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Introducing The Cost Experts

Kahua is proud to introduce The Cost Experts, Tim Kent and Dan Fossi.

Why is cost so important in construction project management?

Managing cost ensures your project is delivered within scope, on budget, and on time. Follow Tim and Dan in their blog series on everything cost.  

Meet Tim  

Tim is a Civil Engineer from the beautiful province of British Columbia, Canada.  He has made a career building project management, project administration, project control and project cost systems in, and for, the construction industry.   

The first cost system Tim built was, like many people, a spreadsheet. It managed the commercial side of a condominium project, coordinating the purchaser agreements, purchaser financial statements and status reports, purchase options and upgrades, the deposits and interest calculations, etc. He was hooked! 

Tim’s took a multiyear detour to specialize in construction scheduling on a vast array of projects as a schedule consultant. When he returned to work on cost systems, his scheduling experience brought a few new tools to the toolbelt. Combining scheduling and cost knowledge, Tim took a dive deep into cost loaded schedules and rudimentary, home grown earned value systems.  Some argue he has never quite fully recovered. 

Midway through his career, Tim transitioned to the software side of the business. This is where he found his true passion in helping to make software solutions that solved important problems for the construction industry.  He joined Meridian Systems to work on Prolog Manager and Proliance, then in 2012 Tim joined Aconex, helping them become one of the largest Australian tech company acquisitions in 2018He joined Kahua as a Senior Product Manager in 2020. 

Meet Dan  

Dan Fossi, a Senior Product Manager, joined Kahua in 2011. He has been paramount in Kahua’s development of cost appand extensions for Clark construction, Lendlease US, SCUSD, Mayo Clinic, and more. 

Dan began software development around 1982 building an app to create test equipment applicationsHis first cost related app was using DDE Dynamic Data Exchange on a PC to communicate with MS Excel. 

As a software consultant, Dan created some custom applications for one of his clients, a commercial construction company, that later became part of Constuctware. Dan joined Constructware in 1999 and continued to work for Autodesk after their acquisition of Constructware in 2006. He then came back to work for the same founders who then had started Kahua and continued his work on cost applications. Dan helped develop Kahua’s robust cost system that supports all participants in the construction process with both off the shelf applications with workflow as well as custom extensions to support larger clients needs. 

In his free time, Dan enjoys camping, kayaking, and doing his own construction work on his homes, turning a small camp into a 3bedroom house on Daniel’s pond in Vermont  

About the Author

Tim Kent is a Senior Product Manager at Kahua. Tim’s background is as a Civil Engineer and he started his career as a consultant in construction scheduling and cost control, working on all sorts of projects over the years. As he transitioned through project controls to construction project management, he was always interested in the software side of the business. Tim built and implemented a number of in house solutions, and rolled out Primavera’s Expedition throughout his organization. He couldn’t resist the siren call of software, eventually joining Meridian Systems to work on Prolog Manager and Proliance. In 2012 Tim joined Aconex, helping them become one of the largest Australian tech company acquisitions in 2018.

Profile Photo of Tim Kent