Mountain States & Southwest People: March 2025
Josh Laipply has joined AtkinsRéalis in Denver as U.S. senior director of regional partnerships and programs. He was chief projects officer for the city and county of Denver, overseeing multimodal transportation improvements and creation of the RISE bond program. Laipply also was chief engineer at the Colorado Dept. of Transportation and an AECOM vice president.
Bryan Dunn is the new senior vice president of Big-D Construction Southwest. He had held leadership roles at W.E. O’Neil Construction Co., Kitchell Construction and Adolfson & Peterson Construction.
Suntec Concrete has hired Kevin Neill as chief financial officer. He had been CFO and treasurer of utility infrastructure services company Centuri Group Inc.
Barbara Martin has been named executive director of the Fort Collins, Colo.-based Water Collaborative Delivery Association, formerly the Water Design-Build Council, which advances collaborative project delivery in the water-wastewater sector. She had been director of engineering and technical services at the American Water Works Association.
Thomas Bryan has been elevated to CEO and executive director of the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, a Denver-based entity that invests in affordable housing and community development in the state. Formerly chief financial officer, he succeeds Cris White.
Daniel Vandergriff has returned to Telgian as president of its fire safety business, which tests, inspects and repairs fire life safety systems. Before leaving the firm in 2023, he was executive vice president of Telgian Engineering & Consulting. Most recently, he was chief operating officer of HurtVet, a federal contractor focused on fire, life safety and security services.
Cator, Ruma & Associates, a Lakewood, Colo., engineering consultant, has promoted Lilly Johnson to principal from associate. She leads the mechanical department based in Boise.
Terence Tracey has been named growth and strategy leader at Phoenix-based construction cost consultant Rider Levett Bucknall Ltd. He had been national account leader at Arcadis.
John Oliver has joined The Master’s Apprentice as CEO. The nonprofit offers free, six-week pre-apprenticeship programs to help individuals from low-income backgrounds start construction trade careers. He most recently was chief operating officer at Elevate USA.
Sundt Construction has promoted Manny Diaz to regional manager for its water and wastewater group in the firm’s Intermountain region. He leads firm work on a new water reclamation facility for the Salt Lake City Dept. of Public Utilities.
Kacy Rhoades has joined Ware Malcomb in Denver as studio manager for interior architecture and design. She had been a team leader at Vickers Design Group. Jesse Carano and Manny Nuno have been promoted to civil engineering managers based in the Denver office.
Obituary
Preservationist and developer Dana Hudkins Crawford, 93, credited with saving Denver’s Larimer Square from demolition in the 1960s, died Jan. 23. A nationally recognized historic preservation expert, she founded Historic Denver in 1970 to lead preservation efforts, redeveloping more than 800,000 sq ft of property in the city in her career with her company, Urban Neighborhoods.
Crawford’s legacy also extends to other projects in Colorado and in cities such as Dallas-Fort Worth, New Orleans and Savannah, Ga. She was a board director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, earning its highest honor, the Louise du Pont Crowninshield Award, in 1995.
