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ON THE MOVE BURNS & MCDONNELL ANNOUNCES PROMOTIONS FOR BOARD OF DIRECTORS, OFFICER GROUP Ray Kowalik, chairman and CEO of Burns & McDonnell , announced promotions of two employee-owners onto the board of directors and six into and within the firm’s Officer Group. “Advancing in leadership at Burns & McDonnell comes with great responsibility not only to our 120-year-old firm, but our clients and our communities,” Kowalik said. “These employee-owners share two important traits – they are incredibly entrepreneurial and are laser focused on being the very best in providing unmatched service to our clients.” Joining Kowalik and the current four others on the board of directors are leaders of two major business groups: ❚ ❚ Randy Griffin is president and general manager of the Construction/Design-Build Group to deliver Burns & McDonnell projects from concept through commissioning. He joined Burns & McDonnell in 2001 as procurement manager, and became an associate vice president and manager of construction operations in 2004. He has led CDB since 2016. He earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial safety from the University of Central Missouri. ❚ ❚ Bob Reymond is president and general manager of the Oil, Gas & Chemical Group, which includes projects for the refining, midstream, chemicals, and terminals and pipelines industries. A former officer in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear power program, he joined Burns & McDonnell in 2001 as a project engineer before moving into leading some of the largest energy projects in the firm’s history and successfully leading engineer-procure-construct projects. He became an associate vice president in 2008 and became leader of the firm’s Process &

Industrial Group, now OGC, in 2015. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Missouri. Joining the Officer Group are three employee- owners promoted to vice president: ❚ ❚ Oko Buckle is general manager of the firm’s Southeast region, currently leading Burns & McDonnell offices in Atlanta, Georgia, and Orlando, Florida. He joined the firm in 2006 as a senior electrical engineer in Atlanta, where in 2010 he became regional global practice manager for the firm’s Transmission & Distribution Group. He opened the Orlando office in 2015. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Kwame Nkrumah’ University of Science and Technology in Ghana, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, and an executive MBA in global business from the Georgia Institute of Technology. ❚ ❚ Renee Gartelos leads the human resources team. She joined Burns & McDonnell in 1998, taking on increasing responsibilities until becoming director of human resources. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Iowa. ❚ ❚ Joe Podrebarac is construction director in the Construction/Design-Build Group for oil, gas and chemical projects. He joined Burns & McDonnell in 2001 and spent a decade working in the field on projects for major oil and gas producers before returning to the world headquarters to broaden his work on EPC projects. He earned a bachelor’s degree in construction management from Kansas State University. Three Kansas City-based employee-owners were promoted within the Officer Group:

❚ ❚ Rick Halil became president, continuing as general manager of the Energy Group he has led since 2014 at the firm ranked No. 1 in Power by Engineering News-Record . He joined Burns & McDonnell in 1989 as an assistant mechanical engineer, designing power plant retrofit projects, before moving on to construction, marketing, project development, and division management assignments. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida, and an MBA from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. ❚ ❚ Joel DeBoer became senior vice president, continuing as a leader in engineering, project management, staff development and project support in the Aviation & Federal Group. He joined the firm in 1991 as an electrical engineer, and spent much of the next two decades focused on Department of Defense, aviation and fueling projects in 15 countries, including work in China, Egypt, Greece, Morocco, Oman, Poland, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nebraska. ❚ ❚ Matt Ralston became senior vice president, continuing to serve as manager of construction operations in the Construction/Design-Build Group. He started at Burns & McDonnell in 1997 as an intern, then joined the firm full-time as an assistant project manager and soon led military and refining projects as a project manager. He returned to the world headquarters in 2007 as the group’s assistant manager of field operations, became a principal in 2009 and became an officer and director of procurement in 2013. He earned a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering from Iowa State University.

KYLE AHERN, from page 3

recognize that this wouldn’t be possible without the help of others, and to some extent, without the luck of having opportunities appear right in front of me. But I still had to take chances early in my career, and I’m glad I did. So get out of your comfort zone and take a risk. You never know what might happen. KYLE AHERN is the awards manager at Zweig Group. Contact him at kahern@zweiggroup.com. some extent, without the luck of having opportunities appear right in front of me. But I still had to take chances early in my career, and I’m glad I did.” “I recognize that this wouldn’t be possible without the help of others, and to

year, having some success and certainly learning a lot. But then came another opportunity to work in our marketing department, directly managing our awards unit for Hot Firm and Best Firms to Work For, cornerstones of Zweig Group’s presence in the A/E industry. I was hesitant about this at first as I was starting to settle into my role in executive search. Though I knew it would be big, I wasn’t sure what the new role would entail. After taking a couple of days to think it over, I decided to give it a go. I saw it as a chance to work with some of our best clients who are having great success, growing rapidly, are great places to work, and who have excellent marketing. It was also a new position and I thought I could help shape and form this unit of the company. Since starting in awards nearly two years ago, I have had more client interaction, more responsibility, and more experience with leadership than I ever thought I would. I

THE ZWEIG LETTER April 9, 2018, ISSUE 1243

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