TEXAS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Events & Partnerships
Job Titles:
- Marketing & Communications Manager
Job Titles:
- Executive Administrative Assistant
Brett Martin has been involved with the building industry for the last 21 years. The first 11 years were spent providing construction financing to builders and permanent financing to homeowners. For the last 10 years he has served as Vice President of Real Estate Operations for Tilson Homes.
Martin has worked on the Audit and Finance Committees for the Texas Association of Builders (TAB) the past eight years. He has also chaired TAB's Audit Committee and been a member of TAB's Executive Committee the past five years.
Born in Pecos and raised in Lubbock and Houston, Martin graduated from Abilene Christian University with a BBA in Accounting and became a CPA. Martin started his accounting career as an auditor with Arthur Young & Co., specializing in finance, real estate, and construction.
Don Allen has been working in the single family development and homebuilding industry for over 40 years. He worked for 20 years as a consulting engineer, focusing on land development projects for large master planned as well as volume oriented communities.
His clients included some of the largest homebuilders and developers in the DFW Metroplex. He was also named the 1991 Young Engineer of the Year by the Fort Worth Chapter of TSPE.
In 2003 he left engineering and since then has worked as a developer, acquiring, entitling and developing over 25,000 lots across DFW. He worked for 12 years for a major public homebuilder and since then is Development Partner at Lackland Holdings LLC.
Don first became involved in the Greater Fort Worth Builders Association years ago when some new City of Fort Worth policies in Fort Worth became an issue for homebuilders. He helped create and serve on a committee to work with the City staff and council, reaching an agreement to amend the city policies to both sides satisfaction. This process taught him the power that a local builders association can have in working with a city. Since that time he has remained involved with the GFWBA, focusing much of his efforts on political and government affairs issues. He continues to serve on multiple liaison committees with the City. In 2017-18 he served as President of the GFWBA, and remains a member of the Board of Directors. In 2019 he was named the local Developer of the Year by GFWBA.
In 2015 Don was appointed a State Director of TAB. He quickly became involved in the Government Relations Committee and Homepac. In 2020 and 2021 he served as Chair of the GRC, and has testified on TAB's behalf before State legislative committees. One of the TAB events he enjoys most is Rally Day, something he feels every TAB member needs to experience for themselves. He is passionate about TAB's political relationships and looks forward to helping maintain and strengthen them.
Don is a native of Cleburne, Texas. He is a 1981 graduate of Texas Tech with a BSCE degree. Don and his wife Fiona live in Arlington. They have 3 grown children, Dr. Meredith Abbott (Woody), Mark Allen (Rebecca) and Beth Curnutt (Riley). They also have 4 grandchildren.
Job Titles:
- First Vice President
- Life Director for the Dallas Builders Association
- Member of the Dallas
- State Director of TAB
Donnie Evans continues his journey on the Texas Association of Builders Senior Leadership ladder as the First Vice President, while chairing TAB's HOMEPAC Board of Trustees. He also chaired TAB's Bylaws Committee in 2019 and was co-chair of the 2018 and 2019 Sunbelt Builders Show™ Committee. The Vietnam Veteran has spent most of his adult career in the homebuilding industry. Evans is currently President of DFW area builder Altura Homes.
TAB named Evans Builder of the Year in 2019, and he earned Presidential Distinguished Service Award accolades in 2017 and 2018. These awards are given to members who go above and beyond the call of service for the local and state associations.
Evans is a Life Director for the Dallas Builders Association and has served on the Dallas BA Executive Board for the past seven years. In 2016, he led his local association as president and served two terms as Membership Committee Chair and four terms as HOMEPAC Committee Chair. He spearheaded the creation of DBA's Volume Builders Council in 2014.
As an active and influential member of the Dallas BA, Evans was recognized with the Hugh Prather Award in 2017, the highest honor bestowed by the association. In addition, he is a five-time winner of the Shorty Howard Award, which highlights the top membership recruiter (2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020) for the association.
