BOWMAN Ronald H. Bowman Jr. has joined New York City-based building contractor Structure Tone as executive vice president of its global mission-critical division. He had been executive vice president of Tishman Technologies, leading its data center building and development. Structure Tone ranks second among telecommunications sector builders on ENR�s list of the Top 400 Contractors. Cotter Consulting Inc., a Chicago project manager and construction management firm, has named Carma Wood vice president of transportation. Most recently, Carma served as construction services department manager at Stanley Consultants. She also has been resident engineer for the Illinois Dept. of Transportation. The firm
SCARANGELLO Thomas Scarangello, chairman of Thornton Tomasetti, the New York City-based design firm, has been named to the additional role of CEO as part of a corporate succession plan that takes effect on May 12. He replaces Dan Cuoco, who is retiring at the end of May, says the firm. Robert DeScenza, COO since 2005, becomes president, and managing principals Aine Brazil and Dennis C.K. Poon have been named vice chairpersons. With the firm for 40 years, Cuoco will become a company consultant, according to Thornton-Tomasetti. Scarangello joined in 1979. On April 8, David R. Gaboury was elected president of
DONES Ray Dones, Champion of Minority Contractors, Dies Raymon P. Dones, a contractor and industry activist who paved the way for minority contractors in construction, died on March 25 in Oakland, Calif. He was 93 and died of natural causes, says his son, Alan Dones, managing principal of Strategic Urban Development Alliance, a locally based developer. A former Pullman porter who gained a contractor's license, the elder Dones founded in 1953 the Aladdin Electric Co., which became the largest black-owned electrical contractor, says the alliance. He then founded Trans-Bay Engineers and was its CEO until he retired in 1984. In
COBELLI Skanska USA Civil Inc., the New York City infrastructure unit of Swedish contractor Skanska AB, has appointed Michael Cobelli to the position of chief operating officer, a new position. Based in Riverside, Calif., he remains executive vice president of Skanska USA Civil’s western region. A 26-year company veteran, Cobelli was formerly the executive vice president of Skanska USA Civil Northeast. He now will manage operational resources of all Skanska USA Civil offices, says the firm. Dennis Thompson has joined Klewin Construction, West Palm Beach, Fla., as president. He was chief operating officer and president of the western region of
BOSTICK Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, who led the Army Corps of Engineers’ division in Baghdad in 2004-2005, has been nominated to be the next commander of the Corps and the Army’s chief of engineers. Bostick, whose selection was announced by Defense Secretary Robert Gates on April 5, currently serves as the Army’s deputy chief of staff. His nomination will go to the Senate for confirmation. Bostick would succeed Lt. Gen. Robert L. Van Antwerp as the Corps’ chief. Van Antwerp, who has led the Corps since 2007, is scheduled to retire in May.
SIR FRANK Sir Frank Lampl, Ex-Bovis CEO, Dies Sir Frank Lampl, an engineer who turned a modest U.K. building firm into the global giant Bovis Construction Group and was its chairman and CEO for 16 years, died on March 24 in London of complications related to his World War II and post-war imprisonment. He was 84. Born in Czechoslovakia, Sir Frank survived two Nazi death camps and escaped Soviet oppression and forced labor in a Czech uranium mine after returning to his native land. He became managing director of a state-owned construction firm but immigrated to the United Kingdom in
The U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Jeffrey M. Baker, the visionary behind the nation’s newest symbol for sustainability, loves to recount the tale of the dreaded Kobayashi Maru test. For Baker, the fictional test from the “Star Trek” series is an allegory that became a guidepost during his 15-year crusade to develop a replicable model for the design and construction of affordable, ultra-green buildings.
RUBRIGHT John P. Rubright has been elevated to president of geotechnical contractor Heyward Baker Inc., Odenton, Md., as part of a planned management succession. Formerly senior vice president of its southern region, he succeeds George R. Grisham, who has occupied that role since 2003. Grisham becomes executive vice president of Keller Foundations Inc., Heyward Baker’s London-based parent. Succeeding Rubright is Michael W. Terry, formerly vice president and branch manager. Rice University, Houston, has named Edwin “Ned” Thomas as dean of its George R. Brown School of Engineering, effective on July 1. He currently is chairman of the Dept. of Materials
Kristine Young has become the first woman installed as national president of the Associated General Contractors of America. CEO of Miller the Driller, a Des Moines, Iowa-based trenchless technology contractor, she was inaugurated on March 25 at AGC�s 92nd annual convention, held this week in Las Vegas. Photo: Courtesy of AGC Kristine Young The association’s front-burner issues this year include federal investment in infrastructure, new ways to connect with members and coping with the recession. Young is well aware of the tough economic times facing the engineering and construction industry. The incoming president’s Des Moines-based underground construction company, Miller the
BENNING T.R. Benning Jr., co-founder and chairman of Atlanta-based commercial builder Benning Construction Co. and a wounded engineer combat battalion commander in World War II, died on March 10 in that city. He was 89 and had complications from a collapsed lung, the company says. Benning co-founded the firm in 1953 with his father and was president until 1990. The firm has about 100 employees and reported $46.8 million in 2009 revenue, according to ENR data. T.R. “Ted” Benning III has succeeded his father in that role. According to the firm’s website, the elder Benning began his career in 1943
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