Meet Pro Builder's 2022 Forty Under 40 Awardees

Conor Allen, 33

Senior Project Manager
Rockwell Custom
Media, Pa.

Manages more than $45 million in revenue under construction for high-volume, luxury home building sites; created systems to find cost savings across the organization by managing material discrepancies in quality and quantity, including a new return policy and process that achieves an estimated annual savings of $50,000 for Rockwell Custom; decreased the build cycle timeline for homes at the Ventry golf community while simultaneously increasing the volume of homes under construction; has earned multiple building awards and accolades, including 2019 and 2020 Master Builder Society awards and the 2017 Distinguished Builder Award.

Kaylie Austin, 29

Division Sales Manager
Schell Brothers,
Richmond Division
Richmond, Va.

Kaylie Austin grew up around home building; her mother worked for a local home builder. In college, Austin took a different tack, earning a BS in Science of Psychology, then went into B2B sales. She quickly learned she didn’t enjoy selling something that didn’t excite her.

Home building did, and she started working for a local builder. In 2016, Delaware-based Schell Brothers asked Austin to be involved in starting a new division in Richmond, Va. “I thought it would be neat to help something grow from the ground up,” Austin says.

She started as a community sales manager, and in five years helped to grow the division, becoming division sales manager responsible for three communities with a fourth launching soon. Austin attributes her success to hard work, an ethic learned from her parents.

In her current position, Austin has garnered multiple sales awards from the company and the Home Building Association of Richmond. This year, she was voted into the senior partner program at Schell, a group of employees the company believes can contribute to its growth.

Steve Bollinger, 37

Principal, EVP of Development
Thrive Companies
Columbus, Ohio

Before he got into home building, Steve Bollinger pursued a number of passions, including working at wineries in California and New Zealand, traveling throughout Southeast Asia, biking across the U.S., and working as a ranch hand.

After earning a degree in business and urban planning, he found home building, if not completely by accident: his father, who died before Bollinger was born, served as assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) during the Reagan administration.

Since joining Thrive Companies eight years ago, Bollinger has worked to revive neglected areas through brownfield development. Among those projects is Quarry Trails, a mixed-use development on 80 acres carved out from a total of 607 acres, including a municipal park and (no surprise) a quarry; and the Rapid 5 Project, which seeks to develop an open space network for recreation, education, and wellness activities while preserving an existing series of waterways.

During his tenure, the company has grown from 15 employees to 107.

Jordan Brown, 38

Area Sales Manager
K. Hovnanian Homes
Dallas/Fort Worth

Jordan Brown’s introduction to real estate was a happy accident. As a senior in college, he interviewed with Pulte Group “just for the practice” and fell in love with new-home construction. In 2011, he joined K. Hovnanian Homes and last year was promoted to area sales manager for Dallas/Fort Worth, where he helped the Top 20 builder achieve 800 sales, 700 closings, a 40.5% return on investment, and net revenue exceeding $30 million in that market.

Brown calls himself a “knowledge hound,” who absorbs everything about home building, from land development to financing, construction, and sales. His passion has always been selling, which—as an adrenaline junkie—he says he loves as much as snowboarding. His sales instincts were refined by his experience through several real estate cycles with small and large companies before he joined K. Hovnanian a decade ago.

Brown gives and gets support for his growth as a manager through Jeff Shore’s Sales Leadership Roundtable with new-home sales leaders from across the country. While his goals include becoming a VP of sales, he also focuses on his family, which includes his wife and their three daughters.

Dustin Burkett, 34

Senior Project Manager
Marnie Custom Homes
Bethany Beach, Del.

On average, Dustin Burkett manages construction for three to four custom homes the company builds between Labor Day and Memorial Day, overseeing the work of four project managers in addition to his own projects; from 2011 to 2014, helped manage the construction of 28 custom homes; when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, Burkett covered for the departure of two project managers and oversaw completion of six custom homes averaging 8,600 square feet, which opened on schedule and on budget; has never missed a project deadline or budget; began his career as a journeyman plumber doing primarily new-home construction.

John Casale, 39

Owner and President
JS Pro Construction
West Creek, N.J.

Growing up the youngest of five children in a blue-collar family, John Casale was introduced to the building industry early on; his father laid tile by trade, his older brother was a painter, and his uncle a plumber. As a teenager, he painted and laid bricks to make extra money before opening his own painting business fresh out of high school.

