Garren Echols has joined Haydon Building Corp., Tempe, Ariz., as building division vice president. He spent the last six years with Sundt Construction, most recently as a project executive, and before that, seven years with Parsons.

Haydon also recently hired Grant Larson as preconstruction director for its heavy civil division. Larson joins Haydon with 22 years of experience in heavy civil and roadway construction. He previously served as preconstruction project manager with Sundt Construction.

Eric Leveque has rejoined Carollo’s Las Vegas office as senior vice president, with 30 years of experience in the civil and environmental engineering fields.

Carollo also has appointed Dave Sobeck to serve as the firm’s managing director of marketing, based in the Phoenix office. For more than 20 years, Sobeck has provided expertise in municipal and private-sector planning, design and construction management of water and wastewater treatment, supply, distribution, reuse and infrastructure projects.

Mark Gross has been promoted to Southwest client service director. His 23 years of experience with Carollo includes design and construction of municipal water infrastructure and treatment facilities, construction management and operations assistance.

Jim Lauer has rejoined McCarthy Building Cos. in its Southwest regional office in Phoenix as vice president. He will lead the region’s aviation, mission critical and health care market expansion initiatives. Lauer has more than 35 years of construction experience, beginning his career with McCarthy in the early 1980s and rising through the ranks from laborer to senior project manager over the course of 20 years with the company. He spent 13 years with Austin Commercial and the last three years as a project executive with DPR Construction.

McCarthy also added four team members to its mission critical projects group in the Phoenix office. Ryan Ferguson was hired as director of mission critical projects, Mike Clements as preconstruction manager, Pep Arballo as senior superintendent and David Mazzarelli as senior project manager.

McCarthy promoted three individuals in the firm’s water group. Jake Stones was promoted to vice president project executive, Pat Payne to project director and Sagrado Sparks to project director.

Sundt Construction, Tempe, Ariz., has promoted Travis McCarthy to vice president and Southwest regional manager for its transportation group. He will oversee business development, preconstruction and operations in Arizona, Southern California and New Mexico. He previously served as vice president and transportation group operations manager.

Sundt also promoted Melissa Love to project controls manager, Aaron Bond to project manager, Lance Bemis to project superintendent, Brody Slaugenhoup to project engineer, Emily Tucker to project engineer and Amulya Raju to project engineer II and hired Max Ruhnke as a field engineer in its Tempe office.

In addition, Sundt promoted Tom Bersbach to senior project manager, Courtney Hoyt to project engineer II and hired Hudson Cox as a field engineer in its Tucson office.

The Design-Build Institute of America has named Sundt’s Marty Hedlund as one of the four industry leaders chosen for the 2020 Class of DBIA Fellows. As a vice president, project executive, Hedlund currently focuses on design-build delivery across all offices.

Ronald R. Stuff, Sundt senior vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer, was elected a Fellow of the American College of Construction Lawyers.  He is only the fourth Arizona attorney to receive the honor.

Tara Brown has joined the health care practice at HMC Architects, Phoenix, as principal-in-charge to bolster its growth and expertise in the Southwest region. Brown has experience in strategic planning and leading big room project teams. She also has a strong knowledge of health care clients’ key drivers and business challenges. She previously worked at architecture firms such as Shepley Bulfinch, Devenney Group and OWP/P (now CannonDesign).
 

Richard Rotto was hired at AECOM’s Santa Fe, N.M., office as a senior transportation project manager within the firm’s regional structures group. He has extensive civil and structural engineering experience in a variety of transportation and public works projects.
 

Kirk McClure recently joined JE Dunn Construction. He has nearly 20 years of business development and client relationship management experience. As the senior client solutions manager for the Southwest division of JE Dunn, McClure will lead strategic engagement efforts and continue to build strong relationships in the Arizona marketplace.
 

JCJ Architecture recently announced that Brian Sandstrom has joined its Phoenix office as a senior project architect. Since earning his bachelor’s degree in architectural design from Arizona State University, Sandstrom has built a background in the design, management, construction administration and technical implementation of projects for a diverse range of clients in the public and private sectors.

Adolfson & Peterson Construction (AP), Phoenix, has promoted Scott Salyer to regional manager of AP Southwest, where he will be responsible for developing business plans and risk management programs as well as driving business results and operational decisions. AP also welcomed director of business development Melissa Bennett and regional marketing director Amara Boesch.

Archer Western Construction, Phoenix, has promoted Kyle Ledbetter to senior project manager for the Arizona water group. Ledbetter joined Archer Western 15 years ago as a project engineer and has steadily advanced his career within the organization. He has experience building water and wastewater projects—ranging from $4 million to $150 million—with various collaborative project delivery methods.

Transportation planner, project manager and communications specialist Stephanie Miller has rejoined Parametrix as a senior consultant. She has 25 years of experience developing transportation planning studies and environmental documents that comply with the NEPA, facilitating meetings, building consensus and developing approaches and materials to convey technical information to the public. She joins the firm’s Albuquerque office and will work on projects throughout the Southwest region.

Obituary

William A. “Wink” Ames, 87, co-founder of Minard-Ames Insurance, now known as Minard-Ames/INSURICA, died Nov. 15. Ames had been working directly with contractors for the past 53 years, and the last 40 of those were also spent teaching the financial aspects of the business of construction to thousands of people. He was inducted into the National Academy of Construction in 2013.

Ames was a veteran U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and was a regular guest lecturer in the Del E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University. In addition, he authored “Obtaining Surety Bonds for Contractors,” a part of the Construction Law Practice Manual for the State Bar of Arizona.