New York People: Construction business updates for May 2018
The New York University Tandon School of Engineering has named Jelena Kovacevic as dean, the Brooklyn-based school’s first woman in that role.
Dewberry has hired Steven H. Santoro, former executive director of New Jersey Transit, as director of rail and transit. An 18-year agency veteran, he also was former assistant executive director of capital planning programs. Santoro stepped down in January after the election of Gov. Phil Murphy (D). Named to head NJ Transit was Kevin Corbett, former AECOM executive vice president.
The New York University Tandon School of Engineering has named Jelena Kovacevic as dean, the Brooklyn-based school’s first woman in that role. She formerly headed the electrical and computer engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. She starts her new job in August, succeeding Katepalli Sreenivasan, who was dean since 2013. He remains the Eugene Kleiner professor for innovation in mechanical engineering and will do research. NYU merged with Brooklyn’s Polytechnic University in 2014 to create the engineering school, which received a $100-million grant from Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon in 2015. She is chair of Tandon Capital Associates, a financial advisory firm she founded; he is founder and chair of hedge fund Libra Advisors.
The NYC Dept. of Design and Construction has named 14 regional industry executives to its second external advisory board, which will offer guidance to minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs). They are: Elizabeth Velez of The Velez Organization; Deborah Bradley of Deborah Bradley Construction; Richard H. Franklin of Richardson and Weisberg Engineers PLC; Rudy Gedeon of Gedeon GRC Consulting; Julie Harris of McKissack and McKissack, James Heyliger of the Association of Minority Enterprise of NY Inc.; Bill Howell of Howell Industries; Debra Inwald of Works-in-Progress; Roberto Leon of CSA Group; Samuel Padilla of Padilla Construction Services; Nayan Parikh of Ashnu International Corp.; Joycelyn Taylor of TaylorMade Contracting LLC; Paul Vieira of IDL Communications and Electric; and Karine Williams of Akela Construction.
Tim Prosser has been named a consultant at Construction Group of New Day Underwriting Managers LLC. He was previously a professional liability underwriter at RLI Insurance Corp.
Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers has promoted two employees to associate roles: Aaron L. Sacks, a geotechnical engineer, and Sung H. Kong, a structural engineer.
WSP USA has named Michael Mangione national director of highway and bridge services; he was manager of the firm’s Briarcliff, N.Y., office. David Vieni has joined the firm in Albany, N.Y., as a senior supervising engineer and project manager.
Universal Builders Supply Inc. has promoted Nizar Danial to vice president. He remains engineering manager.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has appointed new members of New York City’s Charter Revision Commission. Carlo Scissura is its new secretary; he is president and CEO of the New York Building Congress.
Jeffrey Arch has joined HNTB Corp. as senior project manager for smart cities, connected vehicles and automated vehicles, and will be based in Parsippany, N.J. He was previously transportation program manager at Battelle.
Howard Rowland has been named chairman of the Associated General Contractors of New York for 2018. He is currently president of EW Howell Construction Group.
Skanska has promoted three executives. Jarrett Milligan is now vice president of environmental health and safety for building unit operations in the Northeast. John Dolan and Kevin Kontura are vice presidents and project executives for the metro New York region.
Structure Tone has promoted Stacey Dackson to vice president and director of special projects in the New York office. She was previously a project manager.
Stantec has made several promotions in New York and Connecticut: Robert Cartwright now is senior principal in transportation; Sally Zhao, Andrew Lessard and Dinesh Jog are principals in transportation; and Thomas Palumbo is principal in community development.
Patrick McCarthy has joined consulting firm GZA in Buffalo, N.Y., as a senior project manager. He was director of environmental affairs and an environmental project manager for Noble Environmental Power and Acciona Energy, North America.
Syska Hennessy Group has appointed eight employees to associate partner: Anjanette Bobrow, Abraham Arakelian, Michael Itkin, Daniel Johnson, Jigar Jokhakar, Nathaniel Kirby, Joshua Lilburn and Seth Sherman.
LF Driscoll Healthcare has hired Carrie Brown as business development manager. She was previously in the same role at Hillmann Consulting LLC.
H2M architects + engineers has elevated eight staffers: Gary E. Loesch to senior executive vice president; Gregory C. Smith to executive vice president; George W. Desmarais to senior vice president and municipal market director; Charles A. Martello and Elizabeth C. Uzzo to senior vice president; Ronald B. Lanner to division director of architecture; Guy Y. Page to market director of education; and Michael J. Bonacasa to market director of real estate.
E4H Environments for Health Architecture has hired Christopher Toto as its chief financial officer. He was previously CFO at S9 Architecture.
JLL Project and Development Services has announced one promotion and one new hire. Eric Jassin is now head of the hotel and hospitality group’s practice in the New York metropolitan area. Rachel McCaslin has been named associate project manager, also in that practice; she was an interior design professional at HOK.
Michael Moynihan has joined project management and cost consultant Rider Levett Bucknall as resident manager in New York City. He was previously vice president and global head of cost control and procurement at Pacific Eagle Holdings Corp., with expertise in hospitality, commercial and residential sectors.
Perkins+Will has named Matt Malone as leader of its New York studio’s science and technology practice. He is formerly associate vice president for science and technology planning and architecture at CannonDesign, leading that work in its Eastern region, according to his LinkedIn page.
Jennifer Pazour, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., is an inaugural recipient of the Johnson & Johnson Women in STEM2D scholars award, which aims to spur development of women in science, technology, engineering, math, manufacturing and design. She and five peers also selected each won $150,000 in funding and three years of company mentoring.
David Billington, 90, a longtime civil and environmental engineering professor at Princeton University died on March 25 in Los Angeles, the school alumni group said last month. He joined the faculty in 1960 and retired in 2010. Engineering professor Maria Garlock said Billington taught engineering as a creative discipline that helped bridge the gap between it and liberal arts, developing popular courses such as “Engineering and the Modern World” and “Structures and the Urban Environment.” The alumni group estimates that about 25% of all Princeton students had taken one of his courses at the time he retired. In 2015, Billington received an honorary university degree.