At 22, he’d formed his own construction company, JS Pro Construction. When the economy took a dip in 2008, he explored the commercial world and learned the importance of “quality over quantity, good craftsmanship, and that honest business practices will always prevail,” but his heart was still in home building.

Four years later, Hurricane Sandy struck the Jersey Shore, and Casale’s skills were called into emergency action. He personally performed a minimum of 200 cleanouts and at least two dozen home remodels up and down the New Jersey coast covering about 75 miles of shoreline. Though gritty and difficult, Casale’s disaster relief work opened his company up to great exposure and advances and proved to be the most rewarding accomplishment of his career. Now, JS Pro Construction builds seven to eight custom homes a year on Long Beach Island for a growing clientele.

Georgia Castellano, 35

Creative Director
Group Two Advertising
Philadelphia

Illustrated The House That She Built (2021), a children’s book written by Group Two president Mollie Elkman and inspired by a team of women who built The House That She Built with the Utah Home Builders Association’s Professional Women in Building council; the book is the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) BuilderBooks’ fastest selling title ever; successfully adapted her marketing experience for food brands, including the Campbell Soup Company (where she presented her résumé on a soup can), to the building industry; leads a team of artists, designers, and writers to tell stories that connect home builders with their customers; has won two NAHB National Sales and Marketing Awards: a Silver in 2019 for Best Website and a Gold in 2020 for Best Digital Marketing Campaign.

Anya Chrisanthon, 39

Chief Brand Officer
Anewgo
Wayne, Pa.

When Anya Chrisanthon arrived in the U.S. as a 13-year-old immigrant from Russia knowing only a few words of English, her first year of American high school was, she says, “like jumping into a pool of freezing cold water.” Chrisanthon learned that she’s “uncomfortable being comfortable,” which led her to say yes to new experiences and to learn fast.

When she wanted a change from a career in finance, a friend suggested real estate. Chrisanthon, who says she always looks for shortcuts, quickly embraced video and social media as a salesperson for Ryan Homes. An early adopter of podcasting, she created the New Construction Marketing Podcast in 2018 to help fill the void of podcasts by women and focused on new-home sales.

A leading voice for women in the building industry, Chrisan­thon currently combines her strengths in marketing and technology at Anewgo, a new-home sales and marketing firm.

Today, she’s a frequent speaker and moderator at industry events and served as the 2021 Professional Women in Building (PWB) Chair of the Pennsylvania Builders Association and as a PWB NAHB Trustee in 2020 and 2021.

Adam Davidson, 37

Founder and CEO
Davidson Homes
Huntsville, Ala.

After working as a superintendent for D.R. Horton, Adam Davidson started Davidson Homes in 2009 at just 24 years of age, building just two spec homes in that difficult year; but he kept at it and, over the course of 2017 to 2021, his company expanded into Nashville, Tenn., Raleigh, N.C., Atlanta, and Houston, and Davidson celebrated his 10th anniversary and 1,000th homeowner in 2019; in addition, he launched an affiliate mortgage company, Davidson Homes Mortgage, in 2018, followed by Built Capital, a capital-raising company for builders, and Davidson Holding Company; by 2021, Davidson Homes ranked 529 on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies.

Bradley Davis, 30

Marketing Director
Woodbridge Pacific Group
Mission Viejo, Calif.

Joined Woodbridge Pacific Group (WPG) in 2014 as senior marketing coordinator and was promoted in 2016 to marketing manager, overseeing the company’s online presence, including its website, listing sites, and digital ad campaigns; managed the transition of WPG’s customer relationship management (CRM) system for the sales and marketing departments to Salesforce; promoted to marketing director in 2020 to work more closely with the executive team and to oversee all consumer-facing marketing communication and creative content; managed WPG’s corporate rebranding from initial ideation to organizational rollout; coordinates WPG’s marketing for the builder’s first expansion outside California, in Boise, Idaho.

Eric Dudley, 37

National Sales Coach and Trainer
K. Hovnanian Homes
Plano, Texas

Eric Dudley began his career as a highly successful new-home sales consultant in 2009, winning numerous sales awards; by 2017, he had become a national sales trainer for new-home sales consultants with Forrest Performance Group; in 2019, he was hired by K. Hovnanian as a national sales coach; in that position, he has used one-on-one instruction and small- and large-group training to help the firm’s salespeople in nearly half the country achieve high levels of sales success; his calm, skillful coaching and his insistence on getting the best out of each of his students has improved the results of all, including several who have reached the President’s Club level.

