Derrick is the Technical Services Manager for Crossville Inc. located in Crossville, TN. He started his career with Crossville in manufacturing 10 years ago. Since then he has moved on to Crossville’s Marketing department and more recently Technical Services. For the last three years Derrick has been training contractors in gauged porcelain tile panel installation, assisting fabricators with porcelain slabs, while being actively involved with the National Tile Contractor’s Association and Tile Council of North America.

Alexandre Stepanov is the Technical Support and Fabrication Specialist for Laminam North America. Prior to joining Laminam, Alex was a stone fabricator for over 14 years with specific concentration on large format porcelain slab fabrication. Alex’s extensive experience includes bridge saw operation, hands on fabrication, installation, project management, repairs, client care and any other day to day activities performed in a fabrication shop setting.  Witnessing first hand the power and opportunity created by the introduction of porcelain slabs into the market, Alex dedicated himself to the study of this trend believing this to be the future of his industry. 3 Years ago, Alex parlayed his knowledge and enthusiasm into a successful career with Laminam, travelling across North America to meet with fabricators for training, certification and general support. Through Alex, new and existing Laminam fabricators have a like minded source of information which allows them to be successful immediately without having navigate the learning curve. Fabrication is not just a job but a passion for Alex and when not travelling, he can be found in his Toronto area shop testing new blades, adhesives, fabrication techniques anything else that would give Laminam fabricators across North America an advantage.

Originally from Spain, sales and leadership expert Raul Amat moved directly from college to one of the biggest natural stone companies in the world. With a strong background of over 20 years of international experience in sales, training and development of large corporate teams, Raul moved to the USA in 2007 where he has helped several companies within the natural stone, countertop and flooring markets by leading their teams and expansion plans in the USA and Canada markets.

Raul recently joined Daltile to lead the growth of their Panoramic porcelain slabs division towards the countertop and flooring markets. When not travelling or in the office, Raul can be found doing multiple outdoor activities, cooking or enjoying time with his family in Texas.

Bill is a Senior Technical Associate and has been with DuPont Corian® Design R&D for over 26 years. He has worked on process support, product development and has provided product, fabrication and code and regulatory customer support. Global Technical Literature Leader since 2011 he is responsible for Corian® Design literature and training development and was the Corian® Endura™ technical lead for product launch. Bill has a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and a doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington.