Learn Live Speakers

ICC is proud to work with these knowledgeable individuals who are making a difference in the built environment.

S P E A K E R S

Karl Aittaniemi

Director, Stakeholder Engagement & Management, Construction Research Centre, National Research Council of Canada.

Steve has been in the Code industry since 1972. He started as a Secretary/Permit Tech and Residential Plans Examiner and then later worked as a Building Inspector, Zoning Inspector, Code Enforcement Officer, Senior Plans Examiner, Senior Building Inspector, Assistant Building Official, Chief Building Official and Code Consultant.

Steve is certified in the following areas: Certified Building Official, LEED A.P., Certified Code Official, Permit Technician, Code Specialist, Plans Examiner, Building Inspector, Mechanical Inspector, Electrical Inspector, Accessibility/Usability Specialist, One-and two-family Electrical Inspector and Fire Inspector II.

William Clayton is a consultant with Colorado Code Consulting since 2015. He was a Builder/Designer from 1974 to 1991; Code Consultant, Plans Examiner, Inspector, and Instructor, and also worked for three different jurisdictions from 1991 to 2015: Chief Building Official for City of Lakewood, Colorado from 2007 to 2015, Plans Examiner for City of Westminster 1996 to 2007, Inspector Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, and City of Westminster, CO, 1991 to 1996. He was a past member of the IBC General Committee for the 2015 code cycle, ICC/IEBC Committee for the 2009 and 2012 code cycles, and member of the Colorado Chapter of the ICC Code Change Committee since 1999.

Ryan is the Code Council’s Vice President of Innovation. Colker works to identify emerging issues in the building industry, including how new technologies can be leveraged by codes and standards, methods to modernize the application of building regulations, and the development of new business strategies that support members and building safety professionals. He also serves as executive director of the Alliance for National and Community Resilience.

Jeffrey J. Cook is a renewable energy market and policy analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He has been on staff at NREL since 2014, and focuses on state and local policy, permitting, resilience, technology cost reduction, and distributed energy resource aggregation. He is currently the project leader for NREL's Solar Automated Permit Processing Platform. He also received his PhD in political science from Colorado State University in 2017, where he was an instructor of environmental and public policy courses. He received his Master of Science in environmental science and policy from the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay in 2012.

Dan Foster

Dr. S. K. Ghosh heads the consultancy, S. K. Ghosh Associates LLC, Palatine, IL, a member of the ICC Family of Solutions.

Dr. Ghosh has influenced seismic design provisions in the United States for many years. In addition to authoring many publications in the area of structural design, Dr. Ghosh has investigated and reported on structural performance in most recent earthquakes. He is currently leading a World Bank project on building code enforcement in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Dr. Ghosh is an Honorary Member of ACI, and is a Fellow of ASCE, SEI, and PCI. He is a member of ACI Committee 318, Standard Building Code, the ASCE 7 Standard Committee (Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures), and the Board of Governors of ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute.

John is the Technical Manager/ Education and an Instructor for the International Code Council (ICC). A certified Master Code Professional and Certified Fire Marshal; he has forty- five (45) other certifications, including thirty- six (36) from the ICC. Having earned a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Delaware, he has also studied Architecture at Georgia Tech and completed courses in Emergency Management and Fire Prevention at the National Emergency Training Center.

Formerly the Director of the Department of Permits and Inspections for Frederick County Maryland, he is an ICC Honorary Member, has served on the ICC- Evaluations Services (ICC- ES) Board of Directors, the ICC Code Correlating Committee, the Board of Directors for BOCA International, Inc., Maryland’s Governor’s Smart Code Strategy Group, Chaired the ICC Board for International Professional Standards and is an Honorary Member and Past President of the Maryland Building Officials Association.

