Mountain States People: Construction business updates for October 2020
Denver’s Regional Transportation District recently selected transit industry veteran Debra Johnson as the agency’s next general manager and CEO. Johnson, who has 25 years of experience, has previously led and managed business processes for several public transit agencies. Most recently, Johnson served as deputy CEO at Long Beach Transit in Long Beach, Calif. Johnson succeeds Paul J. Ballard, who assumed the CEO and general manager role for an interim period in February.
Ed Forsman, president of FCI Constructors Inc. for the last 34 years, has retired. Shane Haas will replace Forsman as the firm’s president. Haas began his career with FCI in 1986 and rose through the ranks, from superintendent to project manager, vice president of Grand Junction, Colo., operations and executive vice president in 2008.
PCL Construction has promoted Dana Lebeda to construction manager. Lebeda has more than 19 years of construction experience with complex civil projects in Arizona, Southern California and Colorado. He joined PCL in 2007.
Flintco has promoted Steve Eikanger to president of the company’s Southwest region, which includes Colorado and New Mexico. Eikanger has experience in operations, preconstruction, construction technology and lean and integrated delivery. He opened Flintco’s Denver office in 2018. Flintco also has hired Darrenn Call as senior estimator, Don Werner as a superintendent and Chris DuPris as a project engineer.
Longtime engineering leader Gary Thomas recently retired from Martin/Martin Inc. after more than 30 years with the firm. He has served on the company’s board of directors and was named the first president of Martin/Martin’s Denver office in 2006. He served for 21 years as the firm’s civil department manager.
Reza Akhavan has joined HNTB Corp. as vice president and transportation practice leader in Colorado. Based in the firm’s Denver office, Akhavan works with state and local transportation agencies on major projects. He spent 27 years with CDOT, working in engineering roles before serving as the agency’s transportation director.
Aaron Townsend has transitioned to director of target markets from director of preconstruction at Swinerton. As part of the transition, Tyler Whittaker has been promoted to director of preconstruction. Swinerton also has promoted Mark Schaefer to preconstruction manager and Kris Kreymborg to senior project manager.
The Terracon Foundation recently awarded a $2,000 scholarship to Joelle Westcott, a junior engineering student at the University of Colorado Boulder. Westcott also works as a student engineering technician at the university’s Centrifuge Research Center.
Colorado School of Mines student Celeste Carmignani has been awarded a $5,000 scholarship from the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association Foundation. Carmignani is one of five recipients nationwide of this year’s 2020 transportation scholarships. She is studying civil engineering.
