Detroit buildings contractor Walbridge has elevated John Rakolta III to executive vice president and chief administrative officer. Formerly group vice president and chief financial officer, he succeeds Vince DeAngelis, who is retiring but will consult to the firm, it says. William McCulloch joins Walbridge to replace Rakolta from a previous role as CFO at FSE Energy Inc., a New Orleans-area industrial contractor. Peter Darga, a 23-year Walbridge veteran, is elevated to vice president and treasurer. Walbridge ranks at No. 41 on ENR’s list of The Top 400 Contractors, with $1.43 billion in contracting and construction management revenue in 2015.
The directors of Britain-based cost and project management consultant Sweett Group plc are set to step down if shareholders agree to a $37.6-million buyout offer from U.K. rival Currie & Brown on June 24, according to firm web postings and media reports. Currie & Brown’s offer is a 20% premium over one made in May by WSP / Parsons Brinckerhoff, Montreal, which told investors on June 30 that it has “terminated efforts” to buy the U.K. firm. Currie & Brown acquired Sweett Group’s Asia-Pacific units in early June, says U.K. industry publication Building, which termed them as “struggling.” Sweett Group lost $25.2 million last year, says Building. Currie & Brown is a unit of Lebanon-based engineering giant Dar Group, which also owns architect Perkins+Will.
Stephen P. DeWeerth, associate dean for research and innovation at the Georgia Tech College of Engineering, on Sept. 1 will become dean of the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., the school said on June 29. He is professor of biomedical, electrical and computer engineering at Georgia Tech and will replace the interim dean, John Coulter. The Rossin college’s civil engineering program, which includes specialties in structural, environmental, geotechnical and water-resource engineering, also houses the Center for Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems, a U.S. research center.
Curtis Knapp and Kay Sargent have joined designer HOK as senior vice presidents. Knapp rejoins the firm in Dallas as director of the global consulting group from a previous role as global real estate director at Micron Technology. Sargent, based in Washington, D.C., was Lendlease director of workplace strategies. Gordon Wright, a senior vice president since 2012, now is director of HOK’s strategic accounts practice in San Francisco.
John D’Antoni has joined engineer Black & Veatch as its Texas regional asset management leader, based in its Houston water practice. His Linked-In profile says he was principal at Alan Plummer Associates and vice president of a predecessor of engineer MWH Global.
Erin M. Inman becomes president and CEO of Primera Engineers Ltd., Chicago, following her purchase of the MEP engineer from its retiring co-founders Michael F. DeSantiago and Pedro Cevallos-Candau. She was senior vice president and utilities division manager.
Obituary
Jeffrey L. Richmond Sr., who was, until recently, the president of equipment maker Roadtec Inc. since 2004, died on June 30 at age 60 in Charleston, S.C., a company spokeswoman confirmed. She declined to disclose the cause of death. Richmond, who was succeeded in March by John Irvine, who joined Roadtec in 1996 as a vice president and was named general manager in 2002. The firm, a division of Chattanooga construction-equipment manufacturer Astec Industries Inc., produces asphalt paving and recycling machines and has 468 employees, says the spokeswoman.