He currently teaches ICC administrative, building, residential, existing building, permit technician, property maintenance, zoning, green building, fire, wildland/urban interface, energy courses, and is a contract instructor at the Dept. of Homeland Security, United States Fire Administration, National Fire Academy, Emmitsburg, MD. He received the ICC Educator of the Year award in 2010.

Howard Herndon has over forty-years of expertise in various fields of the electrical industry including thorough knowledge of electrical systems design, short circuit, coordination, arc-flash studies and equipment field testing. In addition, Howard has extensive experience working with distribution equipment manufacturers. With extensive experience in electrical distribution equipment testing, inspection, repair, codes and standards, Howard’s experience also includes working with Intertek (ETL) on equipment manufacturing, equipment modifications, and control panel NRTL listings.

Howard instructs seminars related to electrical theory, application, and electrical safety as well as electrical system compliance with national codes and standards including the NEC, NFPA70B and NFPA70E. Howard has served on the Board of Directors of International Association of Electrical Inspectors (IAEI-Southern Nevada Chapter) since 2001. He has held the positions of Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer, has written articles for IAEI Magazine and serves on the Education committee, both planning and teaching electrical educational programs.

Greg Karow is currently a building code specialist for Inspectron Inc, a contract inspection and consulting firm. Previous career paths included Staff Instructor with the International Code Council and with the State of Minnesota Codes and Standards Division. Greg has instructed in a Building Inspection Technology program at a local community college. Greg is a certified building official in Minnesota and holds ICC certifications as a Certified Building Official, ICC Plans Examiner, ICC Building Inspector and ICC Building Code Specialist.

Glenn Mathewson began his construction career in 1996 as a laborer and carpenter’s apprentice. In 2005, he became a building, plumbing and mechanical inspector for the City of Westminster, Colorado, where for the next 13 years, he worked as an inspector and plan reviewer and earned his Master Code Professional Certification from ICC. In 2012, he started BuildingCodeCollege.com, an ICC- and AIA-approved online school. Glenn has authored over 100 technical articles in publications such as “Professional Deck Builder,” “The Journal of Light Construction,” “Fine Homebuilding” and “The Building Safety Journal,” as well as ICC’s book, Deck Construction Based on the 2009 International Residential Code and a 2nd edition based on the 2021.

In 2011, he became Technical Advisor to the North American Deck and Railing Association (NADRA), where he assists the association with code-related initiatives and the development of the Master Deck Professional-Codes Certification. He represented the decking industry in the ICC code development process for the creation of many of the deck provisions in the 2015 and 2021 editions of the International Residential Code. He is a professional speaker and educator in residential codes, with audiences ranging from contractors to building officials at both public and private events.

President, The Mozingo Code Group, LLC.  In addition to being a plans analyst and inspector for jurisdictions, Shaunna takes great pride in assisting jurisdictions, in the U.S. and Internationally, in adopting their newer Building and Energy Codes and providing education on their adopted codes. She does this by taking part in the code development process at the national level, participating on ICC’s code development committees and attending all the code hearings, as well as hosting collaboration meetings for national stakeholders to gain consensus on important code issues. Shaunna consults and teaches on all the family of I-codes but is best known for her work in Energy Codes. She has served as a building inspector for the China and U.S. Solar Decathlon Competitions and co-authored the “2018 Energy Code Essentials” for the ICC.

Shaunna has been awarded the Department of Energy’s Jeffrey A Johnson Award, ICC and IMT’s Standard Bearer’s Award, and Southwest Energy Efficiency Project’s Leadership in Energy Codes Award, all for her work in the advancement of building Energy Codes and performance. She is a past president of the Colorado Chapter of ICC and is the Co-Chair of the Colorado Chapter’s Education Committee.

