GR Spotlight: Bryan Soukup puts youthful drive to work for ICC Members.

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Attending the 2015 Alexandria, Va., Building Safety Month Kick-Off Event were Pete Mensinger of the State Department of Codes, ICC Government Relations Regional Manager Bryan Soukup, ICC Senior Vice President of Government Relations Sara Yerkes, ICC Vice President of Federal Activities Chris Ochoa, ICC Consultant Jim Ellwood, and ICC Board of Directors Immediate Past President Guy Tomberlin.

Bryan Soukup is one of the newest and youngest members of ICC's Government Relations (GR) team, and the way his first six months on the job have gone, he's going to need every ounce of that youthful energy — or at least make some really good friends at Amtrak. One of the rare GR staff members who got his start in government relations and then transitioned into working with building codes, rather than vice versa, Soukup has been enamored with politics and the workings of government ever since his acting career fell through at the age of seven. After receiving the heartbreaking news that he wouldn't be Macaulay Culkin's replacement in Home Alone 3, he turned his attention to politics, volunteering in political campaigns as early as middle school and falling asleep only after Bill O'Reilly had signed off for the night. That start spurred him to attend law school, where he decided that litigation wasn't his bag and that lobbying was a better fit for his love for getting into the machinery of government and effecting positive change. After brief stints with a pharmacists' trade association and the American Institute of Architects (where he was the interim Building Codes Policy Manager), he decided that he ought to go straight to the source of the codes and work directly for them. "I wanted to work in an industry that was broad enough so that I would never be bored," muses Soukup. "And boy, did I find it in the construction industry." And bored he isn't. Now the GR rep for nearly all of ICC Region VII, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, the travel he's doing has to be single-handedly keeping Amtrak afloat, all the while working on his favorite building topic: resilience. "To me, it just makes sense," he explains. "Build your communities to withstand whatever man or Mother Nature can throw at it. And if you can't? Build so that your communities can recover in days, not months or years. There is no factor more basic to resilience than the building code. It is the basis for safe, smart, well-built construction that can withstand and recover from even the most brutal forces." The youthful energy he has does come with a drawback, however. "The most common refrain I hear (besides a lawyer joke) when I meet Members through my travels is, 'Wow! You're young!'" Soukup says with a smile. "But this baby face belies years of high-level government relations experience. I am committed to working for the ICC, my Chapters and my states to ensure that the ICC continues to grow and excel." And excel he has, making his mark on ICC in only half a year. His knowledge of how best to relate to state and local governments is matched only by his enthusiasm for it. "If you're a Member who wants to become involved in our efforts on resilience, please contact me!!!" Soukup says. "And make sure there are three exclamation points."