The Worcester-Fitchburg Building Trades Council in Massachusetts has elected Jorge Rivera president. Currently director of organizing for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 35, he has worked with members across the region in apprentice and OSHA safety. The Worcester-Fitchburg council also elected Dan Mulcahy, from Sheet Metal Workers Local 63, as vice president.

Hoffmann Architects has promoted Tai Mahmuti to senior engineer from project engineer in its New York City office, and he has accepted the firm’s offer to become one of 17 co-owners.

KI Legal has appointed Socrates Xanthopoulos to partner at the real estate law firm, which has offices in New York and New Jersey. He was previously a commercial real estate attorney at Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP.

Mount Laurel, N.J.-based construction management and consulting firm Greyhawk has promoted Barrett L. Richards to executive consultant. He had been senior managing consultant.

Patricia Zugibe has been named CEO of Holt Construction Corp., a construction management and general contracting firm headquartered in Pearl River, N.Y. She had been general counsel.

Engineering, planning, environmental and landscape architecture firm Barton & Loguidice DPC has made several promotions in its Rochester, N.Y., office. Nicole M. Cleary now is a senior project landscape architect, Darik M. Jordan is a senior project manager and David R. Hanny is a senior associate.

Sachin Gajwani has joined environmental engineering and construction firm Brown and Caldwell as vice president and client service director in New York City. In previous roles for undisclosed companies, he managed multimillion-dollar projects in the municipal and private water market.

Joshua Zinder, founder of Princeton, N.J.-based architecture and design firm JZA+D, has become the 2021 president of the New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He will serve a one-year term.

Arc Building Partners, a full-service construction management firm with offices in New York and New Jersey, has hired James Puleo to lead its Morristown, N.J., office as executive vice president and regional manager. He most recently worked at Los Angeles-based Cypress Equity Investments, where he ran and built its East Coast real estate development operations.

WSP USA has made two promotions in its New York City office. Lilian Rodriguez Fu is now the national lighting design practice leader; she had been a vice president in the San Francisco office. Anne Rainbow Savage, previously an associate, is now the New York City lighting design practice leader. The firm also hired Peter Waldt as director of commercial planning and development, based in the city; he had been senior director of commercial planning and development for Amtrak.

VHB, an integrated consulting firm with offices in  New Jersey and New York, has added several former Brinkerhoff Environmental Services executives after acquiring the New Jersey-based environmental sciences firm. Laura Brinkerhoff and John Checchio are now VHB principals. Laura Clifford, Jason Hooper, Yvonne Jamieson, Sergio Rojas, Amber Satterly and Thomas Smith are now VHB associates.

Stephanie Pollack, after serving six years as the Massachusetts transportation secretary, was selected by the Biden-Harris administration to serve as deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. James Tesler replaced Pollack as acting Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation secretary. Tesler was appointed as the acting head of the Registrar of Motor Vehicles during the agency’s records scandal in June 2019. Before that, he briefly served as chief of staff at Boston-based contractor Suffolk after a role as MassDOT chief operating officer. 

James Harrison joined Schimenti Construction Co. as vice president of development in its New York City office. Before this role, he had been a director at the U.K.-based construction consultancy Mace Group.

New York-based architecture and design firm A+I has made three key appointments. Executives Sommer Schauer and Peter Knutson have been promoted to chief design officer and chief strategy officer, respectively. Natasha Markley has joined the firm as executive director of marketing and partnership. She had been a senior vice president at a media production company.

North Reading, Mass.-based construction manager Columbia promoted Sam Dettore to director of its corporate sector work. Previously a project executive, Dettore has managed many large projects for Columbia, including for clients such as Hobbs Brook Management, Boston Scientific, Ken’s Food and Blue Cross Blue Shield, according to the firm.

Andrew Brumbach, an architect at SmithGroup, has been tapped to lead the firm’s health care studio in Boston. An expert on issues of patient and staff safety in health care environments—in particular designing for infection control and prevention—he has helped health systems around the world plan for the future of health care delivery following the COVID-19 pandemic and to evaluate interventions to improve resilience, according to the company.

Gienapp Architects hired Leno Filippi as senior designer and project manager. Prior to joining Gienapp, Filippi provided design and project management services at several Boston-based architecture firms, including Arrowstreet and SBA Architects.

BHV Integrated Services P.C., an engineering firm with offices in Connecticut and Massachusetts, has promoted several employees, including Michael Gannon, Adam Gower and Michael Palleschi to associate principals; Daniel Morin to senior commissioning project manager; Daniel Cefaratti, Stephen Prusaczyk and Bryan West to project managers; and Kristina Chasse to computer systems specialist.

Obituary

Rudolph F. “Rudi” Besier, founder of GNCB Consulting Engineer PC, Old Saybrook, Conn., died on Jan. 25 in Old Lyme, Conn., at 91. As a civil engineering graduate in 1950, he worked for a Washington, D.C.,  design firm near the White House and “remembered tipping his hat to President Harry S. Truman, who, accompanied by a single secret service agent, passed by every morning as Rudi walked to work,” says an online obituary.  Also a U.S. Navy Seabee, Besier served in Morocco and Cuba and was officer in charge of construction in Point Mugu, Calif. He founded GNCB in 1965 and retired in 1994. Besier and partner Kenneth Gibble “built a thriving structural engineering business ... and consulted on award-winning projects with many prominent architects of the day,” according to the online obituary.