Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has announced that Mary Buckley will serve as the city's new director of business development and Peter Park has been hired as the director of planning.

Buckley previously held economic development-related appointments in three state governments - manager of the Economic Development Division for former Texas Comptroller John Sharp; director of planning for former Mississippi Gov. Ray Maybus; and special assistant to the executive director of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment for former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm.

Park has two decades of experience in planning, architecture and urban design. Since 1995, he has served as Milwaukee's city planning director. Previously, Park spent eight years with the Milwaukee-based Planning and Design Institute Inc., where he served as an associate and vice president; two years as an outreach specialist for Johnson Controls Institute for Environmental Quality in Architecture, and two years as a designer with Boston-based Stephen L. Faulk & Associates.

Aristedes "Ari" Zavaras, a former mayoral candidate and Denver manager of safety, has joined the Denver office of The Durrant Group Inc., an architecture, engineering and project delivery firm.

The role of business development officer was created specially for Zavaras based on his extensive knowledge and success within the corrections industry and his reputation in the public sector, including education, health care and government.

Kevin O'Gara has been promoted by J.E. Dunn Construction Co. as vice president in charge of Colorado Springs operations.

A Colorado Springs resident for 22 years, O'Gara is now responsible for all construction projects and operational aspects of the Colorado Springs office. O'Gara came to J.E. Dunn Construction (formerly Hughes/Smith) in 1994 as a project manager and has experience in all types of commercial construction. His career has involved extensive travel to work on a variety of construction projects in as many as 23 states, as well as Ireland, Scotland and England.

Blake Mourer and Lisa Groelz join Janet Pogue and Greg Lockridge in the Denver office of Gensler as the firm's four LEED-accredited professionals. Mourer and Groelz recently passed their LEED accreditation exam, which tests knowledge of green building practices and principles and familiarity with LEED requirements, resources and processes.

Ken Mauro, E-470 manager of engineering design, was recently recognized as a life member of the American Society of Civil Engineers for the 42 years he spent in the civil engineering profession as a member of the ASCE.

Mauro retired at the end of 2003 after a four-year tenure with the E-470 Public Highway Authority. Highlights of Mauro's work with E-470 include overseeing the design management for E-470's last segment; designing the recently approved north-south fly-by at the I-70/E-470 interchange; developing plans for widening E-470 on the south end near I-25 and C-470; and spearheading other road improvements, including the addition of climbing lanes.

Previously, Mauro worked for the Denver office of engineering firm DMJM and spent 33 years working at CDOT. He retired in 1997 as the state staff design engineer.

Mary Henderson-Reps has joined Quality Electric Inc. as a project coordinator.
Henderson-Reps has worked in the general contracting and construction industry for nearly a decade and has project experience ranging up to $245 million. She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Northern Colorado.

Carter & Burgess Inc. has elected Mark Imhoff and Randy Pierce, PE, as principals of the firm, and J. D. Ingram, PE, as an associate. All are in the firm's Denver transportation programs unit.

Imhoff, vice president and manager of the unit, manages Carter & Burgess' 200-person Colorado transportation practice and oversees the transportation practices in the mountain/southwest region. A civil engineer/transportation planner for 26 years, Imhoff provides expertise in light-rail program development and implementation, bus transit, regional transportation planning and program management. Before he joined Carter & Burgess, Imhoff was director of planning and development of Denver's Regional Transportation District.

Pierce is national manager of design-build transportation programs and a group manager for the unit. He has more than 17 years of experience in design-build delivery, program management, project management, planning and design on several of the nation's largest highway, urban transit and infrastructure projects. Pierce is a specialist in the formulation of capital improvement programs, including developing design-build delivery programs.

Ingram, a project manager, is a civil engineer with more than 14 years in his profession. He has several years of experience in airport design and construction, heavy civil design and construction and land development design.

Kristin Tanabe, PE, has been promoted by Stantec to the position of project engineer in its land development group. Tanabe's seven years of experience include single- and multifamily housing as well as commercial and redevelopment projects.

As a project engineer, she is responsible for the design of roadway layouts, grading schemes, stormwater management and erosion control measures, utility layouts and the coordination and review of development of construction drawings.

Matthew Wardlow, PE, has been hired by CTL/Thompson as an environmental project engineer. Wardlow brings eight years of engineering experience to his position at CTL/T, where he performs environmental site assessments and field investigations and prepares and reviews engineering reports. He has extensive experience in performing and reviewing phase one environmental site assessments as well as evaluating brownfields for purchase and redevelopment.

MKK Consulting Engineers Inc. has announced the recent promotions of two associates to principal and four employees to associate.

Lisa Hughey and Craig Watts, PE, have been promoted to principal.

Hughey has been with MKK for 19 years. She is a senior project manager and the leader of one of the teams at MKK's Englewood headquarters. Her experience in project management includes working directly with owners in the prime consultant role, as well as working for architects to provide mechanical and electrical designs.
Her electrical engineering background includes design and construction administration for electrical distribution, standby generator plants, lighting, power, fire protection, security systems, and lightning protection and grounding systems.
Watts has been with MKK for 11 years. He is a licensed professional engineer in the mechanical discipline and the branch manager of MKK's North Denver office. He has extensive experience as a project manager for educational, institutional, commercial and hospitality facilities. Watts heads up MKK's "green design" program, promoting sustainable architecture and LEED-certified projects and mentoring employees seeking LEED accreditation.

