Tomas Carlsson, president and CEO of Swedish design giant SWECO, will take the same roles at Sweden-based contractor NCC AB in July, returning to a firm at which he worked for 20 years and had run domestic construction operations, NCC announced on Jan. 12. 

Carlsson has been SWECO chief since 2012, doubling sales and tripling its share price, according to an NCC release. He is seen as the catalyst to boost NCC's slumping profit performance, with its shares down 28% in the past 12 months, says a Reuters report, although the price climbed 2.3% after the announcement.NCC terminated CEO Peter Wagstrom in October, with the firm's general counsel serving as acting chief.

NCC ranks at No. 50 on ENR's 2017 list of the Top 250 Global Contractors, reporting $6.1 billion in 2016 global revenue, of which $2.8 billion was outside Sweden. That was down from No. 44 on the previous year's list. SWECO ranks at No. 21 on ENR's list of the Top 150 Global Design Firms, reporting $1.9 billion in 2016 global revenue. NCC also tapped Skanska executive Kenneth Nilsson to lead its infrastructure business, effective in April, it said. He most recently headed the contractor's eastern U.S. civil construction operations.

Maria Gou has joined POWER Engineers, Hailey, Idaho, as business unit director for air quality and related environmental services, after its Jan. 17 purchase of Zephyr Environmental Corp., of which she was CEO. Gou remains based in Austin. Zephyr will expand POWER’s environmental services in the electric utility, oil and gas, refinery and food processing sectors, the new parent says. Acquired offices will keep the Zephyr name until May, says POWER, which ranks at No. 42 on ENR’s latest Top 500 Design Firms list. It reported about $400 million in 2016 revenue.

Arora Engineers Inc, a Chadds Ford, Pa., design and CM firm, has promoted Mark Mosko to chief operating officer. He was senior vice president and regional director.

HNTB Corp. has elevated Michael Sweeney to executive vice president. He continues as its eastern U.S. president and also is a board member of the Regional Plan Association and New York Building Congress.

Aaron Jonker and Curt Mulder, co-presidents since 2016 of Wolverine Building Group, Grand Rapids, Mich., now are the contractor’s owners. Previous owner and co-chair Mike Kelly has retired; former owner Dick VanderZyden remains chairman through 2020. The firm, with 141 employees, specializes in healthcare, retail and residential construction. 

Massachusetts State Senator Linda Dorcena Forry (D) has joined Boston contractor Suffolk Construction as vice president of diversity, inclusion and community relations. A Haitian-American and the first black in the state senate when elected in 2013, she also served in the state House of Representatives, and was chair of its community development and small business committee.

Clifford L. Freyermuth, 85, an engineer who advanced the quality and use of concrete segmental bridges in the U.S and globally, died suddenly on Jan. 12 in .Phoenix. Noted bridge structural engineer Eugene C. Figg Jr., tapped him, in 1989, as executive vice president of The American Segmental Bridge Institute where, for the next 20 years, he helped develop a precast-segmental box-girder manual and was principal investigator on a state highway guide to segmental construction. Previously, as technical director for the Post-Tensioning Institute, Freyermuth led creation of guidelines in use of bridge stay cables. Among many awards, he was cited by the American Concrete Institute for outstanding contributions to design for post-tensioned concrete buildings and bridges. Says Craig Finley Jr., managing principal at bridge designer Finley Engineering Group: “His contributions and legend will continue to influence the future of concrete segmental bridges.” 

Michael L. Quinn, a founding principal of Quinn Evans Architects, Washington, D.C., and a long-time champion of historic preservation and urban revitalization, died on Jan. 25 at age 70 in Saline, Mich. The cause was cancer, says a firm spokeswoman. Co-founding the firm in 1984 with David S. Evans, he played a key role in reinvigorating struggling downtowns, including Detroit. Quinn’s work in this area helped propel creation of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Street program, says the firm. Its historic preservation commissions include the Smithsonian Institution’s Arts and Industries building in Washington. Quinn Evans, which ranks at No. 379 on ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms list, reporting about $34 million in 2016 revenue, says it now has about 140 employees.  The University of Michigan last year endowed a scholarship in his and Evans’ names. 

Bruce J. Ross, who specialized in marketing communications strategy for firms and groups in design, construction and real estate for more than 30 years, died on Jan. 16 in Englewood, NJ., of cancer. He would have been 64 on Feb. 11. Before starting his New York City firm, Bruce Ross Associates, he was a vice president at a real estate public relations firm, and a PR executive for McGraw-Hill Publications Co. and American Society of Mechanical Engineers. “Bruce supported WSP, formerly Parsons Brinckerhoff for over three decades, and was instrumental in building [its] profile in the industry,” says Jayanti Menches, senior vice president and communications director.  "A respected public relations professional,  Bruce’s advice and insight will be missed by all of us who worked with him.”