Chicago-based real estate and design-build contractor/designer Clayco Inc. announced a new leadership team in January after founder and CEO Bob Clark took on the role of executive chairman.

“At Clayco, we are constantly adapting to the changing marketplace, and this leadership expansion is an exciting part of that evolution,” Clark says.

Each of Clayco’s subsidiaries—CRG Realty, the Lamar Johnson Collaborative, Ventana Design-Build and Concrete Strategies—experienced significant growth in 2019. Clayco created a new entity to manage all of its subsidiaries called Clayco Enterprise.

The leadership of Clayco Enterprise includes Clark as executive chairman and Russ Burns as CEO  and president. Steve Sieckhaus has been promoted to chief operating officer of Clayco Enterprise; Jim Havel has been promoted to chief financial officer; and Anthony Johnson has been promoted to executive vice president of sales and

marketing.

At Clayco Inc., Kevin McKenna has been promoted to president of Clayco’s construction group; Anthony Johnson continues as president of the industrial business unit; and Mike Pierle has been promoted to executive vice president overseeing construction operations.

Chicago’s Walsh Group has promoted Roy Epps to president of its water division. Epps will oversee the company’s entire water program, totaling more than $3.5 billion in current contracts, and provide executive direction on new business initiatives, customer outreach, project start-up and staffing, project management systems and field operations.

Jason Schulist has been hired by the Boldt Co. as vice president of continuous improvement, responsible for leading a “capability-based continuous improvement culture” at the firm. Mark Nolta is joining Boldt as the corporate director of estimating and preconstruction. He will be responsible for estimating and preconstruction within a collaborative integrated lean project delivery system and target value design and delivery.

Graycor Inc. has hired Monique Ruiz as chief financial officer. With more than 20 years of experience, Ruiz will be responsible for leading Graycor’s corporate-level finance and accounting functions. Prior to joining Graycor, Ruiz served in corporate and operational finance leadership roles for global firms in manufacturing, banking and public accounting.

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates of Northbrook, Ill., has named associate principal Blake Andrews manager of the company’s London office. Andrews’ focus will be to develop WJE’s office in London and expand the firm’s services and client base in the U.K. and greater Europe.

Ghafari Associates has promoted Jim Jobes to executive vice president and business unit leader of the Chicago division and Tom Tooley to executive vice president and business unit leader for the firm’s Grand Rapids, Mich., division.