Michael Dickens

Founder and CEO, BuildIQ

As CEO and founder of BuildIQ®, an online provider of training, tools, and Best Practices in Homebuilding™ information, Michael Dickens is responsible for the company’s strategic direction and business process improvement programs with production homebuilders.

Previously, Michael was the CEO of BuildIQ’s sister company, IBACOS®, an advanced research and consulting company he co-founded in 1991 to reinvent the way homes are designed, built, and lived in. Throughout the 1990s, Dickens and IBACOS played a pioneering role in helping the U.S. Department of Energy create its successful Building America program, which is working toward zero energy homes. IBACOS was a spin-off from General Electric (GE), where Dickens directed the Living Environments program.

Michael is a long-time member of several housing industry organizations, including the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has spoken about innovation in homebuilding at many prominent events including the Builder 100, The Presidential Seminar, NAHB’s International Builders’ Show, PCBC, the Benchmark Conference, National Remodelers Show, and many regional HBA events. He has been a regular contributor to GIANTS magazine over the last few years and has appeared on the Today Show, CNN, the Discovery Channel’s Innovations Program, HGTVPro Weekly, the DIY Network, and the Oprah Winfrey Show, among others.

In his spare time, Michael plays a mean game of “paddle tennis,” or ping-pong as we know it on this side of the pond.