Midwest construction industry veteran Gary Thalheimer is the new vice president, general manager in Gilbane Building Co.’s Chicago office. He brings with him more than 35 years’ experience in design, development and construction, representing $5 billion of projects, most notably in the high-rise residential and commercial markets. With his previous employer, he served as Midwest region manager. Significant Chicago projects in his portfolio include Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Headquarters, 345 East Ohio and The Legacy at Millennium Park. “For us, it is about building the best people, relationships and the Chicago community,” says Adam Jelen, Gilbane senior vice president and division leader. “Adding Gary to our Chicago leadership team is another step toward our continued commitment to growing our Chicago presence.”

Patricia Scroggin has been promoted by Burns & McDonnell to lead an expanded power group out of the construction and engineering firm’s Chicago office. Part of her mandate will be to grow the company’s workforce in the Chicago market by as much as 25% per year. She previously led power projects throughout the country from the company’s world headquarters in Kansas City, Mo., specializing in water treatment processes and air pollution control process design and installation. Scroggin serves on the executive committee for the International Water Conference.

Nebraska-based international architectural and construction firm HDR announced the appointment of Gary Wheeler as global director of interior design and workplace strategy. As a member of HDR’s executive team in Omaha,  he will work alongside the company’s architectural design, engineering and innovation groups to enhance “the human impact” on projects in the health care, science, education, corporate and civic markets. Most recently the co-founder of  WHEELERKÄNIK in England, Wheeler has worked with such clients as Apple, Alibaba and American Express. HDR also announced the appointment of its Chicago-based public health director, Warren Hendrickson, to the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ global health committee.

Ashraf Hamad joined KAI Design & Build as senior project engineer, overseeing the lifecycle of projects at the company’s St. Louis head office and at its Texas, Nebraska and Georgia affiliate locations to ensure compliance with scope, budget and schedule. He brings with him more than 10 years of project management experience.

Among personnel announcements by St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Cos., Steve Miller was named safety director of the national construction firm’s central division. A member of the Association of Union Contractors Safety and Health Committee, American Society of Safety Engineers, National Safety Council and St. Louis AGC Safety and Health Committee, Miller has spent the majority of his 16-year career with McCarthy. In 2006, he was promoted to director of safety for MC Industrial, an independent McCarthy company. In recent months, McCarthy’s central division has named Chris Campbell virtual design and construction engineer, Nora Bresnahan marketing manager and Jessica Davila marketing manager for the health care business unit.

Eric Weflen was named a new principal partner with Indianapolis-based engineering and consultancy RQAW Corp. The director of the architectural division, Weflen becomes one of five partners leading the firm. He joined RQAW in 2010 and, most recently, led the design of the Posey County Jail, Washington County Judicial Center and Fishers City Hall projects. RQAW has also welcomed bridge rehab and replacement project management specialist Randy Brooks as bridge division manager.

The relocation of Arcadis North America’s Chicago office into larger space along Michigan Avenue brought with it the expansion of the leadership team locally. Justin Wright, president of the North America building business, has relocated from Phoenix to the new Chicago space adjacent to the offices of Arcadis’ design and architectural consultancy CallisonRTKL. In related moves, Arcadis has hired Paul Darby to lead Chicago buildings operations, David Pellizzari as major market manager for transit and transportation, LeeAnn Tomas-Foster as environmental public market leader, Bob Learmouth as global contractors leader and Eric Brousseau as mergers and acquisitions transactions director.

Setting in motion a transition plan for company leadership, Findorff announced the promotion of Jim Yehle to executive vice president. During his 18 years with the Madison, Wis.-based builder, Yehle has worked on many high-profile projects including Edgewood College, Overture Center for the Arts and, most recently, health care facilities for such clients as Meriter Hospital, Genesis Health System and Mayo Clinic Health System. He will continue to work with company president, Dave Beck-Engel, to position Findorff for future success.

Tim McLaughlin was promoted to vice president of operations for Pinnacle Contracting Inc., where he will oversee the St. Louis firm’s project managers, estimators and project engineers. He joined Pinnacle in 2013 as a project manager. The announcement was made by Nelson Grumney Jr., president, who co-founded Pinnacle in 1998 with Tom McLaughlin.

A vice president in American Structurepoint’s transportation group and principal in charge of the firm’s construction solutions group, Steven Davidson has additionally been named a partner. Since joining the Indianapolis-based A/E firm in May 2015, he has focused on expanding regional and national reach on transportation projects, securing multiple opportunities in Indiana, Ohio and Florida, and has taken on the principal-in-charge role with various Indiana communities.

Brad Schoenfelder is the new Midwest region president for Minneapolis-based developer and builder Ryan Cos. US Inc. He will continue to work out of the Des Moines office of Ryan, whose Midwest region also includes offices in Cedar Rapids and Davenport, Iowa. He joined the company in 1999, most recently serving as vice president of development. Previous Midwest president Marc Gullickson, who announced plans a year prior to retire from the post, will remain with Ryan to focus on regional development efforts, joined by new director of development hires Lydia Brown in Cedar Rapids and Brian Clark in Des Moines.

Brenden Tippets has joined utility contracting firm Michels Corp. as microtunneling manager. Tippets brings with him to the Brownsville, Wis.-based contractor more than 20 years’ experience in heavy civil construction, specifically microtunneling, tunneling and pipejacking. His areas of expertise include design-build trenchless projects, contaminated groundwater remediation and urban deep-soil construction. A member of various industry organizations, Tippets is currently working on American Railway Engineering and Maintenance Right-of-Way Association microtunneling guidelines, scheduled for publication in early 2017

Design firm Terracon welcomed Dan Adam as a senior architect working with facilities departments in Cincinnati as well as Louisville and Lexington, Ky. His more than 30 years of experience in building enclosure commissioning services include peer reviews, construction administration, site observation and testing.

HOK’s St. Louis office announced the addition of a number of design professionals, including 15-year-plus veteran Arno Sandoval as a senior project architect working on the BJC HealthCare Washington University School of Medicine Campus Renewal project in St. Louis. Other appointments include Jonathon Wirth as senior associate and senior project manager for the Indiana University Health Academic Health Center project and Mark Stegeman as senior associate and director of project management. Supporting urban mixed-used projects will be Allison Zuck and interior design expert Nicole Schepers, who joined the firm along with fellow design professional John Pirtle. Earlier, HOK St. Louis welcomed Cory Murner as a landscape architect and Ramonda Harris as a project accountant.

Geotechnology Inc. named Daniel Furgason as the geotechnical group manager for the company’s Cincinnati branch responsible for client management and development, staff management and senior technical review. He has more than 30 years of geotechnical engineering and project management experience in the Cincinnati and Columbus markets. Based in St. Louis with offices throughout the Midwest and South, Geotechnology also announced the hiring of Doug Kettle as drilling services supervisor for its Overland Park, Kan., branch. A Colorado native and son of a drilling industry veteran, Kettle has 19 years’ drilling experience.

Gary Stevenson joined The Boldt Co. as chief estimator at the construction company’s new office in southeastern Michigan. He has more than 25 years’ experience in industrial and commercial construction, most recently for a major automobile manufacturer in the Detroit area. Boldt, headquartered in Appleton, Wis., recently opened the office in Wixom, Mich., to serve growing business opportunities in the Detroit area, notably in automotive manufacturing.