HOLT

RailWorks Corp., a New York City transportation contractor, appointed Michael P. Holt as president of the national transit division of its subsidiary, L.K. Comstock & Co. Holt, who will work out of division headquarters in Norcross, Ga, most recently served as vice president and East Coast regional manager for Boulder, Colo.-based contractor MWH Constructors.

Doug Jaeger has joined Minneapolis-based contractor Adolfson & Peterson Construction as CEO. He is formerly vice president of transmission at Xcel Energy, an energy provider in Minneapolis, Jaeger replaces Michael Peterson, who takes the newly created role of chief growth officer.

The American Iron and Steel Institute, Washington, D.C., has selected Thomas J. Gibson as president and CEO. Formerly senior vice president of advocacy for the American Chemistry Council, he succeeds Andrew G. Sharkey III, who retired.

Holcim Ltd., the Waltham, Mass., unit of the Zurich-based cement manufacturer, has named Bernard Terver as CEO. He was area manager in South and Central America and replaces Patrick Dolberg, who returns to the parent firm’s executive committee to manage operations in western Europe and cement manufacturing services.

Stacy and Witbeck, an Alameda, Calif., contractor, has named John Bollier chief operating officer. He had been a senior vice president Bill Bruce, John Zehner, and Kevin McFall have been promoted to operations vice presidents.

Richard Charleson has joined Watts Constructors as vice president of the Honolulu-based contractor’s mainland federal group, which is located in Denver. He was most recently director of The Walsh Group’s national building division.

WELTZ

Flatiron Construction, Longmont, Colo., has promoted Curtis Weltz to president of its consolidated western region. An 11-year firm veteran, he had been president of the contractor’s Northern California division. Flatiron is a unit of Germany-based HOCHTIEF.

COWI A.S., Copenhagen, has named Lars-Peter Sobye as CEO, replacing Klaus Ostenfeld, who retires next month. Sobye will be replaced as executive vice president by Rasmus Odum, vice president of the geographical information and IT business unit. COWI owns design firms Ben C. Gerwick Inc., San Francisco, and Buckland & Taylor Ltd., Vancouver, British Columbia.

Douglas McCoach, most recently director of the Baltimore City Dept. of Planning, has rejoined design firm RTKL as vice president and director of the planning and urban design studio in Washington, D.C.. He previously spent 23 years with RTKL, a subsidiary of ARCADIS.

PRENDERGAST

Thomas Prendergast has been named CEO of Translink, a regional transportation agency in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was director of services for the Americas at Parsons Brinckerhoff. Prendergast is former president of the Long Island Rail Road and senior vice president of the New York City subway system.

Hill International Inc., Marlton, N.J., announces several executive changes. Richard L. Rye and Donald W. Davis have joined its project management group as senior vice presidents. Rye is formerly a program director with Fluor Corp. Davis was a senior program director at Earth Tech. Gary Johnston, named a group vice president, was operations manager for education construction services at URS Corp. James E. Koch is promoted to senior vice president in Baghdad, Robert L. Burnett and Mohamed A. El Zahabi promoted to vice president in Dubai and Tobias I. Hunt in London. Hill’s construction claims group has elevated William Kennedy to senior vice president in Dubai and John Bradley in Abu Dhabi. David Brodie-Stedman and Thomas Hofbauer were named vice presidents in the German subsidiary.

ESCHENBERG

The U.S. Dept. of Energy has selected John R. Eschenberg as assistant manager for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant project in its Office of River Protection in Richland, Wash. Most recently, he had been in the role in an acting capacity. The multi-billion-dollar project, now under construction, will vitrify radioactive waste now stored at DOE’s Hanford former nuclear production site.

McFarland-Johnson has promoted James M. Festa to chief operating officer. He was vice president and regional office manager in the engineering firm’s Binghamton, N.Y., headquarters.

Cumming Corp., a Los Angeles project and cost management firm, has promoted Mike Jensen to president. Marty Breen joins the firm as executive vice president for the project management group. He was vice president of western region development management for Marriott Vacation Club International. Bill Foulkes and Mike Ostendorf have also joined the firm as project management vice presidents.

William A. Berry & Son Inc., Danvers, Mass., has named David Henderson vice president for Connecticut operations based in New Haven. He was project executive with Skanska USA Building Inc.

Richard L. Gorman has been promoted to the the new position of vice president of general civil services at Greenhorne & O’Mara, a Laurel, Md., engineering firm. He joined the firm in 2006, and is formerly site civil practice leader at Tetra Tech.

ELZEY

Michael A. Elzey has been promoted to senior vice president of Enterprise Management Solutions, the management consulting division of contractor Black & Veatch, Overland Park, Kan. He currently leads the division’s sales and regional staff and guides business development.

Steven Rosenstein has joined architect Perkins Eastman as a principal in its New York City headquarters, following the acquisition of his firm, Steven Rosenstein Associates. Gary L. Hubler has joined Perkins Eastman in Charlotte, N.C., as associate principal. He had been a consultant with the Guilford County Schools in Greensboro, N.C., and a senior business developer with Bovis Lend Lease in Charlotte.

Charles “Chuck” Romanoli has been promoted to chief operating officer of GREYHAWK, a Moorestown, N.J., construction management consulting firm. He had been director of its mid-Atlantic region.

Obituary

HOWLAND

Jim Howland, the last surviving founder of CH2M Hill Cos., the Denver engineer that has become a global powerhouse since 1946, died on Aug. 28 in Corvallis, Ore. He was 92 and had Lou Gehrig’s disease. Howland joined former Oregon State College (now University) civil-engineering professor Fred Merryfield and fellow graduates Burke Hayes and Holly Cornell to form the firm. From its humble start, CH2M Hill now has more than 25,000 employees and $6 billion in annual revenue. Howland is credited with developing the firm’s legendary “Little Yellow Book” that is credited for instilling a strong culture of ethical practice. He retired as CEO in 1974 and as chairman in 1977, but “remained an active advocate his entire life,” says Ralph R. Peterson, his successor in both roles. Peterson says Howland’s mental acuity did not suffer as his disease progressed. In World War II, Howland supervised Army construction on the Pacific island of Saipan, for which he received the Legion of Merit. “I regularly sought Jim’s advice whenever we were making major changes,” says Peterson. “With Jim’s passing, we enter new territory as a firm.”.