Kimberly Paarlberg is a Senior Staff Architect in Technical Services with the International Code Council (ICC). Her experience with ICC includes work in the plan review and code development departments with responsibilities for code development, providing code interpretations, instructing technical seminars and authoring and reviewing instruction materials, code commentary and publication articles. Kimberly serves as code development secretary for the IBC Means of Egress/Accessibility and IBC and IRC Structural committees. She is ICC representative for development of the referenced technical standard, ICC/ANSI A117.1 “Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities.” Kimberly is the staff for the ICC Health Care Committee (HCC) and the Building Code Action Committee (BCAC). She is also secretariat for the ICC 300 - Bleachers, Folding and Telescopic Seating and Grandstands, and the ICC 500 - Design and Construction of Storm Shelters.

Samuel Palmer is the Assistant Director for the Clark County Department of Building and Fire Prevention in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has oversight responsibilities for both the building and fire prevention aspects of permitting, plans check, engineering, inspections, public response and code compliance issues for all occupied structures in Clark County. The Department currently consists of about 250 staff including engineers, inspectors and administrative staff. Clark County encompasses approximately 7,600 square miles and has a population over 2,000,000, growing by another 200,000-300,000 visitors on weekends and holidays.

Jim Cika

James (Tim) T. Ryan CBO, is the Executive Director of the International Association of Building Officials. He served the City of Overland Park, Kansas for almost 40 years in the Building Safety Division as a field inspector, plans examiner, field supervisor and as Code Administrator from 1998 until 2017. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Construction Management and Technology from Pittsburg State University and is certified in 15 separate categories of building code administration and management. Tim served on the BOCA Board of Directors, including as President of the Board; and on the ICC Board of Directors. He is serving as a presidential appointee to the Board of Directors of the National Institute of Building Sciences; as appointed by President Obama. He is the only building official ever appointed to a position by a setting President of the United States. He is an experienced training instructor and public speaker. He serves on the ICC Codes and Standards Council, Code Correlation Committee and as a moderator for ICC’s code development hearings.

CEO of the Australian Building Codes Board

Kevin Scott is President of KH Scott & Associates LLC providing fire and life safety consulting, plan review, code interpretation and application, and training. Kevin has extensive experience in the development of fire safety, building safety and hazardous materials regulations. Kevin has actively worked for over 35 years in the development of fire code, building code and fire safety regulations at the local, state, national and international levels. Kevin previously worked as a Senior Regional Manager with the International Code Council, and before that, he was Deputy Chief for the Kern County Fire Department, California, where he worked for 30 years. He has developed and presented many seminars on a variety of technical subjects including means of egress, high-piled combustible storage, hazardous materials, and plan review and inspection practices. He has authored or co-authored over ten books including the 2021 Fire Code Essentials and Significant Changes to the 2021 International Fire Code.

John “Buddy” Showalter is the Code Council’s Senior Staff Engineer in the Product Development department. For the past nine years, Showalter worked at the American Wood Council (AWC) and served as Vice President of Technology Transfer. There, he oversaw the implementation and organization of AWC’s technology transfer program after its internal reorganization in 1995. He also was responsible for overseeing publications, website, helpdesk, education, and other technical media.

Gary Anthony Gauthier, a director of Government Relations PMG Technical Resources for the International Code Council, is responsible for developing, coordinating, directing and implementing programs to ensure the successful completion of the team’s goals and objectives as they apply to the International Plumbing Code (IPC), International Mechanical Code (IMC), International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC), and related services and programs of the International Code Council.

David A. Tompos, LEED AP BC+D, is president and CEO of NTA and has the responsibility of the overall strategic vision and direction of the company. He also oversees all government relations, which includes NTA’s involvement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and state agencies.

Judy Zakreski is the vice president of Global Services for the International Code Council, leading the consolidation of the global activities of the Code Council’s business units and subsidiaries under a united strategy to capitalize on synergies and achieve growth. Zakreski also engages with the U.S. government and other associations on matters of trade policy.

Prior to joining the Code Council in April 2018, Zakreski founded and operated China Trade Strategies, a boutique consulting company providing bi-cultural expertise in the healthcare and trade finance industries for Chinese and Western companies.