Related Links: Balfour Beatty website: investors Financial Times: Balfour Beatty names Qinetiq head as chief executive Balfour Beatty: New chief exec speaks QuinnLeo Quinn, who began his career in 1979 as a civil engineer at now-struggling U.K. construction services giant Balfour Beatty, will return to the firm as CEO in January. The global contractor announced his appointment on Oct. 15, five months after the departure of Andrew McNaughton. Quinn, who will replace Executive Chairman Steve Marshall in the CEO role, joins the contractor after five profit warnings in the past two years and some analyst speculation over whether, before the
Photo Courtesy of CREW Network CREW Network President Judith Nitsch, an engineering firm exec (left), queries potential 2016 presidential contender Hillary Clinton on womens' risk-taking and role in the economy at Miami conference. Related Links: Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Website Improving global economics and changing social trends offer encouraging signs for commercial development and near-term building prospects, speakers told the more than 1,200 attendees of the Commercial Real Estate Women, or CREW, annual conference in Miami.Rival expansions of the Panama and Suez canals, for example, are spawning upgrades to ports and related global building and transport development, experts said
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