Howard Fineman
Senior Washington Correspondent and Political Columnist for Newsweek

Award winning political journalist, Howard Fineman is Newsweek's senior Washington correspondent and columnist, senior editor, and deputy Washington bureau chief. He is the author of “Living Politics,” a column that began on MSNBC.com and Newsweek.com and that now also appears in the print magazine. An award winning reporter and writer, Fineman also is an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, appearing regularly on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Hardball with Chris Matthews, and The Today Show. The author of scores of Newsweek cover stories, Fineman's work has appeared as well in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the New Republic. His 2008 national best-selling book, The Thirteen American Arguments, was released in paperback by Random House in the spring of 2009.

One of the nation's leading political reporters, Fineman has interviewed every major presidential candidate from (then-vice president) George H.W. Bush in 1985 to (then senator) Barack Obama early and often in the 2008 campaign cycle. His current work focuses on the Obama Administration and its top officials, as well as on Congress and politics throughout the country. Although based in Washington, Fineman travels widely in the US and has covered politics and other events in 49 of the 50 states.

Fineman holds an AB, Phi Beta Kappa, from Colgate, an MS in journalism from Columbia, and a JD from the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. His legal education included a year as a visiting student at the Georgetown University Law Center. He received Watson and Pulitzer Traveling Fellowships for study in Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, and has traveled to more than 40 countries, among them China, Vietnam, Japan, Ukraine, Israel, Turkey, and the West Bank Palestinian Territories.

Fineman is married to Amy L. Nathan, a senior counsel at the Federal Communications Commission. They live in Washington with their two children, Meredith and Nicholas.


Robert Denk
Assistant Vice President for Forecasting and Analysis, National Association of Home Builders

Robert Denk is the Assistant Vice President for Forecasting and Analysis at the National Association of Home Builders. His responsibilities include developing econometric models of national, state and metropolitan area housing activity, long term projections of housing demand, and providing ad hoc analyses on a range of housing sector issues. Mr. Denk has been an economist in Washington DC for over 20 years working in the private, non-profit and government sectors.

Prior to joining NAHB, Mr. Denk's career has included two tours of duty at the Federal Reserve Board, serving as chief economist for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a small non-profit research organization, and 10 years as a consulting economist in the private sector.

Mr. Denk received a B.S. from the College of Social Sciences at Michigan State University and an M.A. in Economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Mr. Denk's presentation will be an analysis of housing market conditions, nationally and regionally, present and future. His analysis will include examination of housing production during the boom and bust, house prices, mortgage pool quality and the implications for foreclosures.


Julie Garbini
Executive Director, Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC) Research & Education Foundation

Julie Garbini is Executive Director of the RMC Research & Education Foundation. In this capacity, Mrs. Garbini manages the Foundation's various research and education projects, including representing the ready mixed concrete industry on the four-person Research Advisory Council for the Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSH) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The council sets the research agenda and monitors the progress of work at the CSH.

In addition to her project management role, Mrs. Garbini also leads the Foundation's fundraising activities, outreach and communications efforts, and financial management of the Foundation's endowment. Mrs. Garbini joined the Foundation as Executive Director in 2004 and has been affiliated with the concrete and construction industries since 1991.

Mrs. Garbini also serves on the boards of the Concrete Industry Management (CIM) National Steering Committee, the Concrete Pavement Technology Center, the Transportation Engineering and Road Research Alliance, and is a member of the CP Roadmap Executive Committee.

Mrs. Garbini will be presenting on the Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSH). CSH was established less than a year ago, yet it is already having a major impact on the concrete industry. The first two research projects, “The Edge of Concrete: A Life-Cycle Investigation of Concrete and Concrete Structures” and “From Liquid to Stone: The Genesis of Concrete,” are already well underway with initial research findings to report. Learn how these findings will transform the industry in providing conclusive evidence of concrete's environmental superiority and guidance on how it can be made even more sustainable into the future!

The CSH was established through a joint venture between the RMC Research & Education Foundation and the Portland Cement Association (PCA). Both organizations are committing significant efforts and resources with the goal of accelerating emerging breakthroughs in concrete science and engineering and transferring that science into practice. As the call for an increased emphasis on environmental issues grows louder, the concrete and cement industries are taking this opportunity to be proactive in establishing a CSH that will focus on quantifying and enhancing the sustainable nature of concrete.