WHITAKERCynthia Whitaker, 69, former preconstruction vice president at ISEC Inc., an Englewood, Colo., contractor, died on Oct. 15 of cancer, says the firm. She joined the firm in 1978, retiring in 2005. ISEC ranks at No. 45 on ENR's Top 600 Specialty Contractors list, with $252.5 million in revenue.
Related Links: Remembrance of Lynn Bellenger Contribute to Lynn Bellenger Memorial Fund Lynn G. Bellenger spent 200 days traveling the globe in her 2010-11 term leading the 55,000-member American Society ofHeating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers. But Nancy Jendryaszek, with whom Bellenger co-founded Pathfinder Engineers & Architects LLP, Rochester, N.Y., says colleagues "found it amusing because Lynn was directionally challenged." A leader in energy modeling software development as well as being ASHRAE's first woman president, Bellenger died on Oct. 19 at age 62. The firm did not disclose the cause of death.Bellenger told a Rochester business publication last April of
Seven employees of Fluor Corp. were among the 13 people killed in an Oct. 29 suicide bombing of a NATO convoy in Kabul, Afghanistan, CEO David T. Seaton confirmed Nov. 3. The workers were employed by the Irving, Texas-based firm under its Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) IV support contract with the U.S. Army Sustainment Command.A Fluor spokesman says the employees killed are four U.S. citizens, two British nationals and one person from Kosovo. The company declines to identify them or their roles, but says it has informed their families of their deaths.Published reports have identified the British employees as
Related Links: Jacobs Announces Acquisition of KlingStubbins Jacobs Engineering Group said that it has acquired architect KlingStubbins, a move that boosts the parent’s design capabilities and adds 500 U.S. and Asia-based employees.KlingStubbins, Philadelphia, is No. 111 on ENR’s list of the Top 500 Design Firms, with $98 million in 2010revenue.Avram Fisher, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, says that the justification for the purchase appears to be a desire to better compete with other big players.Calling the deal "a small, bolt-on acquisition" for Jacobs, Fisher said buying KlingStubbins enables Jacobs, "which is at heart an engineering services firm, to better
The People-Profit Connection How Emotional Intelligence Can Maximize People Skills and Maximize Your Profits By G. Brent Darnell; BDI Publishers, Atlanta, 2011; third edition, 157 pages Design and construction firm managers can handle some of the toughest technical, logistical and physical demands on jobsites, but they also can be absolute wimps when it comes to managing their people challenges. In an industry driven by human interractions and networking, the “people-profit connection” has never been more important.In the latest edition of the “People-Profit” series, which began in 2004, Brent Darnell expands and refines his pioneering approach to how emotional intelligence plays
Photo by Bob Phelan Students in construction cost-management class at Missouri University test uses of iPad app. Photo courtesy of Brinkmann Constructors An iPad app for construction students was developed by Bob Brinkmann. Related Links: Education Special Report Main Story: Engineers and Universities Work To Advance Career-Long Learning The iPad may be the hot tool for Gen Y managers at construction offices and jobsites, but its biggest devotee and chief software guru at Brinkmann Constructors is the Chesterfield, Mo., firm's white-haired CEO, Robert G. “Bob” Brinkmann, 62. Seeing a void in project management software that was efficient and affordable for
ENR Art Dept. What prevents lifelong learning. Related Links: University of Oklahoma Students Learn Craft in Hands-On Lab High-Tech Projects Make STEM Fun for K-12 Grades Apps Help Flatten Learning Curves Matt Collins, the 50-year-old manager of construction operations for Jacobs Engineering Group in Seattle, manages about 60 people in a workweek that can stretch to 60 hours on big-ticket municipal transportation and wastewater construction projects.The father of two young children also is earning—online—a master of engineering degree in professional practice at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “I always wanted to do it,” says Collins. “The biggest obstacle was finding
Burton S. Sperber was a “passionate and accomplished” magician, says the California landscape architecture firm he founded and ran for decades. But it was Sperber's vision and tough business skills, not magic, that built Valley Crest Landscape Cos., Calabasas, into the billion-dollar business it became before recession nipped its bottom line. Sperber, 82, died on Sept. 30 in Santa Monica, Calif., of complications from surgery, says the firm.With only a high school education and experience in his father's nursery, Sperber acquired a small landscape business in 1949 for $700 and was busy as post-WWII California boomed. Valley Crest helped its
Related Links: Hollands ARCADIS buys Pirnie To Create Water Mega-Player Arcadis Adds RTKL in Effort To Expand Buildings Work A Pause In the Bid War For U.K.s Scott Wilson After Tishman Acquisition, AECOM Buys Two More Firms With the Oct. 17 announcement that Dutch design giant ARCADIS NV will acquire London-based EC Harris LLP, yet another U.K.-based engineering consultant with broad global reach is set for new ownershipIn a deal expected to be completed in November, Arnhem-based ARCADIS would issue three million shares to EC Harris’ 180 partners and pay an additional cash amount, which was not disclosed.Avram Fisher, industry
BURCHAMU.S. Army Col. Margaret W. Burcham was selected on Sept. 18 to command the Corps of Engineers' Great Lakes and Ohio River Division, based in Cincinnati. She is the first woman to serve as a division commander and engineer on a full-term basis, says the Corps. Burcham will lead seven Corps districts in a 17-state region that includes 4,800 staffers and an annual operations and construction budget exceeding $2 billion. She formerly served as an Army division chief at the Pentagon and as a Corps district commander in Iraq, among other posts. Col. Janice Dombi was named temporary commander
