When
Apr 14, 2026 - Apr 16, 2026
Where
,CONNECT WITH TOP DECISION MAKERS
BuiltWorlds' CEO Annual Meeting is an invite-only, intimate, peer-to-peer opportunity for the industry’s leading CEOs to meet and discuss trends, challenges, and opportunities arising from the building and infrastructure industry’s accelerating pace of technological change. The group will examine the evolving AEC industry from an executive’s perspective, exploring what it takes for construction companies to remain competitive, profitable, and relevant in it.
This special event is limited to members of BuiltWorlds' Business Strategy Track. Members attending the Industry CEOs Annual Meeting will also automatically be registered for BuiltWorlds' Chicago Global Summit, taking place on the 15th and 16th in the same venue.
Past speakers include...
Agenda
BuiltWorlds’ CEO Meeting is an annual gathering of BuiltWorlds’ Business Strategy Track members intended to provide a small, private event with two days of exclusive programming, featuring innovative industry experts and executives from around the globe.
Attendance at the 2026 CEO Annual Meeting is strictly restricted to members of the Business Strategy Track. For more information on how to join, please complete this interest form, and a member of the BuiltWorlds team will be in touch with additional information.
Day 1 Schedule
CEO Forum Registration and Opening Luncheon
Speakers:
Matt Gray, Co-Chair, Graycor; Executive Chairman, BuiltWorlds
Welcome and State of the Industry
The event will kick-off with a candid snapshot of the current AECO landscape, key market signals, and the strategic forces shaping the industry ahead from the point of view of leading general and specialty trade contractors.
Speakers:
Rosemarie Lipman, CEO, BuiltWorlds
Brian Helm, CEO, Helm Group
Tom Scarangello, Managing Principal, Senior Advisor, Thornton Tomasetti
Brad Crawford, CEO, Rival Holdings
State of the Industry Continued - Audience Q&A and Discussion
Audience Q&A and discussion following the talks provided by the speakers above.
Break
AEC Mergers and Acquisitions Strategy in the Era of Industry Disruption
This session will cover the rapid evolution of AI within PE; specifically, how in the last two years, PE has moved from ‘does AI provide real ROI’ to this year, PE organizations consistently stating that ‘over 90% of PE-backed organizations now say they get value or significant value with AI’.
The question for PE-backed organizations is no longer whether there is value, but instead, how to ‘build AI into’ the business and rethink how organizations operate, and not simply ‘bolt it on’ to optimize what you do today.
Leaders from EY will present a practical methodology for Private Equity-backed companies to identify areas of highest value potential for AI investment. This approach centers on analyzing the portfolio company's value chain. The session will move past the hype to define tangible applications of AI and Agentic AI that are currently generating differentiated value for these businesses.
Speakers:
Erin Roberts, Global Engineering & Construction Leader, EY
Ryan Renner, Principal, EY
Closing Roundtable Discussions
Day 1 will conclude with a series of roundtable discussions based on feedback from the CEO Sentiment Survey.
CEO Reception & Private Dinner
Reconvene with the group for a intimate dinner at a local Chicago institution with a special dinner speaker.
Speaker:
Scott Kolbrenner, President & Chief Strategy Officer, Global Infrastructure Solutions Inc. (GISI)
Day 2 Schedule
Breakfast and Networking
How Will AI Impact the Industry, and How Soon Will the Change be Upon Us?
AI is developing at pace, and the newest capabilities – such as surrogates, science-based AI, world models and AI agents – are potentially much more useful to the built environment sector than what has come before. Hear from Nvidia and Arup, two organisations pioneering work in this area, about how they see these opportunities, and the collaboration they are undertaking in this area.
Speakers:
Will Cavendish, Global Digital Services Leader, Arup
Alfonso Olivia, Senior Manager DevRel AECO AI, NVIDIA
The Closing Window on AI Competitive Advantage
Five years from now, the contractors winning the largest and most complex projects will be the ones who operationalized AI across their organizations while competitors were still running pilots. The window to build that advantage is narrowing as agentic AI systems mature from experimental to enterprise-ready at a pace most AEC leadership teams are underestimating. Attendees will walk away with a decision framework for where to invest now, what to defer, and how to position their firms ahead of the curve.
Speaker:
Mike Hyzy, VP, AI Strategy and Product Development, CGI
Break
Global Leaders: Collaborative Testbeds, and Open Innovation
As innovation accelerates, leading contractors are turning to partnerships, pilots, and shared testbeds to de-risk experimentation and scale impact. This session brings together global leaders to discuss how open innovation models—corporate venture arms, strategic partnerships, and controlled pilots—are shaping their technology strategies. Attendees will gain insight into how collaboration can drive faster learning while maintaining operational discipline.
Speakers:
Thai Nguyen, Director of Innovation, Hensel Phelps
Kaushal Diwan, Corporate Director, Strategic Investments & Partnerships, DPR Construction/WND Ventures
Damien Bahon, Head of Scale One, Bouygues Construction
Cutler Knupp, VP, Strategy & Investments, Haskell
Lifecycle Ownership: The Missing Link Between Technology Investment and Performance
Across global markets, we’re seeing the same pattern: There's an explosion of technology choices, but no unifying ownership model. Data remains fragmented across development, construction, and operations, driving costly, inconsistent outcomes at scale. The solution is not to have more technology, but lifecycle ownership - to create a control layer that connects systems, aligns decisions, and delivers repeatable performance.
Speakers:
Roger Wahl, CTO, Innovo Group; Founder, WahlStreetTech
CEO Forum Lunch with Tech Entrepreneurs
The CEO Forum / Tech Entrepreneurs Lunch is an opportunity for industry executives from leading AECO firms to meet connect with startup founders and CEO's from BuiltWorlds' network over lunch in an intimate, yet engaging setting.
CEO Forum Afternoon Debrief
This closing session is set to synthesize key themes from the CEO Annual Meeting, connecting the dots between technology, investment, and organizational strategy.
Member Registration
Please use the form below to register yourself and your colleagues. The contact information section will be auto-populated based on your login information. Click “Add Ticket” to register either yourself and colleagues for the event. When you have entered the information for all tickets, please click “Submit Order” to complete the registration. You will receive a confirmation email with a ticket number.
If you experience issues, please reach out to info@builtworlds.com for assistance.
Thank you!
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