President
Linda McBain, CFM

1st Vice President
Peter Maerz

Peter began his career in Facilities Management 20 years ago and has been employed at Interstate Batteries since 1991 as the Corporate Facilities Manger. He has developed the office environment through the company’s growth from around 140 employees to an employee base of over 1400 today. He is responsible for long term strategic planning, space planning, construction management as well as the day to day operations of the Corporate Headquarters and two warehouse facilities.

Peter joined the Dallas Chapter of IFMA in 1992 and has held various positions, both at the Chapter Committee and Board levels. Peter served for two years on the World Workplace Program Advisory Committee. He served as Chapter President from July, 2000 till July, 2002 and has maintained the chapter website for almost 10 years. This year he is serving as First Vice President. Peter feels it is a pleasure to serve the DFW Chapter because we have so many faithful, dedicated members that support us both financially and with volunteer hours.

Peter has been married to Debi for 31 years and they have three daughters, one son-in-law and one grand daughter. He also serves as the President of his HOA Board in McKinney is on the board of directors for the Heritage Guild of Collin County, and he teaches an adult BFG class at First Baptist Church McKinney.

2nd Vice President
Rod Armstrong

Rod Armstrong is City of Dallas native. Rod served as an officer in the US Army and is a Viet Nam veteran. He attended San Francisco State University and graduated from the City College of San Francisco with a degree in Marketing. Rod is married to his wife Jennifer and has 4 children. Rod stays busy, when not selling Lees Carpet or attending IFMA functions and duties, by doing whatever his 8 year old twins are doing. He has said that keeping up with his kids will either keep him young, or will kill him.

Rod began attending IFMA Dallas chapter meetings in the mid-80’s and officially joined the Dallas Chapter in 1989. He still carries his original membership card in his wallet. He served on several committees during the 90’s. Rod served as Programs Chairperson for the Dallas Chapter from December 1999 until September 2005. Rod is one of the original founders of Metrocon. Rod plans to take his last IFMA competency course to obtain an FMP Certification, at World Workplace in New Orleans in October.

His favorite IFMA memory's are spreading gravel in South Dallas alleys for our Adopt a Block projects in the 90's and, every attending the many World Workplace Conferences over the years. Rod is the current 2nd Vice President for the year 2006-2007.

Treasurer
Burt Copeland

Burt was born and raised in Dallas back when Dallas had more cotton fields than high rise Condos. He started his professional career in accounting and finance working in both public accounting, corporate finance and banking before wisely selecting commercial flooring services as his real passion.

He has been in commercial flooring for seven years and in 2005, purchased ReSource Flooring Group from Interface Inc. to return the company to its roots as an independent, full service flooring company. Burt has a patient wife, 2 very active kids at 9 and 7, a dog, a cat and loves to bike, run long distances, ride mountain bikes over rough terrain and explore the outdoors with his kids at their hunting lease in central Texas.

Secretary
Angie Gaeta

Angie Gaeta has been an active member of the DFW Chapter of IFMA since 2001. Most recently, she was asked by the Board to serve as Co-Chair for MetroCon. Previously, Angie served as Chair for the Membership Committee for 3 years. She consistently attends the monthly chapter meetings, events, and committee/board meetings. Because of her involvement with IFMA, she is able to gain the continued support of her employer, Allsteel. Having served as a Committee Chair in the past, the desire is to support the Chapter by serving on the Board. Her goals are to help grow the chapter, develop and mentor new members, promote the benefits of IFMA, and help others develop relationships within the organization.

Immediate Past President
Brett Laplante, CFM

Brett has been in the Facility Management arena for over 15 years. His back ground includes tool & die making, machining, R&D, TQM trainer/facilitator, Facility Management, and finance.  He is currently Regional Manager of Facilities Operations with Verizon.  Brett has been with the DFW IFMA Chapter since 1998 and is current Past President of the chapter.  He earned his CFM is 1999.  He enjoys camping, hunting, quad/motorcycle riding and has been a part time custom knife maker since 1985.  He lives in the country with his wife, four children, two dogs and the wandering possums, armadillos, rabbits, coyotes, and snakes.