Banks

M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor of engineering and national laboratories for the Texas A&M University system and engineering school dean of its flagship College Station campus, is set to become university president, effective June 1.

She oversees all engineering programs in the 17-school system, one of the nation’s largest.

The university says Banks was key in its 2018 win of a $2.5-billion U.S. Energy Dept. management contract for the Los Alamos, N.M., federal research laboratory as part of a consortium.

The school did not note a successor to Banks.

HNTB has named Diana Mendes as corporate president of infrastructure and mobility equity, what the engineering firm says is a new position responsible for shaping transportation and mobility equity policy through collaboration with federal, state and local agencies, based in Arlington, Va.

She was, most recently, the firm’s Mid-Atlantic division president, covering six states and Washington, D.C., and before that, its transit and rail market sector leader. Mendes has been an adjunct professor at Rutgers University, teaching the National Transit Institute’s advanced environmental justice seminar. She aksi is former chair of the American Public Transit Association's legislative committee to develop federal transportation bill reauthorization recommendations.

Hank Brasch has joined electrical contractor Rosendin, San Jose, Calif., as Chief Administrative Officer and an executive committee member. He had been executive vice president and chief legal officer at Webcor Builders.

Brasch now will oversee areas that include corporate legal, insurance and risk management, human resources, information technology and security. He is also a former counsel at Bechtel Corp. and an associate in the construction practice group at law firm Thelen Reid & Priest, LLP. Employee-owned Rosendin says it is the largest U.S. electrical contractor, with revenue exceeding $2 billion.

WSP USA has named Jannet Walker-Ford as senior vice president and national transit and rail leader, based in Jacksonville, Fla. She was a senior vice president in AECOM’s design and consulting services Americas unit and is former deputy general manager and deputy CEO of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority.

Todd Zimmerman has joined Hanson Professional Services Inc. as vice president of innovative project delivery for its aviation market, following its March 16 acquisition of Amherst, a consultant of which he is owner and founder. It specializes in aviation sector design, planning and construction services. Zimmeman will remain based in Maitland, Fla. Hanson ranks at No. 172 on ENR's Top 500 Design Firms list, reporting $98.3 million in 2019 revenue.

Pond, an Atlanta engineer-construction management firm, has elevated President Lorraine Greene to the added role of chief operating officer. She joined the firm, which ranks at No. 79 on ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms list, in 2008.

Finley Engineering, a Tallahassee, Fla., specialty bridge engineer working globally, has named Jim Shappell, former president of Parsons Transportation Group, as a board director and T.A. “Tag” Goodwin, a former Parsons Corp. senior vice president, as business development director. Finley CEO Craig Finley founded the firm in 2004 after an executive role at Parsons that followed its 2001 buy of his previous firm, Finley McNary Inc.

Jacqueline Gomez has been named executive director of the Hispanic-American Construction Industry Association, a Chicago-based group that advocates policy to support Latinos “and other diverse firms to develop and succeed in construction-related businesses,” it says. She was a workforce diversity executive for the Obama Foundation, related to construction of the former president’s presidential library, and also former director of the Cook County, Ill., contract compliance office, which monitors its business diversity. HACIA represents more than 300 U.S. professional service, contractor and other firms.

Gregg Mendenhall and Fraser Smith have joined engineer IMEG Corp. as principals after its March 1 acquisition of Mendenhall Smith Structural Engineers, of which they were founders and principals. They will remain in Las Vegas. IMEG ranks at No. 84 on ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms list, with 1,500 employees.

Andra J. Kidd has joined as Denver-based chief operating officer, the environmental, energy, water and civil infrastructure design firm platform launched last July by Round Table Capital Partners, a private equity firm. It includes environmental and civil engineering consultants Hull & Associates LLC, Duffield Associates LLC and HSW Consulting LLC. Most recently, she was director of operations for Environmental Resources Management (ERM), North America region, overseeing 2,000+ professionals. Previously, she was an associate vice president at HDR Engineering. 

NCCER, a Florida-based nonprofit craft skills training developer and certification firm in construction and maintenance, has elevated Jennifer Wilkerson to vice president, innovation and advancement, and hired Lisa Strite as chief learning officer. Strite was vice president of product data governance and management at educational publisher Pearson.

Grant

Donald C. Grant, 88, chairman of Grant Masonry Contracting Co., Fenton, Mo., died on Feb. 24. A former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers captain, he joined the commercial building firm his father founded in 1946. Its projects included the Gateway Arch Museum.

Grant had been president of the Mason Contractors Association of America and of the St. Louis chapter, and he was a former International Masonry Institute board member.