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Name: William F. O'Keeffe

Title/Position: President / CEO

Company: O'keeffe's Inc., Safti First

Business Description:

Chapter: Super PAC

 

Please inquire with The CEO Clubs for member contact information.

 

Website: http://safti.com

 

Bio:

Bill was born, raised, educated and resides in San Francisco, CA.  He has served as past President of Northern California Construction Institute (NCCI), past Commander of the San Francisco Sheriff's Air Squadron, past or active member of AAMA, NFPA, BOCA, SBCCI, NGA, CSI, ANSI, ASTM and GANA.  He is a member and financial supporter of: St. Brendan's Church, the Arc Angels, the Edgewood center, the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco opera and the Wheel Chair Foundation. Fund raiser and on the committee of the San Francisco Bay Area Boy Scouts, the Leukemia& Lymphoma society, and the Little Jim club. Member and honored by the Landsmen and the Irish Israeli Italian society. He is also a Supporter and current board of director of the San Francisco Playhouse.

Bill is committed to the glass industry's effort to improve the lives and safety of the public through the use of safety fire-rated glazing. During the company's testing of fire-rated products and the use of these products in the early 1980s, they discovered how unsafe wired-glass was in regard to impact standards and uncovered a history of serious injuries to the public, especially its use in K-12 applications.  This discovery commenced a 20-year battle against the exemption given to wired-glass from meeting impact safety standards.  Due to Bill raising awareness amongst the industry leaders and code officials, he became known as "the Wired Warrior".  Finally in May 2004, the battle climaxed with the exemption being removed and wired-glass no longer may be used in K-12 schools in areas where impact is of a concerned.  He developed the first 'safe' wired-glass product to answer the need for an inexpensive safe solution for schools and other public applications.

Bill is considered the 'Father' of fire-rated glazing in the USA by being the first to introduce in 1982 a wireless fire-rated glazing rated from 20-180 minutes with hose stream, first to develop a safe wired-glass to meet the highest safety standards of Cat. II requirements, first to manufacture in the U.S. low cost tempered products that meet fire endurance test from 20-60 minutes.  Other first accomplishments include the first to introduce fire ballistic and forced entry glass as a single component, first to combine ballistic and fire-rated framing, first with aluminum fire-rated framing, and first with wood clad fire-rated framing.  He also employed & trained other leaders in the fire glass industry including Scott Foote, past President of InterEdge, Kurt Ratzel, current Director of International Fire-Rated Glazing for Vetrotech and Bill Koffel as his code consultant in the 1980s until he was hired away by the wired-glass industry to represent them as he still does today.  

Bill is active in the day to day management of SAFTI FIRST / O'Keeffe's. He enjoys travel, boating, flying, fishing, and good food with great company.