Through Altura Homes, Evans has had the privilege to assist fellow veterans by building a home for Patriot PAWS and a mortgage free home for Operation FINALLY HOME. Evans remains active within his community by working with the Juvenile Diabetes Association and through philanthropic and political efforts.
He and his wife, Toni, have two adult children. The couple also have nine grandchildren.
As an active member of the Big Country Home Builders Association, Texas Association of Builders, and the National Association of Home Builders, Gene Lantrip has made it to the top of TAB's Senior Leadership ladder as President. He founded Lantrip's Custom Homes, Inc. in Abilene, Texas in 1995. As president and CEO, he has built over 900 single family detached homes and duplexes and developed seven different sites from 10-acre tracts to city lots.
He brings a wealth of experience, and his commitment to the profession is demonstrated by his willingness to volunteer his time to the homebuilding industry. Since 2010, Lantrip upped his engagement at the state level and has been involved with the Board of Directors (2010-present), Government Relations Committee (2012-present), and Executive Committee (2014-present). He was elected Area Vice President for Area II (2014-2017) and served as AVP chair (2016-2017). He has also chaired the Membership Committee (2020) and HOMEPAC Board of Trustees (2018-2019). He has won TAB Presidential award in 2015 and the Developer of the Year Award in 2018. He became a TAB Life Director in 2017 after seven years of service as a TAB director.
Prior to being sworn in on Nov. 4, he had served as BCHBA President (2011), first vice president (2010), past president (2012) and remains engaged with the Board of Directors (2003, 2004, 2008-present). He continues to chair the Bylaws, HOMEPAC and Parade of Homes Committees for his local HBA. Gene has also won the Builder of the year award three (3) times and the prestigious Raymond Thomason Lifetime achievement award.
On the national level, Lantrip is a Life Spike with 234.50 Spike Credits and was an NAHB board member for six years (2009-2015). Gene grew up in Abilene and was active in the Boy Scouting program, becoming an Eagle Scout. After graduating from Hardin Simmons University in 1979, Lantrip was commissioned as an Officer in the US Army where he spent 6 years as an Army Reserve member for the 490 th Civil Affairs Company in Abilene.
He and his wife of 44 years, Cindy, have three children: Kate Gonzales (Joey), Kenny Lantrip (Beth), and Kristie McBrayer (Jeremy). They also have five grandchildren.
Job Titles:
- Director of Government Affairs
Job Titles:
- Director of Member Services
Job Titles:
- TAB Staff Member
- Senior VP of Administration
Job Titles:
- TAB Staff Member
- VP of Regulatory Affairs & General Counsel
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- TAB Staff Member
Susan Wright saw great triumph as the first female to lead the nearly 10,000-member Texas Association of Builders. Wright's tremendous amount of experience and knowledge in the residential construction industry helped her lead a successful year. She is the owner of Susan Wright & Associates, a development and community association consulting firm in San Antonio, Texas.
Wright has spent the past 30 years working in several Texas markets consulting with multiple master planned community developments on land planning, amenity center design, community covenants and project construction oversight and management. Most recently, she teamed up with the Miralomas Development Corporation of San Antonio.
Locally, Wright has served for seven years on the San Antonio Planning Commission and five years on the Zoning Commission while chairing both during her tenure. In addition, she chaired the Growth and City Form Committee of the city's San Antonio's Tomorrow master plan and currently serves on the Capital Improvement Advisory Committee and as vice chair of the San Antonio Affordable Housing Board and Board of Commissioners of the Office of Urban Renewal.
Wright has two adult sons, Jeremy and Zach. Both have followed in their mother's footsteps with careers in the construction industry. Jeremy owns an excavation, land clearing and detention pond reconstruction and maintenance firm in San Antonio, while Zach is a commercial construction project engineer in Austin.
Job Titles:
- Director of Information Systems & Trade Show Operations