Wes Edwards, 39

VP of Operations
Shazam Home Services, division of Oakwood Homes
Sandy, Utah

Wes Edwards’ focus on leadership development, team building, and customer service has helped him rise through the ranks of home building to being responsible for the homebuyer experience and managing the quality assurance program at Oakwood Homes.

After earning an MBA from Arizona State University, Edwards was selected for Shea Homes’ Leadership Development Associate program, and the lessons he learned have served as the foundation for his career.

Among his accomplishments so far, he points to the teams he has built and their focus on customer experience. The success of that focus can be measured and includes decreasing reported warranty issues at Oakwood Homes by 15% and decreasing the average days to address those issues by more than 50%.

His leadership also shows in his actions, such as when he stepped in to manage the opening of a 16,500-square-foot clubhouse for Shea Homes when the general manager fell ill. Taking on all of the tasks, from hiring restaurant staff to choosing linens, he and his team opened the clubhouse and earned the 2017 Amenity of the Year Award from The New Home Council of Washington state.

Chelsea Fanders, 39

VP of Marketing
Summit Homes, Clover & Hive
Lee’s Summit, Mo.

As director of marketing, Chelsea Fanders helped launch Summit Homes in Des Moines, Iowa, a new geographic market for the builder; oversaw companywide growth during the pandemic from 55 employees to nearly 100; in 2020, the company launched Clover & Hive, a new division charged with building and selling homes at about half the market rate in Kansas City and Des Moines; Fanders was responsible for the branding and marketing launch for the new endeavor, as well as being involved with both the community and product design, leading to the sale of 70 homes in the first year; she was promoted to VP of marketing in December 2021.

Valerie Gindlesberger, 33

Director of Architecture
Summit Homes
Lee’s Summit, Mo.

Hired at age 25 as the first in-house architect at Summit Homes, despite her lack of residential architecture experience; immediately recreated construction documents among all existing plans for consistency and accuracy, then introduced and value engineered new product types to match market desires for every demographic; manages a department of five people that has been instrumental in the expansion of Summit Homes; streamlined operations at Summit and is spearheading the transition of its product offerings into AutoCAD 3D conversion to embrace online design and personalization as well as virtual sales; volunteers with a mock construction project to engage Girl Scouts and has designed homes for Drumm Farm Center for Children, a foster home campus.

Kevin Grant, 37

Area Sales Manager
Century Communities
Austin, Texas

Named 2020 Sales Counselor of the Year for Century Communities; first recipient of the Star Award at Century for helping others on the team manage the sales backlog; has won Sales Counselor of the Quarter three times; has met or exceeded every monthly and quarterly sales goal since 2016; in 2009, jump-started an underperforming community at the height of the home building recession by selling five homes in one weekend; helped develop processes to manage missed leads and streamline buyer offers; created and led a customer service training program that resulted in retaining the Eliant customer service award for his entire tenure as an area sales manager; helped his sales team improve its secret shopper score by 50%.

Kelby Hamilton, 35

Warranty Manager
Dragas Companies
Virginia Beach, Va.

Led warranty team that helped Dragas earn a 9.8/10 customer satisfaction rating; raised customer survey responses from nearly zero to over 70%; reduced warranty costs to their lowest level in the company’s history; reduced open work orders over 60 days from 165 to 20 while the company increased production to record levels (work orders are now completed in 9.5 days on average); updated warranty processes using a new database and moved scheduling to shared calendars; updated the home­buyer warranty package and made it available in print and digital formats; identified an ongoing roof leak problem and worked with the production and design teams to change downspout installations; developed multiple training documents for the production team based on warranty issues.

Mark R. Hirschfeld, 35

Director of Digital Marketing
Maronda Homes
Imperial, Pa.

As a founding member of Maronda’s online sales and marketing team in 2013, Mark Hirschfeld developed a digital marketing strategy that improved market-qualified leads by more than 200%, sales-qualified leads by 48%, and increased customer engagement and web traffic by 40%; he grew a diverse online team from three to more than 30 people, which is responsible for 65% of all new-home sales through digital marketing initiatives; led the development of the new immersive Maronda Homes website in 2021; launched the Maronda Homes 50th anniversary marketing campaign; as a member of the executive committee of the Builders Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh, organized a new Festival of Homes event with an expanded digital experience.

