Adjusting to changing market realities, CH2M Hill Cos. Ltd. will cut back its 26,000-person global staff by 5%, about 1,200 positions, as part of a restructuring it will implement over the rest of 2014 and early 2015, the Colorado-based firm disclosed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing this month.
Hertz Global Holdings Inc. has named as its interim CEO, Brian P. MacDonald, who now is chief of the rental company’s construction-equipment unit. He replaces Mark Frissora who it said resigned on Sept. 8 for “personal reasons.”The company had announced earlier this year that it would spin off Hertz Equipment Rental Corp. into a separate $2.5-billion public company by early 2015. However, accounting errors—acknowledged but not disclosed in detail by the company—that have held up reporting of its 2014 results “could definitely delay the spin-off,” says Nicholas Coppola, a senior equity analyst with Thompson Research Group.The divestiture was set to
Related Links: Seaborn Networks website Brazil, Europe plan undersea cable to skirt U.S. spying $250-Million Undersea Cable Project Plans To Link Africa to Internet Massachusetts-based Seaborn Networks and France's Alcatel-Lucent have started construction of the Seabras-1 submarine fiber-optic-cable system, which, when completed in 2016, will be the first such telecommunications link that directly connects the U.S. and Brazil, according to the joint venture.In a Sept. 9 announcement, the companies said the six-fiber pair system will extend 10,700 kilometers, between New York City and São Paolo, and include a 350-km side link to the Brazilian coastal city of Fortaleza.Existing underwater cable
As speculated last month, Canada's WSP Global Inc. has won a key prize in the industry's merger-and-acquisition sweepstakes with a $1.35-billion accepted offer to buy U.S.-based global design giant Parsons Brinckerhoff.
Related Links: Diversification Drive Keeps Webcor Healthy American Society of Civil Engineers' website Seeking Alpha: Is McDermott A Good Investment Pick? VahdatShahram Vahdat has joined HNTB Corp., Kansas City, Mo., as vice president and group transportation director. He was a vice president and Los Angeles office manager at URS Corp. since 2008. Vahdat also is a former president of the American Council of Engineering Cos., Los Angeles County chapter. HNTB also has named David Tiberi a vice president and regional construction leader based in Santa Ana, Calif. He had been construction services practice manager and executive vice president of Athalye
Effective on Jan. 1, Skanska AB will elevate Richard Cavallaro to corporate executive vice president, president and CEO of Skanska USA, the Sweden-based contractor’s U.S. construction operations, which includes its Skanska USA Building and Skanska USA Civil units, the firm said on Aug. 19. He will succeed Michael McNally, who is retiring. Cavallaro now is president and CEO of the civil construction company. Set to succeed him is Michael Cobelli, who now is the unit’s chief operating officer.McDermott International Inc. has hired Stuart Spence executive vice president and chief financial officer following the departure of Perry L. Elders, from the
Related Links: Second URS Employee Links Firing To Nuclear Site Whistleblowing URS Corp. and its unit, Washington River Protection Solutions, have until Sept. 19 to address the U.S. Labor Dept's ruling of “reasonable cause” to believe the firms violated federal whistle-blower rules by wrongfully terminating an employee at the Hanford federal nuclear-waste cleanup site in Washington state who had filed a whistle-blower complaint.The agency on Aug. 19 said WRPS must rehire Shelly Doss, who was laid off in 2011 as an environmental specialist, and pay $220,000 in back wages and damages.In a statement, WRPS says it is reviewing the DOL
Related Links: Balfour Beatty Rejects Latest Carillion Merger Offer Team Pushes Montreal-Based WSP Global to the Next Level A New Big UK Purchase Deal Proceeds as Another Ends Balfour Beatty May Sell Parsons Brinckerhoff Amid Downgraded Profit Outlook While the U.K.’s largest contractor Balfour Beatty plc. has finally shut the door on merger talks with leading rival Carillion, the bidding war for London-based design firm Hyder Consulting has ignited between ARCADIS N.V., Amsterdam, and Japan's Nippon Koei, with the Dutch firm raising its offer by 12.3% on Aug. 21. Having recommended acceptance of Arcadis’s original offer in late July, Hyder
Related Links: Link to NSF survey site, Engineers Engaged in Creating Change, on what makes a great engineering workplace: Link to NSF site for men: General Engineering Attraction and Retention Study In what is billed as a “first of its kind” study of why the engineering workforce is shrinking, a team of University of Wisconsin academics released results of a study of more than 5,300 women practitioners that shows that nearly 40% who earned engineering degrees quit the profession or never entered the field, and that inadequate training and development and even hostility from peers and managers workplace are key
