Leadership
Hamish Stewart
EST
Hamish Stewart is a union leader with over 12 years of experience creating work opportunities for UBC members and signatory contractors. He has led major labour negotiations that resulted in win-win situations for our members and our contractor partners. He believes in building and maintaining relationships with key industry stakeholders and that communication is at the centre of any strong relationship.
Approaching his 20th year as a UBC member, Hamish completed his carpentry apprenticeship with the UBC, achieved his Red Seal, and became a job steward in the field. As a steward he fostered his values for fair represetation while maintaining good working relationships with labour partners.
Coming off the tools, Hamish was hired as a business representative and was eventually elected as Executive Secretary Treasurer for the BC Regional Council of Carpenters and later held positions as Western Canada Regional Manager and Co-director of Government Relations for the Carpenters’ Regional Council.
Hamish has been instrumental in growing the market share for UBC contractors and fostering better relationships between employers and workers. He believes that a workforce’s efficiency, productivity, and sustainability is developed through training and innovation, which makes projects more cost-effective to carry out.
His leadership is marked by a steadfast commitment to diversity, equality, and inclusion and the belief that every worker deserves respect and dignity in their workplace.
Besides his work, Hamish enjoys spending time with his wife and two kids in the great outdoors.
Sam Kemble
COO
Sam Kemble, is one of the most thoughtful, experienced, and respectful labour champions you’ll ever meet.
He grew up around tradespeople, in the Sandy Lake First Nations community in Northern Ontario. His father was a master electrician who owned and operated an electrical company employing 50 staff. It was a tough business, especially in a boom and bust economy.
Sam learned firsthand the strength of the human spirit, and also saw why people need allies, defenders, and representation. Why we are stronger together.
He’s dedicated to empowering working people, families and job creators and communities. He has spent over twenty years working in the construction industry with unions and with fair, signatory employers.
Sam’s philosophy is simple: without employers – without projects to build – there are no wages. No benefits. No retirement plans. No need for training.
Protecting working people and job creators is what drives him at the NCC.
Samantha Okabe
Director, Labour Relations and Human Resources
After more than a decade with the Canadian District of the UBCJA Samantha came to NCC in the role of Labour Relations Manager. Her vast experience in external and internal human resources and all areas of labour relations have given Samantha a fundamental understanding of the importance of strong relationships with members, contractors, and industry stakeholders.
Samantha works with project labour agreements, multi-trade agreements, policy development, implementation, and negotiating committees to ensure and advocate for all parties' satisfaction and improve employer/employee relationships.
Sam Emke
VP Business Development
Sam has spent over three decades in the heavy industrial construction sector and has experience in all aspects of project life cycle, including construction management and labour strategy. He’s worked with and for some of Canada’s largest contractors across multiple sectors including mining, oil & gas, renewables, nuclear and power generation.
Early in his career, Sam worked as an Industrial Journeyman Electrician.
Skilled at working with a broad range of stakeholders to build consensus and strategies for lasting relationships, Sam’s has a thorough understanding of the many complex factors affecting profitability and productivity on construction projects. He has a flexible and open-minded approach, and works with contractors to make the difficult decisions that are required to remain successful as circumstances on a project change.
Bev Young
Director of Education
Bev has been an educator and champion of post-secondary education throughout her career, and has been affiliated with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters in Canada since 2011 – first through the Carpenter Millwright College at the Atlantic Canada Regional Council, and then with the CRC. Bev is dedicated to creating innovative programs that build world-class skills as well as ensure the safety and well-being of every member. If you’re not having fun, you’re not learning!
Rick Lambert
Manager of Insulation & Frost Services
Rick brings decades of construction operations and planning experience to his management position in business development at NCC. After 23 years with Altair Contracting in Edmonton, where Rick was Insulation Superintendent, Rick moved into a series of leadership roles that utilized his on-the-ground experiences to lead and develop teams and projects. Among his leadership positions Rick has been a Project Manager and Insulation Supervisor for Brock Canada, and an Operations Supervisor of Kaefer.