets. Additionally, Fratantoni is a member of the Board of Directors of MISMO and the membership committee of MERS. Prior to joining MBA, Fratantoni worked in risk management and senior economist roles at Washington Mutual and Fannie Mae. He received a Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in economics from The College of William and Mary, and has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Washington, and Johns Hopkins, George Washington, and Georgetown Universities.

A Lifetime of Experience . . .
 Starting in construction as a teenager, Ken built five houses in his last two years of high school. Then serving in the Navy Seabees for fourteen years, he did construction in Spain, Cuba, Guam, Japan, and various cities throughout the United States. 
 Ken is a carpenter, mason, plumber, electrician, heating/air conditioning/refrigeration technician, steel worker, heavy equipment operator, and surveyor. He has formal training in estimating, project management, stucco application, building inspection, and government contracting, and has taken about a dozen technical training courses. Construction projects include schools, hospitals, office buildings and office tenant improvements, retail, military barracks, distribution centers, warehouses, roads, bridges, and airport runways. In addition, he has influenced the construction of over 25,000 single-family and multi-family houses while working in construction or supply chain management roles at four of the top ten U.S. homebuilding companies.
. . . Now a Passion to Lower Costs     Author Website: www.howmuchisthemilk.com Ken’s company website: www.kenzaiusa.com

Identical twins Terry and Lee Resnick are partners in Resnick Associates, a nationally recognized business succession, estate planning, and life insurance advisory and implementation planning firm with offices in Kansas City and Harrisburg, PA. They have spoken to and worked extensively with a large number of industry trade associations and their business owner members individually. Coca-Cola has also had the firm present to their privately owned bottling company owners. Resnick Associates has written many published articles on the topics of business succession, estate planning and life insurance due diligence including a feature article for Nation’s Business, the largest circulated business magazine in the country at the time. Resnick Associates was also featured in the book, Streetwise Marketing Plan. Terry and Lee have also been invited guests at law schools and are co-founders of the Elizabethtown College Family Business Center in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, one of the largest college based family business centers in the United States.

Identical twins Terry and Lee Resnick are partners in Resnick Associates, a nationally recognized business succession, estate planning, and life insurance advisory and implementation planning firm with offices in Kansas City and Harrisburg, PA. They have spoken to and worked extensively with a large number of industry trade associations and their business owner members individually. Coca-Cola has also had the firm present to their privately owned bottling company owners. Resnick Associates has written many published articles on the topics of business succession, estate planning and life insurance due diligence including a feature article for Nation’s Business, the largest circulated business magazine in the country at the time. Resnick Associates was also featured in the book, Streetwise Marketing Plan. Terry and Lee have also been invited guests at law schools and are co-founders of the Elizabethtown College Family Business Center in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, one of the largest college based family business centers in the United States.

Christi Powell is the WBE market manager for 84 lumber. She has worked as an accountant, project manager, business development manager, and account manager in the commercial and residential construction industry for over 25 years. She also has experience in Fire and Rescue, guiding startup companies. Entrepreneurship and being the catalyst for networking groups. A large part of Christi’s success comes from her communication and supporting businesses with compassion. She finds fulfillment in making an impact with inclusivity in the construction, manufacturing, and industrial industries. Christi holds an award for the 2021 GSA business Upstate Women of influence and the 2021 greater Women business councils WBE advocate of the Year for the WBENC National Organization.

Gina Schaefer is founder and CEO of A Few Cool Hardware Stores. Gina's big passion is for developing urban markets, supporting small businesses and helping women to succeed in all aspects of the hardware industry. A self-proclaimed "localist", Gina has tirelessly focused on the "Return to Main Street" movement in the District to promote Shop Local campaigns and community revitalization in urban areas. She and her husband are members of the Ace Hardware Cooperative and own and operate 13 hardware stores in DC, Baltimore, Alexandria, VA and Montgomery County. Gina has received numerous accolades for her many accomplishments, including: recipient of the Women Who Mean Business award from the Washington Business Journal of 2009, recognized as an industry Top Gun in 2011 by the National Retail Hardware Association, honored by Profiles in Diversity Journal as one of its Women Worth Watching in 2013 and recognized by Hardware and Building Supply Dealer as one of 14 of the 2016 "People of the Year." She also serves on the Corporate Board of CCA Global and the nonprofit board of The Institute for Local Self-Reliance. When her busy schedule allows, Gina likes to relax by making greeting cards (she's a big believer in the power of the written note), kayaking, taking spin classes, traveling, reading and, of course, mentoring other small business owners.

Stephen Sallah is President and CEO of LBM Advantage. Sallah joined ENAP, LBM Advantage’s predecessor, in 2008 as Chief Financial Officer and has been serving in his current role since January 2011. Prior to ENAP, Sallah worked at IBM for sixteen years. He began at IBM as an engineer and worked in various operational roles in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. and Burlington, Vt. Sallah began his career in the U.S. Navy. He served as a Nuclear Engineer and Submarine Officer on the USS Norfolk out of Norfolk, VA; a fast-attack Los Angeles Class Submarine. He served a total of seven years of active duty and completed his service in the Naval Reserves, retiring in 2004 as a Commander.

John Perna, President of Hamilton Building Supply in Hamilton, N.J., has his career in the lumber and building materials industry, and has worked in every capacity at Hamilton Building Supply, as well as working on construction crews. Under John’s direction, Hamilton Building Supply has continued to provide the best possible product and service mix it can offer to professional builders and remodelers in the tri-state area.

Mark Hopkins is the COO of Hancock Lumber Company in Maine. Mark is responsible for Hancock’s retail division, which includes a network of lumberyards and design showrooms, as well as wall panel and truss manufacturing operations. Mark brings over 26 years of experience working at Hancock Lumber, covering everything from counter sales to Account Management, General Manager and Sales Manager. Mark’s enthusiasm, drive and commitment to excellence truly set him apart. Mark’s favorite part of his job is the people and being connected to all the employees, contractors, and vendors, helping to build lasting relationships that the 174-year-old company is known for.

Mike joined Espy Lumber Company in 1982 as an outside salesman, becoming General Manager in 1986 and Vice President in 1993. On July 1rst 2013 Mike was appointed President of the company by the Board of Directors of Espy Lumber Co. He was born in Macon, Georgia, grew up in Vidalia, and attended Valdosta State University where his studies focused on business and marketing. Mike has been active in both community and industry affairs: Point Comfort Property Owners Association as a Board Member, President for 3 terms and an ARB member since 2000, Hilton Head Baseball Association (Board of Directors) and a Dixie Youth Baseball coach for 8 years. Hilton Head Home Builders Association (Board of Directors, Associate Council Vice President, Associate of the year 1995), State Director for Home Builders Association 1998, SBMA (Board of Directors), BMSA (Board of Directors 2018 to present). He is married with two grown boys and is a current member of St. Luke’s Church of Hilton Head.