Christopher Paul Soffe

Role

Arbitrator – Domestic, Arbitrator – International, Expert Witness, Other

Specialization

Commercial / Business

Languages Spoken

English

Address

990 Hammond Drive, Suite 520

City

Atlanta

State

GA

Country

USA

Zip

30328

Organization/Company Name

Gleeds

Telephone

(770) 395-1500

E-mail Address

chris.soffe@gleedsusa.com

Christopher P. Soffe PPCIOB, FRICS, FAIC, MCIArb., MCMI, CEnv.

Chris Soffe is the Vice Chairman of Gleeds Americas and serves as a Director on Gleeds International Supervisory Board. Gleeds was founded in 1885 and is one of the world’s largest and most respected providers of construction consulting services with 71 offices in 20 countries on 5 continents.  Gleeds’ US offices are in Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Charlotte and Nashville.

Since his appointment as President in 1991, Chris has been responsible for the company’s North American and Caribbean operations. He was instrumental in bringing Gleeds to the USA and has since successfully positioned the company to deliver “Commercially Driven Program Management” to the US market.  The firm has won 15 CMAA (Construction Management Association of America) project management awards over the last 15 years.

Prior to his American career move, Chris worked on expatriate assignments in Tanzania, Trinidad and the Bahamas.  During his 30 years in the USA, he has acted as project and cost management advisor to corporate property owners, developers, government agencies and institutions.

Chris has worked on a diverse range of projects – notables include the restoration of Blenheim Palace, the re-building of Chaucer’s 14th century Alms Houses, the 9/11 World Trade Center insurance claim, and a 7,000-seat Baptist church that won the national CMAA (Construction Management Association of America) Excellence in Program Management Award for the entire USA.

Chris has overseen the state-of-the-art Cancer Research Center for Georgia Regents University (GRU) in Augusta that received the CMAA South Atlantic Project Achievement Award. The firm has also completed the $217 million Medical Education Commons and College of Dental Medicine programs at GRU, as well as a $112 million program for the rapidly expanding campus at Kennesaw State University.

He was principal in charge of Gleeds’ service provision for the new $400 million grandstand reconstruction for the iconic Daytona International Speedway.  The firm also operates in the utilities market, having won large multiple project programs across the entire metropolitan Atlanta, Chicago and Charlotte regions.

Chris was President of the Chartered Institute of Building in 2018/19, currently serves on the CIOB’s Board of Trustees and is Chairman of the Governance Review Board. Chris is also a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and represents the Americas region on the Construction Leadership Advisory Board. He formerly served on the Global Project Management Directorate of the RICS, is on the National Roster of the American Arbitration Association and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Constructors.  Chris is strong proponent of Institutional and Educational engagement and serves on the Building Construction Advisory Board of Georgia Tech.

He is a founding member of the US Southeastern Chapter of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. As a Gleeds Dispute Advisory member, he is responsible for claims advice, litigation support and provides expert testimony.

Chris is a US citizen but was born in Hampshire, England, and spent his early years in Nigeria. Prior to attending Oxford Brookes University, he was educated at “Prep” school and later at Grammar School. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Kathy. They have three grown children, all of whom live and work in Atlanta. Chris enjoys golf and is an avid follower of all sports.