About The Event
Deirdre Gilmore CPSM
Deirdre Gilmore CPSM, is President of TankGirl Marketing. This small but powerful team delivers strategic planning, business development and marketing services to Arizona’s AEC industry. Deirdre has spent the past 16 years focused on the AEC community, specializing in business and marketing planning, training and coaching, restructuring marketing departments, recruiting business development and marketing positions, and supporting those firms through the implementation of the tactics needed for success. Several of the top ENR firms turn to TankGirl year after year to ensure success.
Deirdre earned her Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Sonoma State University, is the past President of the Arizona Chapter of the Society for Marketing Professional Services and serves on the board of the Arizona Association of Economic Development.
Bill Fay
Bill Fay is the current Public works Director in the City of Maricopa, an Arizona City south of Phoenix and home to 50,000 residents. Prior to this, from 2011 to 2013 he was a City Prosecutor in Chandler and from 2005 until 2011 he was Chandlers Public Works Engineer and Director of CIP. He previously worked for a Phoenix law firm Folk and Associates specializing in construction law and design liability defense, other agencies, The AZ Attorney General’s Office, and private consulting civil engineering firms in AZ, CA, and WI.
Kandi Kawolsky
Procurement Manager
Design and Construction Procurement
City of Phoenix
Kandi Kawolsky has been with the City of Phoenix for 12 years, eight of those years in the Design and Construction Procurement Section. She holds a B.S. in Professional Aeronautics from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and an MBA from Ottawa University. Ms. Kawolsky worked in the Design and Construction Procurement Section as a Contracts Specialist I, as a Contracts Specialist II, and for the past year and a half as the Procurement Manager. She has procured and managed every delivery method, such as the Engineering and Architectural On-Calls, Professional Services projects, Design-Bid-Build projects, Design-Builds, CMARs, and JOCs.
A fun fact about Ms. Kawolsky is that she was an Air Traffic Controller in the US Air Force for six years and while stationed at Little Rock, AFB she had to bring in Air Force One with President Clinton on board.
Greg Abrams
Greg Abrams is currently the Vice President of Land Acquisition for the Arizona Division of PulteGroup which includes operations in both Phoenix and Tucson. Before joining Pulte, he was the Vice President of Land at another builder in the Phoenix market where he oversaw the land acquisition, planning and development operations. During his tenure there he helped grow the Division’s store count from less than 10 to nearly 35. Greg was also appointed by the City of Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton to the Development Advisory Board in 2014, where he advises City Management on policy matters that are specifically related to development. He graduated from Drexel University in Philadelphia with Bachelors of Science degrees in Civil Engineering and Architectural Engineering and began his professional career with Bechtel Corporation designing and building Fossil Power Plants in California and overseas. Greg has lived in Desert Ridge since 2007 with his wife Liz and their two children Evan (8 ½) and Ashley (6). When he’s not at work, Greg enjoys snow skiing, golfing and traveling with his family.
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