Crane manufacturer The Manitowoc Co. Inc. on Oct. 28 named board member Kenneth W. Krueger as interim chairman, president and CEO, replacing 24-year company veteran Glen Tellock, who is leaving the firm. A search for a permanent CEO is underway. Krueger is the former chief operating officer of mining equipment firm Bucyrus Interational, which Caterpillar Inc. acquired in 2011 for about $8 billion. Krueger, who retired from that firm in 2009, has been a Manitowoc director since 2004.

With Manitowoc stating it would continue a planned spin-off of its food-service equipment unit early next year, the firm said it was “the right time for new leadership” and that Krueger will “execute the company’s efforts to improve financial performance.” For the quarter that ended Sept. 30, sales dropped 12.5%, to $863.5 million from $986.3 million, in the same period in 2014. Net income of $4.8 million was a 93% falloff from $73.1 million reported a year earlier. The firm told analysts last month that demand weakened in the Middle East and Asia; also, tower and crawler crane shipments were lower than expected.

Last spring, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled in favor of the firm in a patent dispute with China-based equipment maker Sany Heavy Industries. The agency agreed that Sany violated patents and trade secrets held by Manitowoc related to its counterweight system. At the time, Tellock had referred to its technology “as a game changer in the industry.”

Skanska AB has elevated Shawn Hurley to president and CEO of Skanska USA Commercial Development. He succeeds Mats Johansson, who becomes co-chief operating officer of Skanska USA Building. The changes take effect on Jan. 1. Charles Leatherbee will succeed Hurley as executive vice president and regional manager for commercial development operations in Boston. Skanska says it has invested $1.5 billion in sustainable developments since 2009. 

James Walsh has joined WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, New York City, as senior vice president and director of information technology for its U.S. and Central and South America region. He had been president of WBG Group, a management consulting firm; he also had been the senior vice president and chief technology officer at AECOM.

Hill International has elevated four Middle East executives to senior vice president: Del K. Jemah and Osama A. Abusitta in Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, respectively; Michael L. Jamesonn, in Doha, Qatar; and Samer T. Tamimi, in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.

The Missouri Dept. of Transportation has tapped as its new director Patrick McKenna, current deputy commissioner of the New Hampshire DOT. The change is effective on Dec. 7. McKenna succeeds Dave Nichols, who retired last spring. McKenna will take over the agency as it copes with a legislative veto earlier this year of a gasoline tax hike and rejection by voters of a sales-tax increase that would have provided about $5.4 billion over 10 years for transportation infrastructure, according to local media reports. The reports says no MoDOT expansion projects are planned over the next five years and that the agency has cut its workforce by 20% since 2011. Tolls on Interstate 70 are being considered to fund needed construction

Nick Bokaie is set to join Edmonton, Alberta, design firm Stantec in an unspecified executive role upon the expected completion in December of the firm’s acquisition of KBR’s infrastructure Americas division, of which he is vice president. Announced on Nov. 5, the $19-million sale is part of a restructuring the Houston engineering and construction firm began in 2014, when Stuart Bradie joined as CEO. KBR on Nov. 2 said net income rose in its third quarter from a year ago and that it has made $150 million of $200 million in predicted cost cuts for 2015. Also joining Stantec, as a vice president, is Peter Howe, who had been president of engineering firm Fay, Spofford & Thorndike. Stantec completed its purchase of that firm on Nov. 2. Michael Brothers also joins the firm in Manhattan as a principal and regional director of its program and project management group in the tristate area. He had been a vice president at Hill International.