Last week, the home building and land development industry lost a great leader. BILD President and CEO, Stephen E. Dupuis, passed away suddenly on September 23, 2011.
He was a dedicated family man, a proud resident of Aurora, Ont. and is survived by his wife Linda and two children, Kendall and Carson.
Stephen served as the inspirational leader of the building industry for more than 25 years.
He was the highly-visible face of the association with spiky hair, a razor-sharp sense of humour and a clear message.
Throughout Stephen’s career he was a consummate professional.
He was extremely adaptive to the ever-changing political and economic landscapes and for nearly two years now, Stephen has been penning columns for Metro readers to keep them updated on how those ebbs and flows affected the industry and, more importantly, consumers.
Stephen worked tirelessly for BILD, the Ontario Home Builders’ Association (OHBA) and the Canadian Home Builders’ Association.
He passionately championed a community partnership with Habitat for Humanity.
Exemplifying strength and unity, he will always be remembered by his colleagues and peers as a source of strength, experience and wisdom, which he was always willing to share.
Recently, he was honoured by his peers at the OHBA with the inaugural David Horton Lifetime Leadership Award of Excellence, which he emotionally told friends was one of the proudest moments of his career.
To us at BILD, he was more than the President and CEO. He was our no-nonsense leader.
He made things happen, he valued what was important and always knew the right thing to say and do.
He was our leader, our teacher, our friend.
When Stephen would take to the podium at BILD events, he would always announce how proud he was to be president and CEO of BILD. Stephen, BILD and its 1,350 member companies are proud of you.
You will be missed.
Stephen’s career
Stephen Dupuis, the CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association, the Toronto arm of the provincial home builders association, died Friday.
- Leader: The 52-year-old had just received the David Horton Leadership Award recognizing his leadership at the Ontario Home Builders Association award show on Thursday night.
- Pioneer: He was the first recipient of the award and he was very proud to be chosen to receive it.
- Community-minded: Stephen worked tirelessly with Habitat for Humanity to create affordable housing for everyone.
- Stephen also wrote a weekly column for Metro and the Toronto Star’s New in Homes and Condos Section.
– Torstar News Service
