Julian Anderson is a member of the Global Board and a founding shareholder and President of the North American practice of international firm Rider Levett Bucknall. Rider Levett Bucknall is a leading organization that provides project management, cost and schedule management, and advisory services to the construction industry. Julian has built his career at Rider Levett Bucknall spending 46 years at the company, the last 24 years based in Phoenix, Arizona.

As President of the Rider Levett Bucknall he is responsible for facilitating RLB’s North America Strategic Plan and for the day to day management of the national aspects of the business. For more than 30 years he has been intimately involved with RLB’s research work, including the development of its nationally recognized Construction Cost Index.

He continues to provide advice to clients on the procurement and cost management of construction projects also acting as an expert witness in mediations, arbitrations and litigations. Julian is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor, Certified Cost Professional and licensed general contractor.

Richard Branch is Chief Economist for Dodge Construction Network. His primary focus is to ensure Dodge’s preeminence in tracking, analyzing and forecasting construction activity and to work closely with national, regional, and trade media to share this insight. This includes continued execution of the monthly Dodge Momentum Index and National Construction Starts research, as well as serving as anchorman for the prestigious and widely circulated Dodge Construction Outlook—a seminal reference for the industry.

He is an industry veteran with over 20 years of experience as an economist at various consulting and publishing firms, and is well versed in helping organizations gain the insight they need to enhance their profitability. Most recently, Richard served as Senior Economist at Dodge and his 10-year tenure has included developing a construction forecast model for Canada, as well as several in-depth reports across key verticals such as education and healthcare.

He is also a contributing author for the Construction Market Forecasting Service (CMFS), which provides five-year projections for 22 U.S. building types. Richard holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Boston College, and an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Ottawa in Canada.

Ken Simonson has been Chief Economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, the leading construction trade association, since 2001. He provides insight into the economy and what it implies for construction and related industries through frequent media interviews, presentations, and the Data DIGest, his weekly one-page e-newsletter that goes to more than 20,000 subscribers.

Ken has over 40 years of experience analyzing, advocating, and communicating about economic and tax issues. He currently serves as an advisor to the Census Bureau’s construction data re-engineering initiative. He is a Fellow and past president of the National Association for Business Economics, and he is co-director of the Tax Economists Forum, a professional meeting group he co-founded in 1982.

Ken has a BA in economics from the University of Chicago, and an MA in economics from Northwestern University.