PENTA Building Group, a general contractor based in Las Vegas, has elevated Joel Wallis to chief operating officer. A 20-year company veteran, he had been senior vice president and area manager. PENTA specializes in gaming/hospitality, health care and higher education construction projects.

Cole Mortensen has joined engineering and environmental services firm Parametrix as Nevada region manager. He had been deputy director of planning and administration at the Nevada Dept. of Transportation and also had previous roles as assistant director of engineering and as chief engineer. Also joining the company as a senior consultant and Nevada engineering manager is Jeff Hale. He was associate engineer and project manager at Wood Rodgers Inc and also served as director of engineering and construction for the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) of Washoe County. Hale also held positions in roadway design, construction and project management at the Nevada DOT. Seattle-based Parametrix ranks at No. 140 on ENR’s current list of the Top 500 Design Firms, reporting about $135 million in 2021 revenue.

Bowman Consulting Group Ltd., Reston, Va., has appointed Jay Yenerich as regional chief engineer for transportation in Arizona. Previously, he was director of design for CivTech, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based DBE firm, for which he led design of municipal and private projects across the state. Yenerich also was manager of capital development for Valley Metro Regional Public Transportation Authority in the greater Phoenix area and was a senior traffic engineer at Parsons Brinckerhoff.

Burke Construction Group, Las Vegas, has elevated Thad Lawrence from vice president to chief operating officer. He joined the firm in 2007 as a project manager. The firm’s building construction market sectors include education, cultural and religious, government, financial, health care, hospitality and entertainment, data and call centers, office, industrial, retail and multifamily.

Stephan Kordt has joined RJC Engineers, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, as president of U.S. operations following that firm’s March 21 acquisition of Las Vegas-based Kordt Engineering Group, of which he is founder and former president. Kordt is a structural engineering firm with an office also in Reno. It has worked on projects across North America and in Europe. Its projects include The Watermark, Project 63, Crystals at CityCenter, and Venetian Casino Resort and Venezia Hotel Tower. Theodore “Ted” Droessler also joins RJC Engineers as vice president of U.S. operations.

DLR Group has named Bob Binder, a company principal, as Southwest region leader. Based in Denver, he will manage 175 design professionals in that city as well as in Colorado Springs, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson, according to the company. Binder joined the firm in 1995 and specializes in education design markets.

Dietmar Rempfer will join the College of Engineering at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus in Prescott, Ariz., as dean, effective for the fall semester. According to a university statement, he now holds three positions at Purdue University Northwest in Indiana—interim dean of the College of Engineering and Sciences; founding director of the School of Engineering; and professor of mechanical and civil engineering. Rempfer succeeds the current Embry-Riddle campus dean, Ron Madler, who is returning to the faculty. Rempfer joined Purdue University Northwest in 2017 and also was an associate dean at the Illinois Institute of Technology.