Prior to his unanimous election in September 2007 as President of the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) of the AFL-CIO, Mark Ayers was the Director of the Construction and Maintenance Department of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). Additionally, he was Chair of the National Maintenance Agreements Policy Committee and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the AFL-CIO’s Housing Investment Trust (HIT). Mr. Ayers is Chairman of the Board and President of the Center to Protect Workers’ Rights (CPWR) and the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans (NCCMP). He has served as Secretary-Treasurer of the Ullico Inc. Board of Directors since 2007.

A former Director of the IBEW Construction and Maintenance Division, Mr. Ayers was also previously the Business Manager and Financial Secretary for IBEW Local 34 in Peoria, Illinois. He also served as Co-Founder and Chairman of the Central Illinois Chapter of NECA-IBEW Local 34 Quality Connection, and was the Secretary-Treasurer of the West Central Illinois Building & Construction Trades Council.
In addition to his work with national and local unions and their boards, Mr. Ayers currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the Diabetes Research Institute.

Mr. Ayers attended the George Meany Institute for Labor Studies (now known as the National Labor College), the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Illinois Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations. He also served his country as an aviator in the United States Navy.

He is a contributor to the Huffington Post, where he authors pieces on U.S. jobs and labor relations.

A member of the International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers for more than 30 years, James Boland was elected the union’s President in February 2010. He had previously served as BAC’s Secretary-Treasurer, a position to which he was elected in 2000 and re-elected in 2005.

Additionally, Mr. Boland, a member of the Executive Board since 1995, served first as an Executive Vice President until June 1999. After joining BAC in 1977, Mr. Boland spent the next decade working on commercial projects in the San Francisco Bay area in brick, block, stone, and marble. He became Business Agent in 1988 and then President of BAC Local 3 California in 1992. A year later, he was appointed to serve as a member of the International union’s highest advisory body, the BAC Executive Council.

In 1994, Mr. Boland was named to the International’s headquarters staff as Assistant to the Vice President for Operations overseeing trade jurisdiction matters. Later that same year Mr. Boland was asked to take on the added field responsibilities of BAC Regional Director for California and Nevada, a position he maintained until his election to the Executive Board in 1995.

In addition to his Executive Board responsibilities, Mr. Boland serves as Co-Chair of the International Masonry Institute (IMI), the training and industry development arm of the organized masonry industry, the International Trowel Trades Pension Fund (IPF), the International Health Fund (IHF), and Co-Chair of the BAC Canadian Congress.

Mr. Boland is a Vice President of the AFL-CIO Executive Council, and serves on four AFL-CIO Committees: International Affairs, Legislation /Policy, Political, and Immigration.

He studied at Ireland’s University College Dublin and graduated from the Harvard Trade Union Program in 1996.

James A. Grogan, the General President of the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers, has nearly 50 years of experience with unions at the local, state, and international levels.

He started working in 1956 as a permit worker, and was initiated into Newark, New Jersey’s Local 32 in 1959. Following a stint in the army, Mr. Grogan returned to Local 32 where he received his mechanic's card in 1961. In very short order, he demonstrated his leadership abilities and was elected as a trustee of his Local in 1962. Two years later, he was elected Sergeant-at-Arms, and in 1965 was elected as the Local’s Recording and Corresponding Secretary while also serving on the Negotiating Committee.

In 1967, Mr. Grogan was elected his union’s full-time Recording Secretary and Assistant to the Financial Secretary. He then was elected Business Agent in 1969, followed by his election to the local’s top leadership position—Business Manager—in 1973.

Mr. Grogan’s leadership as Business Manager led to his election in 1975 as President of the New Jersey State Building and Construction Trades Council, a position he held for 14 years. In 1987, delegates to the Asbestos Workers' General Convention in Philadelphia elected Mr. Grogan to the position of International Vice President, representing the Middle Atlantic States Conference.

In January 1989, the union's General Executive Board unanimously elected Mr. Grogan to the position of General Secretary-Treasurer. He was re-elected to that position in 1992 and again in 1997.