Carly Huffman, 32

VP, General Counsel
Landon Homes
Plano, Texas

Transformed Landon Homes’ methods for handling potential legal disputes and worked with internal teams to increase safety, maximize customer satisfaction, and reduce exposure to unnecessary litigation; was a key player in the acquisition and development of a 637-acre, 4,700-unit mixed-used project in Frisco, Texas, for which she negotiated easements and contracts with the city to bring the deal—expected to be valued at more than $1 billion when completed—together; received the Archibald R. Murray Public Service Award for her 400 hours of community service while attending Fordham University School of Law; combines an advanced business certificate from Columbia University, her law degree, and experience at a boutique law firm with real estate clients and a stint at Carnegie Hall to inform her work at Landon Homes.

Dayson Johnson, 33

VP of Development
Magleby Construction
Lindon, Utah

Upon graduating from The University of Utah in economics, the third-generation home builder returned home to modernize the scheduling and estimating software for his father’s home building company, reducing the company’s build times and improving its website search engine optimization; in 2018, after his father’s retirement, Johnson joined Magleby Construction as an assistant project manager and now runs the builder’s northern Utah office as the VP of development, working on a $600 million ski-in ski-out community; adjusted his schedule to accommodate cancer treatments to maintain a full-time workload; is an active member of the local Home Builders Association; participates in the Police Unity Tour’s annual 300-mile bike ride from New Jersey to Washington, D.C., in memory of his late brother.

Jessi Kelly, 38

VP Sales and Marketing
Stylecraft Builders
College Station, Texas

Rose from sales assistant to vice president of Stylecraft Builders in 4 1/2 years; increased company sales volume by 83%; oversees a department with more than 50 people and is responsible for 40-plus communities; helped create and build the company’s marketing department; when the pandemic hit, Kelly tried new tactics: halting sales, creating wait-lists, selling inventory-only, and ultimately developed offer-only processes to address production capacity issues and spiking lumber prices; worked with her team to implement a range of efficiencies and a new CRM program that automates contracts; implemented a secret shopper program; closed 300 homes when she started as VP of sales and marketing and is on pace to close 1,200 homes in 2022.

Kyle King, 36

Division President
Clover & Hive, a division of Summit Homes 
Lee’s Summit, Mo.

Kyle King didn’t always know he wanted to be a builder, but he knows how to ask for the things he wants. Despite his lack of building experience, he talked Bonterra Builders, in Charlotte, N.C., to hire him as a superintendent in 2012. With the help of mentors, King’s leadership skills blossomed within six months and he was given his own neighborhood to build.

In 2015 when King and his wife, Emma, wanted to return to Kansas City, Mo., he began cold calling builders and was offered a superintendent position with Summit Homes. After several promotions, including an invitation as the first area manager to join the executive leadership team, King was chosen in May 2020 to lead Summit’s new attainable housing division, Clover & Hive, which builds homes in the upper $200,000s to mid-$300,000s, about half the average sales price in that market.

Under his leadership, Clover & Hive now operates five subdivisions, has banked 119 sales, is forecast to sell 220 homes in 2022, and was recognized by the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City Parade of Homes with Pick of the Parade awards in 2020 and 2021.

Jarrett Lecas, 27

Co-owner
Gander Builders
Frankfort, Ill.

Helped grow custom home building company Gander Builders from averaging $3 to $4 million to more than $13 million in annual revenue and helped earn the company recognition as one of the best cottage home builders in the U.S. by Home Builder Digest; maintained high customer service ratings as the company grew, resulting in 99% of work coming from word-of-mouth marketing; manages more than 50 trade contractors and builds six custom homes per year; established written processes to streamline production and improve communication among trades; holds a general contractor’s license in Michigan; began his home building career by working with and learning every trade; played professional football for the Saarland Hurricanes in Saarbrücken, Germany, in the German Football League.

Mary Lindeman, 36

VP of Builder Operations
New Home Star
Chicago

One of the things that attracted Mary Lindeman to sales management firm New Home Star was the potential career path. In eight years, she’s moved up five steps and now serves as VP of builder operations—a position that didn’t exist prior to Lindeman taking the role.

