Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. said on Nov. 23 that President and CEO Craig Martin will retire from the role and the firm, effective Dec. 26, for unspecified “health reasons.” The company declined to disclose further information. Jacobs named Chairman and former CEO Noel Watson as executive chairman until a permanent CEO is appointed. Martin, 65, has been CEO since 2006.

The firm also has named Kevin Berryman executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective on Jan. 5. He will succeed John Prosser, who will retire at year-end after 40 years with the firm. Berryman has been serving in similar roles since 2009 at International Flavors and Fragrances Inc., what Jacobs describes as a leading global creator of flavors and fragrances used in consumer products. He also is a 25-year corporate veteran of Nestlé, serving as CFO of its Nestlé Purina unit. Jacobs says Prosser was instrumental in Jacobs' growth from $112 million in annual revenue to more than $12 bilion.

Duncan Magrath, chief financial officer of UK-based contractor Balfour Beatty, will leave the firm next year, as soon as a successor is named, the firm announced earlier this month. The announcement follows the firm's naming last month of Leo Quinn as CEO, effective in January. Magrath was in the role for the last six years, including the issuance of five profit warnings for the firm in the last two and the sale of US unit Parsons Brinckerhoff to WSP Global for $1.2 billion. In a statement, the company said he "will be seeking new career challenges."

Kelly

With the Oct. 31 completion of its acquisition of New York City-based Parsons Brinckerhoff, WSP Global Inc., Montreal, noted new management changes in the combined $4.8-billion, 31,500-person firm that will take effect on Jan. 1. Greg Kelly, currently PB’s chief operating officer, will become president and CEO of the combined business in the U.S., South America and the Caribbean. John Murphy, PB’s chief financial officer, will be president and CEO for Europe to include the UK, Middle East, India and Africa. He will be based in London. Guy Templeton, PB president and COO for Asia Pacific, will become president and CEO of the firms’ combined Asia Pacific region, still based in Sydney, Australia. George Pierson, PB's chief executive and now executive

Murphy

board director of the new corporation, is set to leave the firm at year-end and will transition to a non-executive director position. David McAlister, PB director of global corporate development, will become global director of Infrastructure in the combined firm. 

The company says it will announce a new role in the expanded company for David Cooper, who has been WSP CEO in the U.S. Also, Richard Rome has joined the firm in an undisclosed building leadership role, says WSP, following its Nov. 6 acquisition of Houston-based design firm ccrd. He had been a principal at that company, which specializes in MEP systems engineering. Remaining in their WSP roles for the combined firm are Ali Ettehadieh, managing director of South America and the Caribbean; Magnus Meyer, in that role for the Nordics; Petr Bilek, COO of Central Europe; and Tom Smith, global director of property and buildings.

Martin Pedley has been named a managing director of Skanska AB in Stockholm. He had been managing director of the global contractor's London-based piling and ground engineering business in the UK called Cementation Skanska. Succeeding him in the role is Cameron Foley who returns to the firm after seven years in other Skanska units. Skanska UK says it plans to recruit more than 1,500 employees over the next two to three years to complete major projects.

J. Joseph Tyler, formerly senior vice president at consultant Versar Inc., has joined Dawson & Associates, a Washington, D.C., federal-sector advocacy consulting firm, as a senior adviser. Previously, he was U.S. Army Corps of Engineers director of military programs.

RECOGNITION

Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, New York University executive vice provost and dean of engineering, has been elected into the Indian National Academy of Engineering as a Foreign Fellow, in recognition of his accomplishments in engineering and technology. The honor is a rare one for someone residing outside India, says the school. The academy, established in 1987, is made up of India'’s most distinguished engineers, engineer-scientists, and technologists. Sreenivasan is  Eugene Kleiner Professor for Innovation in Mechanical Engineering at NYU and also teaches math and physics.

OBITUARY

Khoury

Said Khoury, a founder and former chairman of Athens-based global contractor Consolidated Contractors Group, which became one of the Middle East's largest construction firms, died on Oct. 15. He was 91. Khoury, a Palestinian by birth, founded CCG in Lebanon in1952, but relocated it to London and then to its current base in the 1980s to escape Lebanon's civil war. The contractor ranks at No. 63 on ENR's list of the Top 250 Global Contractors and at No. 24 on the list of Top 250 International Contractors, with $5.3 billion in 2013 revenue, all outside Greece. It works in about 40 countries. About 55% of its revenue is in the petrochemical sector. Khoury, who is said to have a net worth of more than $7 billion, also was a global philanthropist, particularly to Palestinian-related causes.