Manitowoc Names CEO in Advance of Big Split; Portland Contractor Chief Steps Down After Guilty Plea
As equipment maker Manitowoc Co. prepares to split its crane and food-service manufacturing units into two companies sometime this quarter, it has named Barry L. Pennypacker president and CEO of the construction arm. He will retain that title after the split, when The Manitowoc Co.’s corporate name becomes Manitowoc Cranes.
Kenneth Krueger, interim chairman and CEO of The Manitowoc Co., will become chairman of the new firm. Current president of Manitowoc Cranes, Larry Weyers, becomes executive vice president. Most recently, Pennypacker was founder, president and CEO of Quantum Lean LLC, a privately held manufacturer and supplier of precision components. Manitowoc Cranes last month informed Wisconsin officials that it plans to close its plant in Port Washington later this year, say media reports. The company said it is making efforts to find them “alternate employment.” Manitowoc is set to report year-end results on Feb. 2.
Michael Sweeney has been promoted to Northeast division president of HNTB Corp., overseeing 850 employees in 10 states. Formerly senior vice president and New York City office head, he will continue to be based there. The company says that office has grown more than 200%, becoming the firm’s largest .
Chicago transportation engineer H.W. Lochner Inc. has elevated Jeanne Cormier to chief operating officer, succeeding Chuck Craycraft, who is retiring. Senior vice president and strategic growth director, she takes the new role on May 1. Lochner ranks at No. 136 on ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms list, with $97 million in 2014 revenue.
McCarl’s Inc., a $150-million industrial and energy contractor in Beaver Falls, Pa., has hired Jeffrey Hines as executive vice president. He had been general manager of strategy and business development at Babcock & Wilcox Construction Co.
Joseph G. Pulicare, chief operating officer of the U.S. transportation-and-infrastructure sector for WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff, has been elevated to president, succeeding Cliff Eby, who is retiring. Pulicare joined the firm in early 2015 from a previous role as executive vice president and transportation CEO for the Americas at AECOM in Los Angeles. WSP acquired Parsons Brinckerhoff in late 2014 to form a 32,000-person global professional services firm.
A spokeswoman for building contractor R&H Construction, Portland, Ore., confirms that CEO John W. Bradley has taken a medical leave of absence, with COO John Ward leading day-to-day operations. She declined to elaborate, but Bradley’s departure follows a guilty plea to a domestic violence misdemeanor charge last month in Multnomah County Circuit Court, according to media reports. He was arrested last fall. Bradley has been the firm's leader since its 1979 founding, says the company website. R&H has 2015 revenue of about $175 million, says the spokeswoman. She declined to comment on the duration of Bradley’s leave of absence or his status as CEO. The company employs more than 200 people.
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The Texas Transportation Commission, since last fall, considered 70 internal and external candidates to replace Joe Weber as executive director of the state Transportation Dept., according to reports. Chosen was an insider—James Bass, its chief financial officer since 2005 and a 31-year agency veteran. He had the job temporarily before Weber, a close associate of former Gov. Rick Perry (R), was named in 2014. Bass will run TxDOT as it stands to gain about $2.5 billion annually of the state’s general sales tax, beginning in 2017, after voters approved Proposition 7 in the Nov. 3 election.
Melinda B. Peters, who stepped down last year as Maryland state highway administrator, now is a transportation group senior director at Baltimore-based consultant Rummel, Klepper & Kahl (RK&K), according to The Washington Post in a story last month. ENR cited Peters as a Top 25 Newsmaker in 2011 for her achievement as project director of Maryland’s $2.6-billion InterCounty Connector, described as “the largest, greenest and most controversial highway to be built in metropolitan Washington, D.C., in decades.” Also joining RK&K as a transit group director is Henry Kay, the Maryland Transit Administration's former director of transit development and delivery.
Dennis Martin, head of bus operations for New Jersey Transit, was elevated to interim executive director of the entire agency on Dec. 27. He replaces Veronique “Ronnie” Hakim, who left the position on Dec. 28, after 18 months, to return, now as president, to New York City Transit, the nation’s largest provider of subway and bus service. She succeeds Carmen Bianco, who retired in August. It is not clear if Martin is a candidate for the N.J. Transit permanent executive director role, for which a nationwide search is underway. Hakim had been special counsel at New York City Transit, a part of the regional Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and executive vice president of its Capital Construction unit. New Jersey commuter advocates credit Martin for improvements made at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan to reduce delays and crowding, says an NJ.com posting.
Design-builder Burns & McDonnell on Jan. 11 said that Ray Kowalik is its next CEO, set to succeed Greg Graves on Jan. 1, 2017. President of global practices since last year, Kowalik ran the firm’s energy group for 11 years. Graves has been chief of the 5,300-person firm since 2004.
