Burns & McDonnell announces several key leadership promotions to president, senior vice president and vice president after another record year of sales for the 100% employee-owned engineering, construction and architecture firm. These individuals contributed to a year that produced US$5.7 billion in sales and resulted in the support of nearly 17,000 projects supported by the growth of nearly 650 employees.
Joel DeBoer has been promoted to president in the Aviation & Federal Group, which he has led since 2021. DeBoer has spent his entire 32-year career at Burns & McDonnell, starting in 1991 as an electrical engineer assigned to both aviation and federal projects, then as a project manager before moving into leadership roles, where he served as a department manager, vice president of operations and now general manager and president for the group. DeBoer oversees all domestic and international aviation and federal projects for Burns & McDonnell and is responsible for national collaboration across all offices.
New senior vice presidents include the following employee-owners:
Greg Carlson leads commercial construction/design-build (CDB) at the firm. With more than three decades of experience in the AEC industry, his project experience ranges from office, retail and mixed-use to manufacturing, aviation and federal work. Carlson helps provide the strategic vision for implementing design-build project delivery companywide. Since joining the firm in 2013, the CDB Group has increased sales year over year.
Jerry Fan is the general manager of the firm’s Northeast offices. During his time as part of the leadership team, the Wallingford office has been named as one of the Best Places to Work in Connecticut by the Hartford Business Journal for 12 consecutive years. In addition, Fan has helped to grow the region’s service offerings to better serve a diverse client base. Previously, he served transmission and distribution clients as a program manager. Fan is a mechanical engineer with over 30 years of experience in nuclear power plant operation and decommissioning and electrical transmission projects.
Andy Jarvis oversees operations of the Transmission & Distribution (T&D) Group, including projects, technical knowledge and management of employee-owners. The group has substantial investments in a continued focus on quality and training, and Jarvis will maintain direct management of these areas and will work to share and advance best practices companywide. With the firm since 1994, Jarvis has a wide variety of management, engineering design and construction experience in high-voltage substations, overhead and underground transmission lines, and utility telecom projects.
Alissa Schuessler is the CFO of the firm as of 2022. Schuessler’s promotion to CFO builds on her strong track record that began with her joining the firm in 2005 as a staff accountant, then rising through the ranks to her most recent role as vice president of the firm’s finance group. Under Schuessler’s leadership, the finance team navigated international expansion into five countries, helping strengthen the company’s credentials as a global firm. Schuessler has spearheaded the development of a best-in-class team and established financial controls to accommodate large-scale, complex projects. She brings a powerful business acumen and is a strong advocate of the firm’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
New vice presidents and members of the Burns & McDonnell officer group include the following employee-owners:
James Amato leads commercial strategy, as well as the competitive and regulated project development business, for the T&D Group. With over 20 years of experience in energy markets, $13 billion in capital projects designed and energized, along with the development of multiple offices in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, Amato advises and develops solutions for global energy companies on portfolio management, resource effectiveness, strategic initiatives, capital investment and project contracting execution effectiveness. He pursues and helps secure mega program management and engineer-procure-construct (EPC) engagements and supports the firm’s expansion into international markets.
Robert Bonar leads the mission critical business, globally. The mission critical business is responsible for over $10 billion of design and construction of data centers serving clients from hyperscale and colocation to, most recently, cryptocurrency. Since joining the firm five years ago, his team has skyrocketed to the No. 2 ranking in data centers from Building Design + Construction. The mission critical team has over 100 projects in 14 countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Dotun Famakinwa, PE, oversees the T&D Group across the Southeast and currently manages a team of more than 140 employee-owners across the firm’s Southeast locations. Through his leadership and strategic thinking, the team has grown tremendously in size, revenue, sales and backlog. With more than 20 years of experience, Famakinwa specializes in engineering management, electrical substation engineering, power plant controls system design and power plant development.
Bill Halliburton is the Kansas City operations manager and technical services director for the Environmental Services Group. He has 30 years of industry experience and a demonstrated history of successfully leading highly motivated teams of scientists, engineers and skilled professionals to safely deliver environmental solutions to clients. His experience includes an emphasis in environmental program management, site assessments, remediation and decommissioning at petroleum, chemical, industrial and radiologically impacted facilities. He has partnered with private and public sector clients in many different industries to develop cost-effective, fit-for-purpose environmental solutions for projects.
Chad Hotovec, PE, is the CEO of Burns & McDonnell India, leading a diverse business spread across multiple sectors. He previously led the Oil, Gas & Chemical Group in India and grew that team to more than 500 employees while increasing accountability and efficiency. Hotovec brings experience in project engineering, project management processes, cost control, change management procedures, cost forecasting, scheduling, project planning and resource control.
Chad Kirby is the construction director for the Energy Group as part of the firm’s CDB Group. Kirby leads the firm’s Energy integrated EPC construction teams, delivering projects with a focus on safety, quality, estimating, planning and construction execution. He has more than 25 years of power industry and heavy industrial experience.
John Maranowicz is the construction director for the Aviation & Federal Group and also leads construction services for the Chicago office. He has 25 years of construction experience, with a heavy emphasis in design-build projects. Maranowicz has been responsible for work across multiple market types including airports, federal, education, retail, gaming, distribution, office space and pharma.
Chris Ruckman, PE, is the director of energy storage in the Energy Group. With over 25 years of power generation experience, Ruckman oversees the global development of safe, reliable and cost-effective energy storage solutions for both utility-scale and behind-the-meter applications. He combines deep technical understanding of electrical systems and the utility industry to assist clients with a wide range of storage technologies and applications. Since starting the firm’s energy storage business in 2019, his team has helped clients around the world with more than 180 projects totaling more than 80,000 MWh.
