Amtrak Picks Freight-Rail Vet As New CEO; Transit Guru Dies at 80
Charles Moorman is passenger network's new chief; Robert Kiley revamped three major transit systems
Charles W. “Wick” Moorman, a 40-year veteran of freight railroad Norfolk Southern Corp. who retired last year as chairman, president and CEO, will join Amtrak as president and CEO on Sept. 1. He will succeed Joe Boardman, who is set to retire after eight years in the role. According to media reports, Moorman’s experience would improve Amtrak’s sometimes contentious dealings with freight companies in allowing the national passenger-rail carrier track access.
Roger Millar, acting secretary of the Washington state Dept. of Transportation since February, now is in the job permanently, Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said on Aug. 9. He was named to the interim role to replace Lynn Peterson, whose appointment was not confirmed by state Republican legislators after three years on the job. Millar joined the agency as deputy secretary in 2015 from a previous role as vice president of Smart Growth America, a nonprofit technical assistance and advocacy group. He also is a former principal at consultants Otak and DMJM Harris. Peterson joined Smart Growth America in April as a senior transportation policy adviser.
Charles M. “Charlie” Hess has joined Brown & Root Industrial Services, Baton Rouge, La., as president of its infrastructure and coastal restoration unit. He was senior vice president of federal services for CB&I, which purchased his previous firm, The Shaw Group, in 2013. Hess directed that company’s work in building the $1-billion Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Hurricane Protection project in New Orleans, a two-mile-long hurricane and storm barrier with floodgates. He also was civil-works chief of operations for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Brown & Root Industrial Services Americas is jointly owned by private-equity firm Bernhard Capital Partners and engineer KBR, in a deal announced last year. Bernhard Capital founder Jim Bernhard is also founder and former chairman of Shaw. According to company sources, non-compete restrictions for some CB&I executives have expired. Brown & Root is set to buy an industrial services firm for more than $275 million, they said.
Equipment and tool manufacturer Atlas Copco has named Scott Carnell president of its North American construction division, based in Rock Hill, S.C. He had been president of its Texas-based equipment rental unit. Atlas Copco says it will open a 180,000-sq-ft manufacturing facility in Rock Hill next spring.
Sundt Construction Inc. has elevated Teri Jones to senior vice president and building group manager, based in Sacramento. A 17-year firm veteran, she was business development vice president for northern California. Jones also is on the advisory board for the University of California-Berkeley construction management program.
Australia-based professional services firm Cardno has named Sarabjit Singh president of its Americas-region government and infrastructure division, based in Arlington, Va. He is a former federal unit president of Gilbane Building Co., according to his Linked-In page.
Gavin Middleton, former senior vice president of construction and development for real estate investment firm Starwood Capital Group, has joined consultant Lehrer LLC, New York City, as partner and chief operating officer.
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Ontario engineer Hatch Ltd. has named Michael Lindsay global director of planning and advisory services for infrastructure. Based in Toronto, he was senior vice president of commercial projects at Infrastructure Ontario, a province-owned corporation that manages alternative project delivery and finance approaches for infrastructure.
Robert R. Kiley, 80, who oversaw the revival of three major urban public-transit systems in the U.S. and U.K. and was an electrical contractor CEO, died on Aug. 9 in Chilmark, Mass. According to his family, the cause of death was complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
Kiley, a onetime CIA operative and unsuccessful candidate for Boston mayor, had no formal training or experience in transportation management when, in 1975, he was named director of the city’s regional transit agency. But he expanded its rail infrastructure over the next four years and eliminated biased patronage-based hiring practices.
Kiley’s seven-year stint in the 1980s as chairman of New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority saw the transformation of the city’s decrepit subway and bus systems. He applied more than $16 billion in capital spending to modernize stations and substantially boost system reliability.
Kiley “created a vision that brought the transit system back from the brink of disaster,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast in a statement. But in 1990, when Kiley left to become CEO of electrical contractor Fischbach Corp., The New York Times said he “leaves with his rebuilding program only half finished and new money in doubt."
In 2001, Kiley was lured to London as its first commissioner of transport, to oversee infrastructure rebuilding on the century-old Underground transit system. But he clashed with then-Prime Minister Tony Blair over the latter’s intent to privatize elements of system operation, said ENR in a 2001 article, and led a court challenge to the government plan to bundle maintenance and upgrade work into three 30-year contracts involving $18.5 billion of private investment. The suit was unsuccessful, but that work reverted to city control after several years, says the U.K. Telegraph.
A memorial service is planned for October in New York City, said the Associated Press, but no details were disclosed.
