Dominic Sims joins board of the International Building Quality Centre

The International Building Quality Centre (IBQC) welcomed International Code Council Chief Executive Officer Dominic Sims, CBO, as one of its newest members to its board of directors. Since 2012, Sims has been responsible for the overall activities and financial performance of the Code Council, including its six subsidiaries. Prior to his work with the association, Sims served as the CEO of the Southern Building Code Congress International and helped guide the consolidation of the three regional code entities that formed the International Code Council. Sims serves on the board of the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, the National Institute of Building Sciences and several other professional associations, and previously was the executive director of the Palm Beach County, Florida, Planning, Zoning and Building Department.

“I am excited about the opportunity to serve on the board of the International Building Quality Centre,” said Sims. “The Code Council has been active in a growing number of global collaborations to advance the building safety mission, and the work that the Centre is doing is fully aligned with our efforts in the United States and around the world. Through this new engagement with the IBQC, we are in an excellent position to help drive positive transformation around the globe.”

Sims joins a board consisting of notable construction law reformers from both Australia and around the world, including Honorary Consul Kim Lovegrove, a senior construction lawyer in Australia and a senior law reform consultant to the World Bank; Neil Savery, chief executive officer of the Australian Building Codes Board; Professor Charles Lemckert, head of the School of Design and the Built Environment at the University of Canberra; Professor Robert Whittaker, director of the Royal College of Building of the Australian Institute of Building; Bronwyn Weir, a leading construction lawyer and law reformer who co-authored the Building Confidence Report; Michael De Lint, World Bank consultant and director of regulatory reform and technical standards at Residential Construction of Ontario; Alejandro Espinosa-Wang, senior private-sector development specialist at the World Bank; Professor José Torero, head of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at University College London; and Stephanie Barwise, a preeminent UK-based barrister with expertise in civil engineering and construction disputes.

As many countries scrutinize building quality in the wake of devastating fires in high-rise buildings, including the 2014 Lacrosse fire in Melbourne and the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, the IBQC — launched earlier this year at the University of Canberra in Australia — provides a collaborative forum through which systems, practices and codes can be examined and international best practice solutions in building regulation and control from around the world can be found. It aims to provide a sounding board or a point of reference for stakeholders who wish to develop codes and laws that improve public safety, promote cost-effective construction systems and increase sustainability within the built environment.

Currently, the IBQC is benchmarking and identifying jurisdictions that have pioneered and implemented emerging construction technology and enlightened construction systems and practices. It has also begun compiling an online library of best practice research publications and papers for building control and regulation, which cover a multitude of areas, including fire engineering, cladding, probity control, enforcement, insurance, culture, dispute resolution, import quality mechanisms and more. Ultimately, the IBQC will serve as a collaborative medium through which systems, practices, regulations, codes and laws that provide best practice solutions and answers will be identified, endorsed and encouraged.