THOMOPULOS

Gregs G. Thomopulos , chairman and CEO of Stanley Consultants, Muscatine, Iowa, was elected president of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, Geneva, Switzerland, last month at its conference in London. FIDIC represents over 1 million professional engineers in 81 countries. He is only the third U.S. engineer to lead the group in 97 years.

Bill Caretsky, senior vice president and operations manager for New York City-based Syska Hennessy Group’s national health-care and health-sciences practice, has been named managing principal of its New England region. He will be based in Cambridge, Mass.

James Baumgardner is named CEO of American Ecology Corp., Boise, effective next January. Now president and chief operating officer, he replaces Stephen Romano, who remains chairman of the consulting firm.

ALLEN

Curtis L. Thalken, a retired U.S. Army colonel and former commander of the New England District of the Army Corps of Engineers, has joined natural-resources consultant Normandeau Associates, Bedford, N.H., as a vice president. He had been in his Corps post since 2005.

Engineer-architect Stantec Inc., Edmonton, Alberta, has promoted Rich Allen to chief operating officer, effective next January. Now senior vice president of the firm’s U.S East region, he will replace Mark Jackson, who is retiring. Allen joined Stantec in 2006 when it acquired engineering firm Dufresne-Henry, North Springfield, Vt., of which he had been president and CEO.

Charles L. Caranci Jr. has joined LeChase Construction Services, Rochester, N.Y., as executive vice president and chief financial officer. He was a partner of BC Consulting Group and previously was vice president and controller of Fluor Corp.’s industrial and infrastructure group.

ROELL

SHAPPELL

Engineer-contractor Parsons Corp., Pasadena, Calif., has promoted James R. Shappell and Thomas L. Roell to the newly created group executive positions for development and strategy and operations and risk, respectively. They had been presidents, respectively, of the contractor’s transportation and infrastructure-technology business units. Thomas E. Barron and Todd K. Wager have been elevated from executive vice president and global business-development manager in those respective units to replace them. Named into the vacated roles, respectively, are Gary B. Adams and Mary Ann Hopkins. Both had been senior vice presidents. Adams also was manager of the transportation unit’s road and highway division, while Hopkins had been business development manager for the infrastructure-technology unit’s installations and environment division. Roell and Wager are in Pasadena; the others are based in Washington, D.C.

Alain Gallet has been named manager of the Gulf States East division of Terracon Consultants Inc., Olathe, Kan., due to the firm’s Sept. 11 acquisition of Gallet & Associates Inc., Birmingham, Ala. He remains president of Gallet, which has 150 employees; Terracon has more than 2,500.

Hensel Phelps Construction Co., Greeley, Colo., has promoted Richard G. Tucker from operations manager to vice president and manager for its Greeley-based Plains district, which includes the contractor’s work in the Rocky Mountains region and in parts of the central U.S.

The Travelers Cos. Inc., a Hartford, Conn.-based insurance firm, has named Scott Higgins president of its construction division. He was chief underwriting officer for what the insurer terms its middle-market business units. Higgins, who joined Travelers in 1991, previously had worked for the construction unit, says the firm.

Forell/Elsesser Engineers, San Francisco, has hired David Englund as chief financial officer and promoted Marco Scanu to principal from senior associate. Englund was managing principal of Stantec Architecture, based in San Francisco.

Rick S. Scheetz has been appointed president of High Concrete Group LLC, a Lancaster, Pa., precast-concrete fabricator. He was, most recently, vice president and general manager of the industrial sands unit at material supplier Carmeuse North America, Pittsburgh, and previously was a Lafarge North America vice president.

Doug Sawyer has joined professional-services firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, New York City, as vice president and area manager of its California offices in San Bernardino and Ontario. He previously was vice president and area manager in the Irvine, Calif., office of Washington Group International.