Articles by Debra K. Rubin

WardChristopher O. Ward has joined AECOM as senior vice president and CEO of design and consulting services in its metro New York region, five months after leaving a top executive role he held since 2011 at Dragados USA, a unit of the Spain-based contractor and concessions firm.Ward left the Dragados role as executive vice president for major projects at the end of 2014, telling Crain's NY Business that the expected public-private-partnership construction market "was not as large as it had been." The firm was part of a design-build team that had been short-listed for the $4-billion Tappan Zee replacement bridge

Enlarge ENR Art Dept. Chart depicts compensation data for 2013 filed in 2014 proxy statements; CEOs of AECOM and KBR have changed; URS Corp. was acquired in 2014; Craig Martin has stepped down as Jacobs CEO, no permanent replacement yet named. Four construction industry CEOs were among the 200 best-compensated chiefs of publicly-held companies valued at $1 billion or more on this year's list compiled by compensation consultant Equilar Inc. for The New York Times, based on 2014 proxy statements filed by April 30.Of those CEOs, one is a newcomer both to the list and his industry firm position, while

Office of the Mayor of Chicago Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduces industry aviation veteran Ginger Evans as the city's new airports commissioner on May 5 Related Links: EvansGinger S. Evans will become aviation commissioner in Chicago on June 1, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced on May 10. She has been vice president of engineering for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority since early 2014, overseeing construction at Reagan National and Dulles International airports and on the Silver Line Metrorail project. In her new role, Evans replaces Rosemarie Andolino, who became aviation vice president at Jacobs Engineering in December.Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray

Enlarge 2014 was dizzying in the number and size of industry mergers and acquisitions "as firms made aggressive moves" to acquire capabilities and market share, says management consultant FMI.Global M&A activity was "near record" last year, adds consultant PwC, but shows signs of decline in 2015's first quarter. The firm says low oil prices, an improving U.S. dollar and rebounding European economies may drive "a modest expansion" of M&As, even as currency pricing and other factors "may obscure" deal growth.FMI sees oil prices as a risk factor, creating a "wait and see" approach, it says in a May 6 report.

As hurricane season approaches, executives of New Jersey infrastructure agencies and the industry firms that work for them question whether they are doing enough to pressure politicians and other purse-string holders for more infrastructure-resiliency funding in the wake of 2012's Superstorm Sandy."You have to link to people that cut checks and look a generation ahead," Fred Sickels, acting director for drinking water at the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection, told attendees at a May 7 resiliency conference, sponsored by engineer HMM, in Iselin, N.J. "Engineers have to communicate to policy- makers. Funding it will be a challenge."Donald Cresitello, senior

The issue of workplace sexual harassment galvanized ENR's "Groundbreaking Women in Construction" gathering on May 6 as attendees at all industry levels shared incidents and impacts. In an electronic poll, 68% of attendees said they had been sexually harassed at work or thought they had been. More than 65% of attendees work for construction or CM firms.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WANTMAN GROUP Mid-sized Wantman Group has a key role in design of Florida transportation upgrades. Related Links: Blog post on the Vanishing Midsize Architecture and Engineering Firm Mid-sized AEs Are Not Endangered, Says First Survey of 35-Year ENR Top 500 Trends John Carrato, CEO of Alfred Benesch & Co. (Top 500, No. 127), credits the engineer’s growth over the past five years to a decision to expand into new regions and service lines at a time when economic jolts and consolidation have appeared to thin the ranks of midsize design firms.Benesch is among designers with revenue of

Albert A. Grant, 88, who was the American Society of Civil Engineers' first president from the public sector, in 1988, and became an early advocate of engineering sustainability, died in Potomac, Md., on April 2, says ASCE.

Enlarge Source: Dodge Data & Analytics; chart by Jeffrey Cox Results were based on a pool of 350 architect and contractor respondents in China-based firms. Related Links: Download a Free Copy of Business Value of BIM Use in China Report BIM Adoption Spreads Globally China-based construction industry firms that use building information modeling (BIM) in at least 30% of their work are bullish on the technology to boost both business and project management benefits, says an industry survey of some 350 architects and contractors.Nearly all respondents work exclusively in China, about 85% said they were BIM users, and 94% report