New Home Star provides outsourced sales services for home builders, and Lindeman is responsible for creating more departments and services for the company to offer. Before the pandemic, she launched an online sales concierge department, which achieved 1,600 sales in fewer than 24 months. The program won a Silver award in NAHB’s 2021 National Sales and Marketing Awards.

Lindeman’s sales experience and a process-oriented attitude help her identify opportunities and execute them efficiently. A recent success involved implementing new project management software that automates the onboarding process for new clients—an update made even more critical, as she added three new building partners and 15 divisions.

Lindeman is having an impact on the company internally as well. She co-founded the diversity, equity, and inclusion committee at New Home Star and is passionate about  attracting more women to home building.

Laura May, 37

General Manager of Operations
Goodall Homes
Nashville, Tenn.

In five years, through 2021, Laura May increased sales for her division by 89%; selected as the first person to pilot Goodall Homes’ General Manager Development program created to identify and train future company leaders; developed a sales training platform that was implemented across the company; is a member of the Cannonball Moments Betterment Circle, a leadership development program for home building executives; uses her background in finance to train salespeople in the intricacies of lending requirements so they’re comfortable helping homebuyers with loan issues; in two years during the recession sold 228 homes to entry-level buyers; focuses on hiring team players who fit the culture, then mentors and trains them; uses the Great Game of Business course as a teaching tool.

Nicole McIntyre, 28

Revit Production Director
TK Design & Associates
South Lyon, Mich.

Nicole McIntyre started her professional life as a dog trainer, a painting instructor, and a care coordinator for Michigan Medicine, working full time and attending online school to pay for her architectural degree; early on at TK Design, she was referred to by co-workers as the “junk drawer” of the office, taking on whatever extra tasks were required to gain experience; she quickly became a project manager on custom homes; was given the opportunity to be the lead for a new production client just 11 months after starting with the firm; now leads a team of eight to 10 drafters, has built a successful training program, and created smart, efficient reference materials and tools for her co-workers; McIntyre’s scheduling and training strategies, as well as her metric-tracking tools, have been shared and implemented companywide.

Bryan Mecsey, 34

Director, National Accounts
Zillow
Denver

Bryan Mecsey joined Zillow in 2014 to pilot a regional sales approach for small- to medium-size builders; developed digital marketing solutions to address the challenges experienced by builders of all sizes; recognized that buyers searching for existing homes could benefit from finding new-construction options on Zillow; leads multiple teams of sellers and managers who work with the country’s largest builders; grew Zillow’s Promoted Communities platform to include more than 1,200 builders; is known for his leadership and ability to motivate people who work with him; is a frequent presenter at HBAs, trade shows, and other industry events to educate builders on how to leverage technology to streamline interactions with customers.

Eric Mitchell, 33

VP of Innovation
Eliant
Aliso Viejo, Calif.

After just eight years at Eliant, Eric Mitchell accepted the position of VP of innovation created for him to take advantage of his business management and computer programming abilities; created the Eliant TradeStar program so trades can evaluate builders, then added to the platform so customer service representatives could evaluate trades; created the Spotlight Report that gives frontline employees direct customer service information; in 2021, migrated the report to a mobile app to provide on-site reporting to every customer-facing employee; developed customer evaluations in 20 languages, making it easier for homebuyers to offer feedback in their native tongues; led Eliant’s expansion into the Middle East market, which includes 40,000 home closings per year.

Shari Morton, 39

Co-founder, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Online Sales Counselor
Shared Drive
Plano, Texas

Shari Morton is known in the building industry for her drive, tenacity, and innovative approach to online sales. But she says she would be equally happy surrounded by goats and herbs on a farm. Morton, who immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam when she was 5, says she learned to speak English by singing along with her father to the 103.5 radio station in Los Angeles. From an early age, Morton liked to challenge the status quo and find a better way to do things.

Shared Drive, the online sales solution firm she co-founded in July 2021 to support small- and medium-size building companies, quickly grew from one employee and one builder client to 10 employees serving 12 builders. The company provides customized sales programs for each client’s needs and employs an entirely remote staff capable of serving builders around the world.

Earlier in her career, Morton designed an online sales and customer relationship management system when working for a real estate broker. She won the NAHB Online Sales Counselor of the Year Gold Award in 2017.

