Private equity firm AEA Investors LP has named Lukas Loeffler as CEO of Evoqua Water Technologies LLC, the renamed municipal and industrial water and wastewater treatment assets it acquired on Jan. 15 from Siemens AG. He was CEO of Siemens Water Technologies, the unit created when the German conglomerate bought water company USFilter in 2004. According to Water World magazine, AEA paid $865 million to buy the Siemens unit, which has 4,000 employees.

Tolva

John Tolva has joined PositivEnergy Practice (PEP), a Chicago energy-use and sustainability consultant, as president. He had been chief technology officer for the city of Chicago since 2011, and says he was the first person to occupy that role. Tolva also was a technology director at IBM, advising cities on how to incorporate data analytics into their operations. PEP was founded in 2010.

Engineering firm Ben C. Gerwick Inc., Oakland, Calif., has named Winston Stewart as president and managing director. He joins the firm from URS Corp., where he was principal civil-geotechnical engineer and team construction manager on the $130-million Columbus Upground Reservoir Projects in Columbus, Ohio, a 9.5-billion-gallon reservoir system with a composite liner system to mitigate against water loss through sinkholes, according to the firm. Gerwick is a unit of COWI North America Co.

Rinard

John Rinard has joined Willdan Infrastructure, a new division of Anaheim, Calif., consultant Willdan Group, as CEO. He had been a senior vice president of international infrastructure at CH2M Hill and senior vice president and project director at AECOM Australia Pty Ltd. Willdan ranks at No. 127 on ENR’s list of The Top 500 Design Firms.

Michael Sullivan and Stephen George have joined global energy software and services firm Nexant as senior vice presidents, the firm tells ENR. These hires follow the company's Jan. 9 acquisition of Freeman, Sullivan & Co., a San Francisco energy consulting firm, of which Sullivan and George were chairman and CEO, respectively. They will remain in San Francisco.

Engineering firm Fehr Graham, Freeport, Ill., has named Don Becker a branch manager in Plymouth, Wis., following its purchase, announced on Jan. 9, of Alpha Terra Science (ATS), the environmental and safety-health consulting firm of which he was principal and founder. ATS now is a division of Fehr Graham, which has 150 employees.

Aaron Landolt has joined engineer-contractor Day & Zimmermann in its engineering, construction and maintenance unit as vice president of business development for process and industrial. Based in Greenville, S.C., he had been a division vice president at Enerfab Inc., an industrial services provider.

Continuum Advisory Group, a Raleigh, N.C., management consultant to construction industry

Gagel

owners, has named Gretchen Gagel president. Previously, she was an assistant dean of the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver and president and CEO of The Women’s Foundation of Colorado. Gagel, based in Denver, also had been a consultant with FMI Corp.

 

Morley Builders, Santa Monica, Calif., has named Jan Karl vice president. Previously, she was a vice president at Rudolph & Sletten Construction Co. and at Johnson Controls. Karl also is a vice president of the Los Angeles-area chapter of the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering.

Kaiser Electric, a Fenton, Mo., electrical contractor, has elevated Ken Naumann to president, replacing Steve Glacin, who has left, says the company. He was formerly vice president.

Gray Construction, Lexington, Ky., has elevated Phil Seale to executive vice president from vice president for its manufacturing, food and beverage markets. He joined the firm as a project manager in 1996. The company also promoted Brian Jones to vice president for its Southeast region. He joined in 1999 as an intern.

Byers

Retired U.S. Air Force Major Gen. Timothy Byers has joined Atkins North America as defense-sector senior vice president in its federal business unit. He retired in 2013 after a 32-year Air Force career, where he was, most recently, its top civil-engineering officer. Gen. Byers is a past president of the Society of American Military Engineers and a Fellow. He is based in Alexandria, Va.

John “Jay” F. Curran III has joined Chicago engineering firm Alfred Benesch & Co. as a senior vice president and business development officer for its mid-Atlantic region, based in Glastonbury, Conn. He is formerly a vice president and principal at GEI Consultants Inc.

Karvakko Engineering, Bemidji, Minn., has hired Kurt Burwinkle as regional vice president, based in Minot, N.D. He previously served in senior project manager roles for URS Corp. and AMEC in Perth, Australia, and Kabul, Afghanistan, respectively.

Farnsworth Group, Inc., a Bloomington, Ill., engineer-architect, has named Marvin N. Fisher vice president and chief strategy officer. Based in Dallas, he had been senior vice president at Atkins North America. Fisher also is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and former director of installation management for the service's space command.