Mountain States & Southwest People: April 2026
Alcorn Construction has named Robert Cortazzo vice president of operations for the firm’s Arizona office. Cortazzo has held leadership roles at Turner Construction, Skanska USA, Adolfson & Peterson and AECOM Hunt Construction. He brings to his new role more than 30 years of experience across commercial, higher education, aviation, health care, senior living and industrial markets.
Capitol Engineering Co., a Phoenix-based metal fabrication company, recently expanded its business development team and has added Rich Clapp as business development manager. Clapp has more than 20 years of industrial sales experience and will focus on business development, key account development and account management as the company prepares for additional growth and expansion to several new markets.
Big-D Cos. recently announced the promotion of Josh Lockhart to vice president of human resources. Lockhart joined the firm as director of human resources in 2024 and is credited will helping to strengthen the company’s people-first culture and its human resources operations, according to Big-D.
The Idaho Transportation Dept. has appointed Dave Kuisti as ITD chief deputy. Kuisti has been with ITD for 35 years, serving in engineering roles, including as design engineer in North Idaho, an engineering manager in Boise and district engineer in Lewiston. He most recently served as chief engineer and division administrator over highways construction and operations. Kuisti is now responsible for overseeing more than 12,000 lane miles of highways and more than 1,800 bridges on the state highway system. He replaces Dan McElhinney, who had held the role since 2022.
Jeffrey Miller has been appointed dean of the College of Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott, Ariz., campus and will begin his tenure at the school in June 2026. He most recently served as dean of the College of Engineering and Computational Sciences at Southern Utah University, where he led substantial growth and program expansion. Under his leadership, the college’s enrollment rose to approximately 1,700 students and its academic offerings increased to 76 programs from 45. Before joining Southern Utah University, Miller spent nearly a decade at the University of Southern California, where he served as professor of computer science and information technology practice and as department chair for the information technology program. Miller holds a PhD and a master’s in computer science and a bachelor’s in computer engineering and computer science from the University of Southern California.
PCL Construction recently announced several leadership promotions within its civil west infrastructure division. Jamie Safulko has been named area manager, Denver civil, and will oversee strategic growth efforts across Colorado, Utah and New Mexico while continuing to support project teams on critical water infrastructure projects and upholding a higher standard of operational excellence. Daňa Lebeda has been named operations manager, civil west, where he will oversee all operations and major joint venture projects across the Southwest. Ray Bolter is now operations manager, Denver civil, and will oversee operations for the Denver office, focusing on building client trust and delivering exceptional project results. Matt Brown becomes operations manager, Phoenix civil, where he will oversee Arizona-based projects. Scott Colvin, now construction manager, Denver civil, will oversee large project operations in Colorado, focusing on client relationships and mentoring PCL’s growing teams. Tucker Langel is now manager of finance and commercial risk, civil west.