At the May 2001 General Executive Board Meeting, Mr. Grogan was unanimously elected General President after the retirement of General President William Bernard. He was officially elected to the position of General President in 2002.

Mr. Grogan is also a Vice President of the national AFL-CIO Executive Council, a Vice President of the Building and Construction Trades Department and serves on the Executive Board of the D.C. Friends of Ireland. He is a longtime resident of Belleville, New Jersey.

Thomas C. Jones is a member of the Board of Managers and a senior advisor to the executive officers of The Hagerty Group, LLC, the leading producer of automobile and marine insurance for collectors. Prior to joining Hagerty in 2005, he was a management consultant with Competing Values, LLC.  

During 2003 and 2004, Mr. Jones served as the Director of the BBA Program and was Executive-in-Residence at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business.

Mr. Jones spent nearly a decade at CIGNA, one of the nation’s leading asset management and retirement services firms with assets of more than $80 billion. During his tenure, Mr. Jones served as President of CIGNA Reinsurance: Property & Casualty, president of CIGNA Individual Insurance, and President of CIGNA Investment Management. He retired from CIGNA in 2002 after serving as President of CIGNA Retirement & Services Division.

Prior to joining CIGNA, Mr. Jones was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of NAC Re Corporation, where he became a founding member of the company’s Board of Directors. Earlier, he held several senior management positions at General Re Corporation and served as Michigan’s Commissioner of Insurance.  Mr. Jones has also worked in an executive capacity in the Michigan Department of Commerce and as an advisor in the office of former Michigan Governor William G. Milliken.

From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Jones was a member of the Board of Directors of CUNA Mutual Group, the leading financial services provider to credit unions and their members.  He is currently a member of the President’s Advisory Group of the University of Michigan. He is also a member of the Visiting Committee and a former member of the Alumni Society Board of Governors of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.  In 2005, the school awarded Mr. Jones the Bert F. Wertman Alumni Service Award.  He is a Fellow of Northwestern Michigan College and a member of the Board of Directors of the NMC Foundation.  In 2008, Mr. Jones was inducted into the Michigan Insurance Hall of Fame.

Mr. Jones received his Associate of Arts degree from Northwestern Michigan College and his BBA and MBA degrees from the University of Michigan. He has also participated in the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.

With 30 years of experience in the banking and money management businesses, Mr. Lissner is one of the founding partners of Acropolis Investment Management, LLC, the origins of which he started in 1999. He is a long-time resident of St. Louis and served as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Mark Twain Banks Capital Markets Group from 1984-1998. He began his career with Bear Stearns & Company in 1980, working on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Mr. Lissner brings experience evaluating and implementing investment strategies to bear for a variety of organizations and situations. His expertise includes asset/liability analysis; asset allocation; individual security analysis including domestic, global and preferred stock analysis; and the analysis of structure, including mortgages, agencies, treasuries, corporates, municipals, money markets, asset-backed swaps, futures and options. Recognized as a knowledgeable student of the markets and economy, Mr. Lissner prepares and presents market and economic symposiums for various organizations.

He is active in the community and has served on numerous boards for both non-profit and corporate organizations. He is currently serving as Treasurer and Board Member of The Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis.

Mr. Lissner received his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry in 1980 from the University of Missouri-Columbia and has successfully completed the NASD Series 7, 24, 53, 63 and 65 securities license exams.

Terence M. “Terry” O'Sullivan is General President of the 840,000-member Laborers' International Union of North America (LiUNA). He previously served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ullico Inc. from May 2003 until August 2006. Mr. O'Sullivan is widely credited with the operational, financial and governance turnaround that restored Ullico to growth and profit.

To strengthen Ullico's finances, Mr. O'Sullivan streamlined company operations and drove a revenue recovery program that led to the company's return to profit. He was also a key voice in the company's decision to adopt the principles and standards of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, even though as a private company, Ullico is not subject to the regulations applied to public corporations.

Elected as General President of the Laborers’ Union in 2000, Mr. O'Sullivan led LiUNA to the forefront of the union movement, reshaping it into one of the most active, aggressive and progressive affiliates in North America. He previously served as Vice President and Regional Manager for the Mid-Atlantic Region of the Laborers' Union and as the Union's Chief of Staff and Assistant to the General President.

