Event Description
Concrete is an essential element of construction; with no other material equaling its resilience, strength and wide availability, yet it is responsible for 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions. The session will discuss and analyze some of the strategies, tactics, innovations and best practices used to decarbonize concrete and move towards net zero.
Speaker
Frank Mruk, FAIA, FStratPS, RIBA, CSI, LEED AP, Founder and Executive Director, NY Center for Strategic Innovation
Moderator: Lanre Olusola, Intl. Assoc. AIA, FNIA, FNIM, FIMC, At-Large Director, AIA International and Country Representative - Nigeria
Speaker Bios
Frank Mruk, FAIA, FStratPS, RIBA, CSI, LEED AP is an architect and technology strategist. He is a founder and executive director of the NY Center for Strategic Innovation and the Boston Center for Smart Building Technology and is a Senior Director of Building Innovations at NRMCA. He was educated at Pratt Institute, Pace University and at the University of Oxford. He has taught Architecture at the School of Visual Arts, RISD, Roger Williams University, the Parsons School of Design, NYU, and at the New York Institute of Technology where he served as associate dean for the School of Architecture and Design. He has been a visiting critic at Oxford Brooks University, the University of Chile, the Fashion Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Technion University, Yale University and at MIT. Prior to his academic career he headed strategy at AIG and later served as VP of Strategy for Morgan Stanley’s Corporate Real Estate Division and headed Aga Khan winning Turkish Architect Emre Arolat’s NYC office. He co-authored the Association for Strategic Planning’s ‘Body of Knowledge’ certification program and the Institute of Management Accountant’s Strategy and Competitive Analysis Certification program. Frank is a past President of AIA Rhode Island, the NYC Association for Strategic Planning and Metro NY CSI. He has been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, National Public Radio and Entrepreneur Magazine. He is a Morse Stone Fellow and both, a Fellow of the AIA and the Strategic Planning Society.
Moderator: Born in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, Lanre Olusola founded Creation Consult in 1997 to deliver architecture and project management solutions to the growing built environment with Total Quality Management System as paradigm. Worked as Project Architect with Habitat Associates, consulting firm of Architects, from 1988 for upward of 14 years, executing various housing and Real Estate projects North of the Niger.
Traversed the length and breadth of Nigeria in major housing, institutional, hospitality, downstream products retail and real estate projects. Also worked as QC and Project Manager with Dynamic Corporation Llc (Hyattsville, MD) on the US Embassy NOX in Abuja, under the #OBO of US Department of State, with proven expertise in urban design, planning, implementation, project management and development.
A professional member of the Green Building Council Nigeria (GBCN) which is a member of the World Green Building Council (WGBC), contributes immensely to the growth and development of professional associations and administration through voluntary roles, by serving in various committees and responsibilities locally, nationally and internationally for upward of 15 years. I was elected NIA Council member in 2017 and chaired, NIA International Affairs 2019-23, representing the Institute in all international fora such as the #AUA, #CAA and #UIA.
Currently a member of the AIA Global Practice Committee (2024-25), I served as Council & Board member of Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN) from 2016-2022 and was the Secretary General 2020-22; Appointed first Country Representative of the American Institute of Architects (#AIAINTERNATIONAL) in Nigeria in 2020; NCARB AXP Supervisor in 2020; also appointed as member of the UIA PPC and Architecture for All workgroup in 2021. First At-Large Director of AIA International and a Board member from Nigeria, with oversight of Africa and Indo-Asia 2022-24; elected as Treasurer (first from Nigeria) of the Africa Union of Architects (AUA), ratified at the 13th AUA Congress in Rabat, Morocco in 2022.