Haley Naebig, 28

New Home Specialist, Online Sales Counselor
Level Homes
Baton Rouge, La.

Upon joining Level Homes in 2019, Haley Naebig improved an “existing but struggling” online sales program with companywide pricing and metrics that ultimately prepared the builder for COVID-19 pandemic impacts and a rise in new-home demand; implemented customer service and extensive communication strategies that have minimized lead times and boosted customer satisfaction; takes the phrase “no lead left behind” seriously and follows a rigorous sales process that includes phone calls, personalized emails, texts, and video emails for project updates and client inquiries; video emails have significantly increased buyer responses and earned Naebig the “Video Email Superstar” Market Proof Award at the 2022 Do You Convert Online Sales & Marketing Summit. 

Jennifer (Jenni) Nichols, 38

Director of DesignLens
John Burns Real Estate Consulting
Irvine, Calif.

As quickly as new ideas and platforms emerge and become popular these days, it’s still remarkable when someone develops something unique and truly needed. For Jenni Nichols, that is the New Home Trends Institute.

Jenni had been working on consumer research and then also took over DesignLens, an online, searchable database of new homes and communities, originally created by Howard Englander. But it seemed there could be a bigger, more cohesive program that might encompass all of the new home information needed by the company’s clientele.

Over the course of a year, Jenni and her colleagues worked on the idea that became the New Home Trends Institute, a broader concept that includes DesignLens, as well as original research, online and live presentations, and content about the latest home-related consumer preferences.

Zach Patton, 32

Partner
Blackwolf Custom Homes
Nashville, Tenn.

Zach Patton started his career with Goodall Homes at age 22 after earning a construction management degree from Middle Tennessee State University; following numerous promotions, started a new division of Goodall Homes in Knoxville, Tenn., in 2017, where he learned every aspect of building, from pulling permits and meeting with trade partners to hiring employees, and established Goodall’s company culture in the new location; spearheaded a trade council for the Knoxville operation that successfully solved building site issues and forged a collaborative relationship between builders and trades; deeply committed to professional development for himself and others in the industry; in January 2022, founded Blackwolf Custom Homes, in Nashville, with his brother.

Andrew Pieper, 35

VP, Project Manager
Hillwood Communities
Dallas

Andrew Pieper considers his greatest accomplishment to be having just one job since college, having joined Hillwood Communities in 2009 after graduating from Southern Methodist University; voted by his peers as the company’s Associate of the Year in 2012; after managing successively larger projects, was promoted in 2018 to VP and project manager of Pecan Square, a 3,000-unit community that won Master-Planned Community of the Year and People’s Choice Community of the Year in 2021 in the Dallas Builders Association McSAM Awards program; is currently the project manager for Hunter Ranch, in Denton, Texas, a 3,000-plus-acre site in predevelopment.

Randy Reitz, 39

Co-founder, CEO
Urban Nest Homes
Oklahoma City

Home building comes naturally to Randy Reitz, whose grandfather handed him a broom to help clean construction sites when he was a child. After a detour into telecommunications and sales, Reitz worked for several years as a superintendent for Timbercraft Homes, a local production builder.

In 2015, Reitz and his business partner Jason Willis started Urban Nest Homes and have since grown it from four home starts and no employees to a projected 110 starts in 2022 managed by 12 employees and eight interns.

Reitz credits his experience with customer service—where he learned to diffuse difficult situations—for his ability to empathize with clients, co-workers, and employees. Developing a strong culture of team players who are problem-solvers has been essential to his company’s success.

Reitz’s commitment to his profession includes Urban Nest’s internship program to train people interested in marketing, design, and fieldwork. He is the 2022 chair of the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association and has been active with the group since founding Urban Nest.

Ben Richter, 39

Sales Manager
Beisser Lumber
Grimes, Iowa

Ben Richter has earned top salesperson at Beisser Lumber for the last five of six years; in 2021, he achieved the highest sales volume in the company’s 68-year history; sits on the board of directors for the Home Builders Association of Greater Des Moines and was the chapter’s Associate of the Year in 2019 and Member of the Year in 2020; as membership chair of the HBA’s Remodelers Council, increased membership by 280%, making it one of the five largest Remodelers Councils in the country; named the chapter’s Associate Remodeler of the Year in 2015, 2019, and 2020; represented Beisser Lumber at 2021 Lumber and Building Materials National Strategies conference; has raised more than $60,000 for nonprofit JDRF, the leading global organization funding Type 1 diabetes research.

