People Moves: January, 2024
Promotions, new hires and career achievements in the construction sector.
Daryl Heppner, operations manager for Polycrete Restorations, is celebrating 30 years with BM Group. Balraj Mann, CEO of Polycrete and BM Group chairman, said that “it is not an understatement to say Polycrete nor the BM Group would not be where it is today” without Heppner.
Steve Van Hoffen has been appointed chief financial officer of Maple Reinders after serving the company in increasingly senior finance roles for over 17 years. Van Hoffen stated that he looks forward to supporting the business units to excel, contributing to the company’s strategic growth, and continuing his career at a company that aligns with his values.
Mark Wessel, is celebrating 20 years at Beedie where he works as director of IT.
Working at Beedie has been an amazing experience, mainly due to the opportunity to work with so many talented people, forming great friendships, and, best of all, falling in love and marrying a coworker over 14 years ago. Beedie has proven to be more than just a career for me; it has provided the foundation for a family, complete with a loving wife and kids!
– Wessel
Carla Parsons has been named director of business development – B.C. & Alberta at FINEX INC. Parsons stated that FINEX is a Canadian based, high-density fiber cement that’s about to change the dynamic in Western Canada. Prior to the role, she worked as director of communications for Canadian Construction Women (CCW).
Frano Cavar will be expanding his role at the Calgary Construction Association to director of public affairs and external relations. He has spent more than two years at the association as director of government relations.
Grant Grenier is starting a new position as construction & asphalt manager at Lafarge Canada. Prior to this, Grenier spent more than 20 years at Graham as a construction superintendent and a business development manager.
Erin Elliott, Wesgroup Properties’ VP of accounting, has been appointed director of stakeholder relations for Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW).
John M. Beck, Aecon founder and chairman, has been appointed to the Order of Ontario, the province’s highest civilian honour.
Cynthia Evenson has started a new job with Bird Construction as a senior proposal coordinator at its Edmonton office.
For those of you that know me, I previously worked at Stuart Olson in the Vancouver office and it was one of my favourite jobs based on the type of projects we built, the fantastic people and the office culture, so I’m thrilled to be working with the merged Bird and Stuart Olson team and getting to connect with former colleagues and new ones.
– Evenson
Brandon Alpine, a Ktunaxa citizen, will be honoured with an educational bursary partnership at the College of the Rockies. Alpine, who passed away last year at age 39, was part of the Aecon Industrial West team and the Construction Maintenance & Allied Workers (CMAW) union. The bursary will be sponsored by Aecon, CMAW 2300 and Alpine’s mother, Janice.
Pomerleau reached a major milestone this month. The company, along with its subsidiaries Borea Construction and ITC Construction, announced it now employs 5,000 people across the country.
Jason Metcalfe has started a new position as acquisitions and development manager at Diverse Properties.
Shawn Gray has joined The Net Effect team as its newest digital advisor and project manager. Recognized as one of Canada’s Top-40-under-40 in construction, Shawn brings over 15 years of cross-market experience in engineering, construction, and technology leadership, having successfully delivered construction projects exceeding $5 billion in value.
Christian Dover has been appointed president of Limen. Dover has more than 20 years of experience in the Canadian and U.S. construction industry.
I am excited and honoured to join the executive team at Limen and for the opportunity to continue to build on Limen’s reputation of delivering safe and successful projects to their strong, growing and loyal customer base. I look forward to working with the existing Limen management team to meet our growth and diversification goals.
– Dover
Emma Grimsrud of Saskatoon has won PCL Construction’s National Student Scholarship. Grimsrud was selected from 670 other students. She will receive a $5,000.
Matthew Rinfret has been appointed Inflector Environmental Services‘ new chief operating officer. His extensive background includes a 17-year tenure with a PCL where he oversaw operations and large-scale projects in the Ottawa and Montreal regions.
As I join Inflector, I am excited for the opportunity to contribute to Inflector’s continued growth and future success. Together with the existing dedicated team, I look forward to continuing to raise the bar on operational excellence and delivering high quality results for all of our trusted clients and partners.