A long-time, vocal supporter and activist for Sinn Fein to secure peace, justice and a united Ireland, Mr. O’Sullivan is Executive Vice President of D.C. Friends of Ireland and President of New York Friends of Ireland.

A proud native of San Francisco, he joined LiUNA in 1974 and is a member of Local 1353 in Charleston, West Virginia.

Kinsey M. Robinson was formerly the International Secretary-Treasurer of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, which has 25,000 members working throughout the United States in the industrial and commercial sectors of the construction industry. During his tenure, he was responsible for the financial operations in the Washington, D.C. headquarters and 86 local offices located in 47 states.

Mr. Robinson was unanimously elected International Secretary-Treasurer in 1985 and on four successive occasions. As International Secretary-Treasurer, he placed a strong emphasis on developing quality auditing procedures and internal controls for local unions and has fostered strong relationships with contractor groups and associations to provide members with comprehensive pensions and health care. As Trustee of the National Roofing Industry Pension Plan, he worked diligently to dramatically improve Plan design and benefits covering 31,000 participants; during his time as Trustee, Plan assets have risen from $100 million to over $1 billion.

Mr. Robinson began his roofing career in Spokane, Washington, graduating from Local 189's apprenticeship program in 1968. In 1969 he was elected to the Local's Executive Board and three years later was elected Recording-Secretary. In March 1974 he was elected Business Manager of Local 189, a position he held until his appointment as International Representative in 1982.

In April 2006, Mr. Robinson was elected to the position of International President. In that position he has continued to emphasize organizing, market development and labor/management relations.

He is married to the former Mona Lynn Nagle, a pediatric nurse. They split their time between Spokane, Washington and Upper Marlboro, Maryland outside Washington, D.C.

Edward C. Sullivan, former President of the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), AFL-CIO, is a man who knows his way around the labor movement. Prior to his election in 2000 to the top post in the BCTD, which consists of 15 international unions representing three million construction craftspeople in the U.S. and Canada, he was General President of the International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC).

In 1964, Mr. Sullivan began his career in the elevator trade as a probationary helper in IUEC Local 4 in Boston. He worked as a construction mechanic and an adjuster in maintenance for 17 years. In 1981, he was elected Business Manager of Local 4, and he served in that capacity until his election as Assistant to the General President of the IUEC in 1996. He was then elected General President of the Union in 1998. Additionally, Mr. Sullivan chaired the Board of Elevator Regulators in Massachusetts for 10 years.

In 1997 he received the Gompers-Murray-Meany Award, the top honor awarded each year by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO.

Mr. Sullivan is a former chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Coordinating Committee for Multi-employer Plans (NCCMP) and the Center to Protect Workers' Rights (CPWR).

Edward C. Sullivan's makes his home is in Foxboro, Massachusetts, where he resides with Mary.

George Tedeschi has been a union member for more than 50 years, joining in February 1959 as a flyboy for Newsday in Melville, New York on Long Island. Mr. Tedeschi also served as an apprentice and became a journeyman newspaper pressman. He was active in his union and served as Nassau County, New York Local 406 Vice President and Secretary-Treasurer.

In 1972 he became President of Local 406 and served in that office until he was elected President of the Graphic Communications International Union (GCIU) effective June 2000. He was re-elected President of the GCIU in 2004. The GCIU merged with the I.B.T. in 2005, forming the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and Mr. Tedeschi has remained the new entity’s President. As International President, he serves as a trustee on two Conference pension funds.

Mr. Tedeschi also held the position of President of the Newspaper Conference for 20 years as well as the Secretary-Treasurer and Secretary of the Eastern Conference for 10 years until his elevation to International President of the then GCIU.

Additionally, he has also been Vice President and Executive Board Member of the regional Long Island Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.

An active member of his local community, he has served on the community boards as both a member and Corporate Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Long Island United Way.

Mr. Tedeschi is the father of three children, all of whom work in the newspaper industry.