John Stavrakas has joined design firm BL Cos., Norwood, Mass., as a principal strategic industry adviser. He had been a utility company vice president of asset management. The firm also recently promoted Barbara Bamberg, Michael Bensh, Breton Boudreaux, Patrick Corless, Michael Dion, Kelly Hwang and Susan Knecht to principal in its Meriden, Conn., office. Hartford-based Matthew Bruton was also promoted to principal. 

 

Michael O’Reilly, associate principal at Rider Levett Bucknall, assumed the leadership role in the Boston office of the cost management and quantity surveying, project management and advisory services firm.

 

 

Scott R. Whitaker now is vice president at LeMessurier Consultants, managing the Boston design firm’s South Portland, Maine, office. The new role follows the firm’s early April acquisition of Building Envelope Specialists, a firm Whitaker founded in 2012 and of which he had been president. It specializes in design of new building envelope systems and investigation, evaluation and repair of historic and non-historic building envelopes.

 

Meridian Associates, a Beverly, Mass., civil engineer, has named Douglas F. Reed president and CEO. He succeeds Charlie Wear, who remains in a senior leadership role, the firm said. Reed is founder of a consulting company, FosterGrowth, that provides strategic planning for design firms and utilities. He also is a former senior vice president of SEA Consultants, now part of the Kleinfelder Group, and held the same role at Woodard & Curran.

 

The University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in Buffalo, N.Y., has named as new dean Kemper E. Lewis, a global leader in advanced manufacturing system design and former chair of the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering. The university is part of the State University of New York system. Lewis also was co-director of UB’s Sustainable Manufacturing and Advanced Robotic Technology (SMART) Community of Excellence. Rajan Batta, who was interim dean, returns to his role as associate dean for faculty affairs and diversity. He also is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering. Francine Battaglia, has been elevated to chair of the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering. An expert in fluid thermal sciences, she joined the UB faculty in 2017.

 

Judy Nitsch, founding principal of Nitsch Engineering, retired on April 1. Lisa A. Brothers continues to run the Boston-based firm as chairwoman and CEO. Nitsch founded the firm in 1989 and led it until 2011. She continued as board chairman until 2016 and then remained a director. Nitsch currently serves as vice board chair of the Boston Architectural College and is an emerita trustee of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She also is on the boards of Pennoni Associates, Ayers Saint Gross and Eastern Bank and will continue as a member of the U.S. State Dept. Bureau of Overseas Building Operations industry advisory group, performing peer reviews of U.S. embassy and consulate building projects.
 

 

The Design Trust for Public Space in New York City has appointed Matthew Clarke as its executive director. He was most recently the national director for creative placemaking at The Trust for Public Land.

 

 

HOK announced two appointments. Adam Stoltz rejoined the firm as director of consulting, based in the New York City office; previously he was national director of consulting services at Transwestern. Max Driscoll has joined HOK’s sustainability leadership team as a regional leader in New York; he had been assistant director of the campus master planning and sustainability group at Purdue University.

 

Ware Malcomb has promoted Edward Mayer to principal, architecture. Based in the firm’s New York City and Newark, N.J., offices, he most recently served as director, architecture.

 

 

Ate Atema has joined architecture, design and planning firm CallisonRTKL in its New York City office as senior associate vice president. He also remains the owner of his own firm, Atema Architecture.

 

 

The National Fire Protection Association has appointed New York City-based Norris Harvey—leader of fire and safety practice at Mott McDonald—as chair of its Technical Committee on Road Tunnel and Highway Fire Protection.

 

Manhattan College named STEM education expert Steven Schreiner as its provost and vice president of academic affairs, effective July 6. He has been dean of The College of New Jersey’s School of Engineering.

 

 

SQUAN, an Englewood, N.J.-based design-build services provider for telecommunications network infrastructure, has appointed Amanda Cahill as its national business development director. She was previously business development manager at Flash Technology.

 

New York City-based Lawless + Mangione Architects has hired Syed M. Shoaib as head of its structural engineering division. He was a senior associate at Klein and Hoffman.

 

 

Samir Eid, who heads design firm STV’s work on the New York City School Construction Authority’s estimated $500-million capital improvement program, has been promoted to senior vice president.

Obituary
 

John “Jack” Callahan Jr., founder of John T. Callahan & Sons Inc., died on March 29 from Alzheimer’s disease, the construction firm said. He was 90. Callahan and his wife, Marie Callahan, started the Bridgewater, Mass., company in 1954. It now has three units: Callahan Construction Managers, Global Property Development Corp. and JTC III Development Corp. Among their five children involved in operations, Stephen Callahan is founder of Global Property Development, Pat Callahan is president of Callahan Construction Managers and Tim
Callahan is vice president.