MWH Global Inc., Broomfield, Colo., has elevated Alan Krause to president and chief operating officer. As president, he replaces Bob Uhler, who remains CEO. Krause, a 17-year MWH veteran, had been president of its natural resources, industry and infrastructure services group. MWH also named Don Smith chairman. He replaces Murli Tolaney, who is retiring but will remain a senior advisor to the firm. Smith most recently  served as chief of strategy implementation and has been a MWH employee for 31 years.

Jill Wells Heath has been promoted to CEO of Mulkey Engineers Consultants, a Raleigh, N.C., engineering firm. She replaces company founder Barbara H. Mulkey in that position. Heath, who joined the firm in 1993, had been president and chief financial officer.

Aker Kvaerner ASA, the Oslo-based industrial contractor, has named Simon Lieungh president and CEO. He succeeds Martinus Brandal, who becomes corporate chairman and also is named to a new role of executive vice  president for energy technologies in its Aker ASA unit. Lieungh returns to Aker Kvaerner from a previous position as managing director of Arne Blystad AS. He also is a former Aker Kvaerner executive vice president.

GIARAMITA

Michael Giaramita has joined Edmonton, Alberta-based Stantec as a senior principal in its New York City office. He now leads its U.S. east coast program, project and construction management operation. Giaramita had been senior vice president and managing principal of Carter & Burgess, whose New York City office he launched. That firm is now  called Jacobs Carter & Bur­gess, following its acquisition last year by Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.

Skanska US Civil, Whitestone, N.Y., announced several management promotions. Michael Co­belli is promoted to senior vice president and general manager for northeast operations. Bob Rose is elevated to regional senior vice president in Atlanta. Salvatore Taddeo is named operations vice president for the northeast region, up from project executive. James Brookshire becomes vice president for project controls and Jay Erwin is elevated to regional general superintendent. He was project manager of the Escambia Bay bridge reconstruction project in Florida.

Pat Askew has joined Chicago-based architect Perkins + Will as principal and aviation market sector leader. He was senior vice president and managing director of aviation planning and design practice for HOK, a St. Louis architecture firm, where he led design of the $939-million Mid­field Terminal at Indianapolis International Airport.

The Burns and Roe Group Inc., Oradell, N.J., has elevated Bill Gattoni to the new role of vice president of operations in the federal and nuclear services division. An employee since 1975, he had been director of operations for Oradell-based projects. Jackson Kinzer is named the division’s vice president of program management, responsible for the firm’s operations at three U.S. Energy Dept. sites.

Atlanta-based Hardin Construction Co. LLC has named Allen Westmoreland vice president of risk management. He had served as vice president for the southeastern region construction business unit of surety firm Zurich North America.

Elmond K. Wan has been named president of KCS West, a new Monterey Park, Calif.-based subsidiary of Kajima USA Group Co., the U.S. unit of Tokyo-based contractor Kajima Corp.  He is formerly vice president and general manager of Kajima Construction Services and a vice president of Turner Construction. He will now manage a new unit whose operations will stretch from California to the Rocky Mountains.

RWDI Group, a Guelph, Ontatio, engineering firm has elevated Michael J. Soligo to president and CEO. He had been vice president and general manager of its wind and microclimate group, Soligo joined the firm in 1988 and became a principal in 1994.

Granite Construction Inc., Watsonville, Calif., has appointed LeAnne M. Stewart chief financial officer. She replaces William E. Barton, who is retiring after 28 years at the contractor. Stewart is formerly senior vice president, CFO and treasurer of Nash Finch Co., a Minneapolis-based food distribution company and is a former financial executive at Enron Europe and consulting firm Ernst & Young.

Obituaries

MCNEILL

Alfred T. “Al” McNeill,  former chairman and CEO of Turner Corp., who led the New York City building contractor through tough times in the 1990s, died March 11 of cancer. He was 71. McNeill rose to CEO of Turner Construction Co. in 1985, took the corporate roles in 1989 but left the firm in 1996 under board pressure. McNeill was founding CEO of the New Jersey Schools Construction Corp. in 2002, launching an $8.6-billion effort to rebuild public schools.

Ralph B. Peck, an influential force in international geotechnical engineering and soil mechanics practice and study for more than 50 years, died Feb. 18 in Al­buquerque of congestive heart failure. He was 95. Peck set out to be a structural engineer but switched focus to below ground and became a leading authority on foundations. His high-profile projects included Chicago’s subways and Greece’s Rion-Antirion cable-stayed bridge. Peck taught engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign from 1942 until 1974.

PECK

John C. Mackie a former Michigan congressman and the first elected U.S. transportation commissioner, died March 5 at 88. Mackie pushed expansion of Interstate highways and developed the first U.S. exit numbering system. He was named an ENR Newsmaker for his achievements in 1965. As a design firm executive, Mackie helped engineer Louisiana’s Luling Bridge, the western hemisphere’s longest cable-stayed bridge when built in 1982. It is now named the Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge.