About
Badia, "Buddy" Ontra has been working with natural stone since 1982. First as a union commercial installer in the early to mid '80's. He worked as a residential countertop fabricator 1985 to present. 2005 through 2024 he owned and operated Ontra Stone Concepts, a Natural Stone Institue Accreditated Residential Countertop Fabricator in Bridgeport, Ct. Only about 100 companies have this distiguished recognition. Most recently, he has served as a trainer for the Natural Stone Institute "Silica and Slab Safety" Certificate-a 4 hour intensive course in silicosis and slabhandling safety. He served on the NSI BOD fro 2016 through 2023 and he currently serves on the Natural Stone Founsation BOD. He was the 2022 NSI BOD President. He has been retained by attorneys to share his expertise on slab handling accident cases and stone failure cases. Countertop fabricators retain Buddy for peer to peer safety consulting and to help them prepare for an OSHA visit.
Buddy is a frequent speaker at Stone Expo, TISE, Coverings, and at many NSI Fabricator Summitts. Well over 100 sessions to date. He currently facilitates 2 fabricator education summitts a year. These are day-long regional education including design trends, safety, and fabricator round table discussions. He has also spoken at international stone education trade shows in China and Brazil.
Simply, he is a stone fabricator expert. If there anything else you want to know... Just ask!