Advocacy and Outreach
Richard Thomas
Director, State/Local Legislative Affairs
Richard is DBIA’s “fixer.” Since 2009, he’s been traveling the nation helping state legislatures throughout our 14 Regions pass new design-build legislation, expand existing laws and defeat efforts to roll back design-build progress. He’ll tell you the best of part of his job is all the people he meets from coast to coast, but the downside is the partisan politics.
Richard is a Minnesota native, served in the Navy and worked with Ames for 17 years before coming to D.C. He enjoys kayaking, horseback riding and coaching basketball. In fact, one little-known tidbit is that Richard holds the highest winning percentage of any coach in the history of Loudoun County’s Basketball League.