Patrick Chouinard

Founder and Principal, MidRise5 Corp.

Patrick Chouinard is a Canadian entrepreneur, housing advocate, and founder of Element5, one of Canada’s leading mass timber manufacturers. With a career dedicated to innovation in sustainable construction, he has spearheaded numerous affordable and supportive housing projects across Ontario. Patrick is deeply committed to solving Canada’s housing crisis by advancing modern, scalable building solutions that are warm, efficient, and environmentally responsible. His work blends practical industry leadership with a mission-driven focus on serving society’s most vulnerable.

A pioneer in applying Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), Patrick has championed offsite prefabrication, modular mass timber structures, and hybrid timber systems to accelerate the delivery of affordable housing. He has helped advance the use of cross-laminated timber (CLT), glulam, and panelized building envelopes to create repeatable, factory-manufactured mid-rise housing solutions that can be assembled rapidly on site. Through this approach, he promotes scalable “kit-of-parts” mass timber buildings that reduce construction costs, shorten timelines, lower carbon emissions, and expand the availability of high-quality housing for communities across Canada.

Matt Bolen

BAS, M.Arch, OAA, CPHD. Principal, mcCallum Sather Architects

Matt Bolen, a Director and Architect at mcCallumSather, is immersed in integrating his deep understanding of conventional construction with advanced research and innovative development initiatives. With a focus on multi-residential building design, Matt’s expertise spans small-scale urban infill, mid-rise, and multi-phase high-rise development. His leadership is pivotal in addressing the complex challenges of residential design, ranging from supportive and affordable housing to rental, market-rate, and high-end condo developments.

Licensed as an Architect with the Ontario Association of Architects and certified as a Passive House Designer, Matt’s passion lies in leveraging innovative techniques such as mass timber, DFMA panelization, modular construction, and high-performance design to create sustainable and functional built forms. His commitment to socially responsible architecture is evident in his diverse portfolio of impactful projects, including CLT (cross-laminated timber) affordable housing developments, rapid housing initiatives with supportive services, and mixed-use adaptive-reuse projects.

In addition to his role at mcCallumSather, Matt contributes to the academic community as a lecturer and adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. A graduate of Waterloo Architecture, he focused his Master’s thesis on the urban revitalization of mid-sized cities, using Kitchener-Waterloo as a case study, further highlighting his dedication to urban development and revitalization. Matt’s expertise and innovative approach continue to shape the future of residential architecture.

Christopher Minerva

P.Eng., P.E. Principal Trave Structural

Chris Minerva is a structural engineer and co-founder of Trave Structural, a Toronto-based firm specializing in high-performance mass timber and hybrid building systems across Canada. With more than 25 years of experience across major residential, institutional, and civic projects, Chris is known for making mass timber work — architecturally, structurally, and economically — through a constructability-first approach that bridges design ambition with real-world delivery.

A long-time advocate for Modern Methods of Construction, Chris specializes in hybrid timber systems, DFMA-driven structural solutions, and prefabricated assemblies that accelerate project timelines and improve cost certainty. His work spans post-and-beam glulam frames, CLT floor and wall systems, and hybrid timber-concrete assemblies — the systems that make factory-manufactured mid-rise housing viable at scale. His project portfolio includes the 60 Bowden Seniors Affordable Housing Building, the Elizabeth Fry Society Supportive Housing Building, the Wagner Green YMCA Transitional Housing Building, and the TRCA Administrative Building, among others.

Licensed across multiple Canadian provinces and U.S. states, Chris has built a practice grounded in how timber structures actually get built — from fabrication constraints to site sequencing. He brings that practical authority to his guest lectures in the Design of Wood Structures at McMaster University, where he helps shape the next generation of timber practitioners. His career is defined by advancing not just the design of timber structures, but the industry’s understanding of how to deliver them at scale.

Chris Loftin

President, Loftin Management

Chris Loftin is President of Loftin Ltd., a construction management firm specializing in multi-residential and affordable housing projects across Ontario. With deep experience in modern methods of construction, Chris has led numerous developments that use prefabrication and mass timber systems to deliver housing faster, more sustainably, and at lower cost.

His work includes innovative projects such as Toronto’s 1120 Ossington supportive housing and the 7 Vanauley YMCA project, which provide affordable homes using cross-laminated timber and prefabricated construction approaches. Through close collaboration with architects, developers, and public partners, Chris focuses on delivering efficient, high-quality housing that helps address Canada’s growing affordability crisis.