Preston Haskell, founder of The Haskell Company, played an instrumental role in the formation of the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA). Throughout the '80s and early '90s, Haskell and industry peers had several discussions about forming an industry organization to represent the interests of design-builders. In February 1993, Haskell gathered about 15 executives of major design-build firms and other companies interested in design-build to a dinner meeting and then an additional half-day meeting the next day in Washington. This was the beginning of DBIA. At the time, design-build was still considered “nontraditional,” with construction management and design-bid-build the preferred project delivery forms. However, Haskell and his peers reasoned that design-build backers needed an organization to represent the interest of design-builders.
In addition to being DBIA's founder and first Board Chairman, Mr. Haskell is extremely active in the community over a wide range of industry, cultural and charitable institutions. Haskell is an honors graduate from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering and received a master's of business administration with distinction from Harvard Business School. He also attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology for graduate study in building engineering and construction.