Southeast People: Construction business updates for May 2017

Batson-Cook Co., Atlanta, announced that David Barksdale, chief operatingofficer, is retiring after 40 years with the general contracting and construction management firm, effective immediately. Kevin Appleton, formerly senior vice president and manager of health care, succeeds Barksdale as COO. Also, Denny Godwin, a health care project executive, will become vice president of health care Atlanta.

Barksdale will serve as executive adviser to the company during the transition. He began his career as a field engineer and worked in various management positions before being appointed executive vice president and COO in 2014.

Appleton, who transitioned to health care project management in 2010, became senior vice president and general manager of health care Atlanta in 2014.

Karl Dauber has been named national practice lead for hydrology, hydraulics and drainage engineering for the water and environment business at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff. Formerly water area manager, he has more than 31 years of related experience.

In Atlanta, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff named Tesa Gonzales a senior supervising engineer, working in the fleet and facilities group. She has more than 35 years of experience in the development, delivery and control of large infrastructure and railcar capital improvement and maintenance projects.

Also in Atlanta, the firm named Michael Connor a senior vice president. In this position, Connor will serve as managing director of the Atlanta buildings practice.

Leslie Gartner, senior vice president and the previous managing director of the Atlanta office, is transitioning into a new role developing the firm’s national science and technology practice.

CALYX Engineers and Consultants of Cary, N.C., named planning program manager Liz Kovasckitz to the role of principal. With CALYX for more than 13 years, she has 26 years of environmental, community and transportation planning experience.

In CALYX’s Roswell, Ga., office, Victoria Guobaitis has joined the firm as project manager with the traffic engineering team. Guobaitis previously worked for Parsons in Washington, D.C., where she served as traffic engineer. She earned a master’s degree in civil engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based construction management firm Moss & Associates promoted Jason Clark to vice president/project executive. Clark, who has more than 15 years of construction management experience, joined Moss in 2005 as an assistant project manager. Prior to that, Clark worked with Bovis Lend Lease in New York City.

Sherri Jent has joined Cardno’s Tampa office as business development manager for infrastructure services. Jent will support business development efforts for projects located throughout the Americas, focusing on survey and mapping, subsurface utility excavation, utility coordination, transportation and structures. She has more than 18 years of professional engineering industry experience.

Michael Sabodish, business unit manager, has joined NOVA’s Raleigh office. He brings 16 years of experience in geotechnical engineering, construction materials testing, special inspections and environmental consulting projects.