Blogs

@Kim Caswell is a Senior Administrative professional with proven expertise in Sales/Marketing Administration and Customer Service. She also has extensive experience working with consumer products including, pricing, product launches, distribution, inventory, and product positioning. Kim is a strong problem solver and has multi-tasking skills, with the ability to accept and respond positively to new and arising challenges. "I am a mother to 2 beautiful daughters, I have 3 Fur Granddogs – Miller, Memphis & Goose! The arrival of my first Grandson, Rowan, was May 6 and I couldn't be happier! "Prior to my time with Constellation, I was a Product Manager ...

@Katie Ferguson says her greatest accomplishments are marrying her husband, Brandon, and becoming a mom to their incredible daughters; Izzy (6), and Gabby (3). Her professional background is in Journalism, Marketing and Communications. She became interested in homebuilding; "about 15 years ago when I met some of the happiest, smartest, and most interesting people who were not only passionate about how they lived their lives—but what they did for work. They loved building new homes and communities, and doing it together. They had a deep commitment to not only the business but educating the younger teams (me) about how to build a good home, community and business. ...

When she started more than 7 years ago the homebuilding field was quite new to @Diana Solomon . I spent 4 days with the person I was going to replace, and we went briefly through the procedures, trades and NEWSTAR. After that it was up to me to build on that skeleton. My focus was to improve my NEWSTAR skills to be able to use its features to “work smart not hard”. I hope now I can say I reached that goal. What is your professional background? My professional background is Mechanical Engineering. How did you become interested in homebuilding? In Ottawa the main employer is the government, there are not too many jobs in the manufacturing industry, ...

@Ray Hope started his career as a software developer and business owner, making business solutions for healthcare and local government. After progressing to full-time software development project management for a number of years, Ray transitioned into the manufacturing industry, leading the development of an ERP system, and then later as CIO for a lumber manufacturer. In his current role as VP, Information Technology at Qualico, Ray leads an amazing team of professionals who support infrastructure and business system needs, including NEWSTAR. What is your professional background? Software developer, Project Manager (PMP), Senior Leader How did you ...

@Alana Tisch has been with Colen Built for more than four years; first starting out as a project coordinator. "I knew I could do more than what that role outlined, so I asked for additional responsibilities and successfully advocated to be part of the implementation team for NEWSTAR. From there, my input helped develop the Integrated AP Solution for NEWSTAR, and it was successfully deployed in our live environment mid-year." Alana was recently promoted to Homebuilding Systems Implementation Manager. In this capacity, she ensures all systems are operating as efficiently and effectively as possible. At Colen Built they believe in a “train the trainer” philosophy, ...

Heidi started her career at a local advertising agency as the receptionist right out of Algonquin College’s marketing program. She worked her way up to Media Director and at the same time developed a company wide Filemaker database that began as a digitized version of the company rolodex then included estimating, production, invoicing and media tracking. After her second maternity leave, she returned to work with one of the agencies clients, where she still works today. At Tartan Homes, Heidi has been the Marketing Director for nearly 13 years and brought her database and innovation skills with her. She puts these skills to great use and has developed many ...