JÖNSSON

Robert Jönsson has been elected president of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, the first non-North American to head the Bethesda, Md.-based group, which has 65 international chapters and 5,000 members. Jönsson is chairman of the Dept. of Fire Safety Engineering and Systems Safety at Lund University in Sweden. He has been on its faculty since 1981 and department head since 1985.

KBR, Houston, has hired Mark S. Williams as group president of its government and defense, infrastructure and minerals, and power and industrial business units. He was group vice president in northern Europe for Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., managing director of its Dutch and German units serving the oil, gas and chemicals industries, and senior vice president in its aerospace and defense sector. The appointment completes a year-long reorganization of KBR’s non-hydrocarbon units, the company says.

GAI Consultants Inc., Pittsburgh, has named Tom Cicero vice president and manager of its Midwest operations, following its acquisition of Bonar Group Inc., a 60-employee engineering firm in Fort Wayne, Ind., of which he had been president. GAI has a staff of 700.

BERINGER

Robert M. Beringer has joined JMT, a Sparks, Md., engineering firm, as vice president. He leads its water-wastewater division nationally. Beringer was director of URS Corp.’s water-wastewater unit and served as chief of the utilities bureau in Howard County, Md. He also is former chairman of the Maryland State Board of Waterworks and Waste System Operators and former president of the Maryland Association of Municipal Wastewater Agencies.

Linda Lannen has joined engineering firm Kleinfelder, San Diego, as chief information officer. She was vice president of information technology at MWH Global Inc., Broomfield, Colo.

Ranjit K. Chakravorti, president of TRS Consultants Inc., a civil engineer and IT services firm, has joined Hill International Inc., Marlton, N.J., as senior vice president. The appointment follows Hill’s Jan. 4 purchase of TRS, San Ramon, Calif.

GRIFFIS

Lawrence G. “Larry” Griffis , senior principal at engineering firm Walter P Moore, Houston, and president of its structures division, has won the James M. Delahay Award from the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations, a 12,000-member group made up of 40 U.S. chapters. It recognizes outstanding achievement in building codes and standards development.

TranSystems, a Kansas City-based transportation industry consulting firm, has named Michael J. Sweeney vice president and national transit market-sector leader. Based in New York City, he had been vice president at AECOM Technology Corp., responsible for its transit work in the eastern U.S. and Canada.

SWEENEY

Foster Wheeler AG announces several top executive changes and the relocation of its operating headquarters from Perryville, N.J., to Geneva, Switzerland. On June 1, 2010, Raymond J. Mil­chovich steps down as CEO and becomes the firm’s non-executive chairman and a consultant through October 2011. Robert C. Flexon, now president of Foster Wheeler USA, a Houston unit, will replace him. Umberto della Sala, Foster Wheel­er AG president and COO, has agreed to stay at his post through 2013. Michelle Davies has been named acting general counsel of the company; she was general counsel of its largest subsidiary, Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd., Reading, England. Eric Sherbet, vice president and deputy general counsel-corporate, also becomes corporate secretary. The latter two actions result from the resignation of Peter J. Ganz, executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, who chose not to relocate to Geneva. The company will continue to remain domiciled in Zug, Switzerland. Milchovich, noting that 85% of the firm’s business is outside of North America, says the relocation will place its executive team closer to its markets, clients and operations.