Kory Robison, 33

President, Owner
Robison Home Builders
Orem, Utah

Kory Robison grew up sweeping the homes for the company he now owns and manages; his “Tiger Oak” home for the Utah Valley Parade of Homes not only won the People’s Choice Award (among several others), but received nationwide acclaim on the cover of House Beautiful magazine’s Fall 2019 issue; his self-proclaimed “crown jewel” is Silo Creek Farm, a 2020 standout in the Utah Valley Parade of Homes recently published in Utah Style & Design magazine; has more than tripled the size, income, and number of employees of Robison Home Builders in just six years; became 70% owner of Robison Home Builders in January 2021; and was nominated second vice president of the Utah Valley HBA board of directors.

Sarah N. Simmerman, 39

Marketing Strategist
Do You Convert
Tulsa, Okla.

Building on a background in graphic design, Sarah Simmer­man rose to become a successful digital marketer and search engine optimization guru in the home building industry as director of marketing at Dorn Homes, in Prescott, Ariz., where she modernized the company’s website, established an online sales program, and increased leads from digital marketing by 700% in one year; while at Dorn, she developed one of the first marketing programs focused on healthy homes and won Gold in the 2017 NAHB National Sales & Marketing Awards for best marketing of a green building program, and a Silver award in 2018 for Marketing Professional of the Year; joined Do You Convert in 2020 to help builders develop market strategies and also teaches digital analytics and strategies.

Jeff Smith, 39

Partner
Alair Homes High Country
Blowing Rock, N.C.

Jeff Smith isn’t originally from the North Carolina mountains, but you’d never know it to see him in his element building homes and supporting his community there.

Smith, who moved often during his childhood, felt at home in the Blue Ridge Mountains and was determined to set down roots there even before he was sure about his career goals. Friends and mentors paved the way for him to earn his degree in building construction technology, after which he “rolled the dice” to start his own business, J.S. Construction, in 2006. His commitment to building high-quality custom homes and his transparency with his customers and team, along with his grit, helped Smith thrive, even during the housing downturn.

In 2018, he joined Alair Homes, a franchise of custom home builders that shares his commitment to excellence. He has since piloted the Alair Next Generation program of mentors and paid internships for youth in the trades.

Tyler Stouder, 35

National Director of Marketing
Arbor Homes
Indianapolis

When Tyler Stouder moved from a marketing agency into home building, he brought with him skills in digital marketing, social media, lead generation, and search engine optimization; in two years, he rose from digital marketing manager to director of marketing; he updated all digital and print marketing materials, including the websites, for Arbor Homes and its subsidiaries and implemented a customer relationship management program that is also integrated with marketing; he improved the customer portal so buyers have more information about the building process, including design selection.

Brian Tebbenkamp, 39

President, General Manager
Patriot Homes
Kansas City, Mo.

In high school, Brian Tebbenkamp was pushed by his parents and teachers to pursue a college degree; instead, he chose to go into the trades and, after cycling through almost all of them, discovered he was passionate about finish carpentry.

After working for several companies, Tebbenkamp struck out on his own, quickly building a reputation for high-quality, sophisticated trim work. Ultimately, he opened Patriot Homes, motivated by the desire to bring his focus on detail to an entire project.

Today, Patriot Homes builds more than 20 homes a year, and, in a twist of fate, Tebbenkamp finds himself doing more paperwork than trim work. He hasn’t forgotten those roots, though, and he still takes on some jobs himself.

More importantly, he is adamant about attracting young people to the trades. His work with the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City, where he is vice president, provides a platform for those efforts. It also allows him to work with local municipalities, including sitting on a building code task force for the city of Kansas City.

Alex Toth, 32

General Manager
Opendoor
Tempe, Ariz.

Alex Toth created a category of Opendoor transaction for new-construction customers that unlocked more than $2 billion in new-construction sales; assisted in the launch of the Builder Connect app; earned a net promoter score of 90 for Opendoor’s Home Builder Division transformational customer experience; is a member of the John Burns Real Estate Consulting Housing’s Future Leaders program, is an Opendoor representative at Urban Land Institute conferences, John Burns national market outlook conferences, and Ernst & Young home builder events; is also a licensed real estate agent.