OBERLIN, OH and CHESTERTOWN, NY -- MIA+BSI has announced that Robert V. "Rob" Barnes, III (Dee Brown, Inc.) has been named BSI Person of the Year for 2015.The Building Stone Institute Person of the Year award is given annually to an individual BSI member who exhibits outstanding service not only to the organization, but to its members and to its executive vice-president.   

"2015 was a unique year," said MIA+BSI executive vice-president, Jane Bennett. "MIA and BSI each faced unprecedented change with the decision to enter into a joint venture. Our 2015 BSI president faced a somewhat unfair share of uncomfortable adversity in leading our task force due diligence, strategic and decision-making process, but ultimately did so with unfaltering conviction. The impressive realization for me was that this conviction wasn't so much that entering into a joint venture with MIA was the right decision, but that the vetting process to evaluate whether to enter into a joint venture was the right decision. Ultimately, it was a tough, arduous process and his leadership role was approached in a productive, professional, fair and sensitive manner. The role taken and responsibility assumed was certainly beyond the scope of what is normally expected of our voluntary leadership. Again, all who worked in this effort are deserving of our appreciation and respect. In considering the 2015 Person of the Year award recipient, I recalled the privilege and pleasure it has been to work closely with and to get to know Rob Barnes, witnessing a strong, capable leadership quality that earned my respect and that of his peers."