Leo Quinn

Los Angeles-based CBRE Group Inc. on Oct. 5 agreed to buy the design and project management firm Heery International Inc., Atlanta, from U.K. contractor Balfour Beatty LLC, as the British construction giant continues shedding non-core assets in a turnaround engineered by CEO Leo Quinn, brought on in 2015 to revitalize the profit-challenged firm. The deal, for around $57 million, is set to close by year-end.

For CBRE, the acquisition “advances our strategy to grow our project management expertise and capabilities,” said Mike Lafitte, CBRE’s a global group president. 

With a global workforce of 75,000, CBRE claims to be the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, based on 2016 revenue. The firm ranks at No. 7 on ENR’s Top 100 Construction Manager-for-Fee list. It reported $1.1 billion in CM revenue last year and $978 million in PM revenue.

Heery, which has over 530 staff in 19 U.S. offices. ranks at No. 31 on the ENR Top 100 CM-for-Fee list, reporting $71.5 million last year, and at No. 428 on the Top 500 Design Firms list.

Balfour Beatty bought 50% of Heery in 1986, taking full control four years later. Theodore Sak and Glenn Jardine will stay on as Heery president and chief operating officer, respectively.

For Balfour Beatty, the planned divestiture will remove potential conflicts of interest in some U.S. markets.

The deal maximizes “shareholder value…while improving our strategic position,” according to Leo Quinn, Balfour Beatty Group Chief Executive.

The acquisition agreement represents a second departure from the U.S. design market by Balfour Beatty following its sale three years of the New York-based Parsons Brinkerhoff Inc. to Canada’s WSP Group, Toronto, for $1.3 billion.

Balfour Beatty also is selling back to local officials its 95% stake in a northern England airport. According to a Financial Times report last month, the firm has “undergone major reconstruction work since new management took the helm.”

Balfour Beatty returned to profitability last year, following a “torrid period of seven profit warnings,” with losses caused by “mismanagement of construction contracts and a change of management,” says FT.

For its half-year ending in June, Balfour Beatty reported a pre-tax profit of nearly $16 million, compared to a $20-million loss in the same 2016 period

Megan Huff

Ross & Baruzzini Inc., a St. Louis-based transportation design firm, has named Megan Huff vice president and managing principal of its Macro division, the firm says. Based in Chalfont, Pa., she was deputy chief and senior director of operations technology for Amtrak. The Macro unit specializes in the design of state-of-the-art command-andcontrol,communications and IT systems.

Martin J. “Marty” Miner has joined Michael Baker International as executive vice president and chief technology officer, a newly created position. He will lead all facets of the firm’s technology operations. Based in Alexandria, Va., he most recently was senior vice president and chief information officer at information services firm Leidos.

KCI Technologies Inc., a Sparks. Md., engineer, has named Barry J. Schoch as senior vice president and regional transportation design manager. Most recently, he was a vice president of consultant McCormick Taylor. Schoch also had been Pennsylvania transportation secretary, where KCI says he oversaw development of initiatives such as the public-private-partnership renovation of more than 500 structurally deficient state bridges.

The National Association of Women in Construction has named Beth Brooks as executive vice president of the 121 chapter advocacy group.
She had been CEO of two Texas-based associations and is the author of “The New CEO’s Guide,” published by the American Society of Association Executives. Brooks succeeds Dede Hughes, who has retired.