– Matthew Rinfret
Shelley Gray, CEO of SkilledTradesBC has been named one of B.C.’s most influential women in business by Business in Vancouver.
Tanzila Rubayat has joined Infrastructure BC as a senior associate. Rubayat brings over ten years of infrastructure experience in a range of services such as capital municipal project management, planning, engineering design and construction management.
Anton Pojasok is PCL‘s new sustainability director. With more than 27 years experience, Pojasok will drive PCL’s strategic sustainability plan and road map including goal tracking, value added expertise and a range of services provided to clients and project teams related to sustainable design and construction. Prior to joining PCL, Pojasok was vice president of environmental management at Ontario Realty Corporation – Infrastructure Ontario.
‘Less is more’ is the essence of sustainability, from early planning through construction and building operations, there are cost-effective ways to reduce a structure’s impact on the environment with enhanced returns on investment.
– Pojasok
Dallas Hesse is celebrating 15 years with Westridge Construction where he works as a superintendent. He is currently managing the Moosomin Dam Spillway Improvements project in Saskatchewan.
Steve Schmalz is celebrating 25 years with PCL construction where he works as an operations manager in Ottawa. Following in his father’s footsteps, he first joined PCL’s Winnipeg office in 1999 as a field engineer. PCL’s team stated that Schmalz is a patient mentor with a wealth of knowledge.
Adam Hill has joined Metric Civil Contractors as their new director of finance. Prior to this role, Hill held various positions at North West Rubber.
Arsalan Zargar has been promoted to executive vice president of project delivery at Infrastructure Ontario. Officials noted that over the course of the past 4 years working as senior vice president, rail delivery, Arsalan has demonstrated exceptional leadership, extensive experience and formed strong partnerships with internal and external stakeholders, making him an invaluable asset to the organization.
RJC Engineers has announced five new principals and and eight new associates. They stated that with these new additions, RJC is poised to strengthen its position as an industry leader, capable of complex and challenging projects. The enhanced leadership team will further enable the firm to offer comprehensive engineering services, meeting the evolving needs of clients in various sectors.
Mike Woodroff has joined Kerkhoff as its new vice president of construction. Woodroff has nearly 40 years of experience in the industry and has successfully overseen a multitude of projects, differing in scale and complexity.
Tim Laronde has been appointed to Kindred Works‘ board of directors. Laronde serves as Chandos Construction’s director of Indigenous strategies. Prior to joining Chandos Construction, Tim spent over 15 years in the financial services industry where he led business development and capacity building through meaningful and respectful relationships with Indigenous communities.
I’m a big advocate of housing and am inspired by the Kindred Works approach to creating much needed rental housing across the country. I believe there’s a strong values alignment, with their social and environmental impact objectives.
– Laronde
Colleen Federchuk and Eithar Naman have been promoted to vice president of people and culture, and vice president of digital construction at Fitzrovia, respectively.
Andrew Clarke is celebrating 30 years with Beedie development. He first joined the company as an apprentice carpenter. He currently works as its senior director of construction operations.
There are so many great people that I have worked with over my career that make the projects memorable. I might not remember how we put together something on the project, but I remember the people who were involved and the good times that we had along the way.
Clarke
Todd den Engelsen has been hired as the new CEO of Tahltan Nation Development Corporation.
Being Métis, the opportunity to work with an Indigenous business is very meaningful, and I am honoured to be joining TNDC. I have followed TNDC’s progress with admiration in recent years and am excited to apply my experience to growing TNDC’s reputation as a Tier 1 mining service provider, Indigenous Partner of Choice, and Employer of Choice.
– den Engelsen
Farzan Hosseini is Industra Construction Corporation’s new project manager for Ontario operations.
Derick Fluker, senior vice president of acquisitions and asset management at Wesgroup properties, has been appointed to the NAIOP Vancouver’s 2024 board of directors.
Joshua Gaglardi, president of Orion Construction, has also joined NAIOP Vancouver’s 2024 board of directors.
