Packer

M. Gayle Packer has been elevated to president of Terracon Consultants Inc. and will become CEO of the 4,000-employee design firm in 2019, it said on June 26. Most recently, she was executive vice president and chief administrative officer, coordinating integration of 50 acquired companies. As president and eventual CEO, Packer succeeds David Gaboury, who will serve as chairman through 2021. She has been a board director since 2011. Terracon ranks at No. 24 on ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms list, with revenue of about $672 million in 2017.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) has named city School Construction Authority President and CEO Lorraine Grillo to the added role of commissioner of the city’s Dept. of Design and Construction, which oversees an estimated 1,000 building and infrastructure capital projects for 27 municipal agencies. In her SCA position since 2010, she replaces Ana Barrio, who was interim chief since Commissioner Feniosky Peña-Mora stepped down in 2017. 

De Blasio also hired Jamie Torres Springer, a partner at city-based real estate consultant HR&A Advisors, as DDC’s first-ever deputy commissioner. An architect, he had been lead consultant in preparing de Blasio’s OneNYC infrastructure plan. Media speculate the executive shifts stem from continuing DDC project delays. A 2017 analysis reported that projects took seven years on average to complete, says the Wall Street Journal. Some observers speculate that DDC’s city-laden red tape also is a key factor.

De Blasio said SCA completed $25 billion worth of construction and created 75,000 school seats under Grillo, the longest serving agency head. Barrio now is deputy commissioner at the city Dept. of Environmental Protection.

Private equity firm Stonepeak Partners, New York City, named DJ Gribbin, who stepped down in April as special assistant to President Donald Trump for infrastructure policy, as a senior operating partner. Previously, he headed government advisory at Macquarie Capital and was U.S. Transportation Dept. general counsel. Gribbin, based in Leesburg, Va., was involved in Macquarie’s role in the Elizabeth River Tunnels public-private partnership in Virginia, Stonepeak says. The PE firm recently completed a $7.2-billion final close of its third infrastructure fund. It also is exploring sale of the Carlsbad water desalination plant in California, Bloomberg reports.

AKRF Inc., a New York City environmental and engineering firm, has elevated Karen Franz to CEO and Mike Lee to president. They are 20- and 30-year firm veterans, respectively.  Franz has been a board member since 2015, and Lee remains chairman and is a former AKRF president and CEO.

Oxford Properties Group, the real estate arm of the Canadian pension fund OMERS, hired Kate Bicknell as vice president and head of New York development. She had been senior vice president of commercial and residential development at Forest City New York.

Mead & Hunt President Andy Platz has been elevated to the added role of CEO, the design  firm said. In that position he succeeds Raj Sheth, who remains chairman.

Lorraine Green has been promoted to president of Atlanta design firm Pond & Co. She was executive vice president and had led the firm’s energy business, also based in Houston.