Hal Ogle, PE, Tim Junker, PE, Keith Fox, PE and Gregg Moon have been promoted to associate.

Ogle has 21 years of experience as a professional electrical engineer. Before joining MKK in 2002, he was the owner and president of his own engineering consulting firm in Phoenix. His experience includes power, lighting and special systems engineering, design and construction oversight for a variety of projects throughout the United States.

Junker has been with MKK for seven years. A mechanical engineer and experienced project manager, Junker has experience in a variety of markets, including commercial, municipal, educational, health care and telecommunications.

Fox has been with MKK for eight years and has worked as a project manager and professional mechanical engineer out of MKK's Cheyenne office for a variety of commercial, educational, institutional, health care and government projects. Fox has designed projects for Laramie County Community College, University of Wyoming, City of Cheyenne, State of Wyoming and Warren Air Force Base.

Moon is a mechanical engineer in MKK's Cheyenne office. Moon has been with MKK for nine years and has worked as a project manager and project engineer on a variety of health care, transportation, educational, commercial and telecommunications projects.

Pinkard Construction has announced that two veteran employees have become stockholders of the company. Luke Gentrup, vice president of estimating services, has been with the company for 19 years and Jim Mellor, vice president of business development, has been with the company for nine years.

Schmueser Gordon Meyer, a 50-person engineering and surveying firm on the Western Slope, has announced the addition of four members to its team.

Michael Wieczorek, EI, comes to SGM as a civil engineer with six years of engineering experience. Wieczorek, a graduate of Iowa State, is part of SGM's Pitkin County team specializing in the development needs of Pitkin County and the City of Aspen. He previously worked as a consulting engineer for The Engineering Co. in Fort Collins and as a city engineer for the Town of Breckenridge.

John Bonk joins SGM's Pitkin County team as a civil autocad designer with more than 20 years of experience. Bonk previously handled autocad design for several Front Range firms, specializing in national and international civil municipal public works projects.

Melinda Pennington, EI, a graduate of the University of Colorado-Boulder, joins SGM's structural team as a design engineer. Pennington previously worked as a project manager/drafter for Winfrey Architectural Concrete in Erie.

Priska Berkheimer joins SGM as director of marketing with 10 years of experience in marketing and public relations. Berkheimer previously managed marketing efforts, special events and public relations for outdoor publications.

Olson & Olson Ltd. Distinctive Insurance Services has announced changes to its executive officers.

Darrell C.R. Olson, Sr. has been named chairman/chief executive officer. His experience includes serving as president of Olson & Olson Ltd. for the past 20 years.
Olson Sr.'s past experience includes serving as vice president and account executive for the Talbert Corp.; chief underwriter for Commercial Union Insurance Co. and field representative for Loyalty Group Insurance Co.

Darrell C.R. Olson, II has been named president. Olson, II served as an account executive and more recently as senior vice president in charge of sales for Olson & Olson Ltd. for the past 19 years. Before that, he served as a commercial lines underwriter for the St. Paul Insurance Companies.

Lance M. Olson has been named chief operations officer. An account executive at Olson & Olson for eight years, Olson's previous experience includes serving as executive director of the International Meniere's Disease Research Institute and vice president and chairman of finance and education at Denver Christian Schools.

Kevin Penland has returned to Communication Arts Inc. - a Boulder-based multi-disciplinary design firm - as a designer. He originally joined CommArts in 1998. Over the past five years, Penland's work has included environmental graphic design for Disney's Grand California Hotel in Anaheim, Calif.; design of the Sprint World Headquarters in Overland Park, Kan.; and BurJuman Gardens in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Newman Cavender & Doane, specializing in commercial architecture and interior design, has announced several staff additions - Richard Sidoroff, AIA, associate principal; Lauren Zailyk, interior design assistant; and Rochelle Manhart, interior design project manager

The Rocky Mountain business unit of The Weitz Co. has hired a project coordinator and five new project engineers.

Leslie A. Peters joins as a project coordinator. Before joining Weitz, she was a security administrator for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space.

Carmen L. Hays will continue to work as a project engineer for the Rocky Mountain business unit after working for the Nebraska division of The Weitz Co. since 1999.

Luke A. Naughton joins the company as a project engineer. Before joining the Rocky Mountain business unit, Naughton worked for the Florida division of Weitz and Weitz Golf International since 1999.

Victoria A. Salg joins Weitz as a project engineer and will work for the special projects group. Before joining The Weitz Co., Salg worked at Macro-Z-Technology and Modern Continental Construction Co.

Cherie R. Shepherd worked for Weitz as a project engineer intern and now joins the company as a project engineer. Before joining Weitz, Shepherd worked as an engineer for Martin/Martin Consulting Engineers.

Brett B. Rankin joins Weitz as a project engineer in the Colorado Springs office. Before joining The Weitz Co., Rankin worked as a project engineer for Hunt Construction Group and DPR Construction Inc.

Ginger Jones has joined the staff at Humphries Poli Architects PC as a designer.
Originally from Boulder, Jones recently returned to Colorado after completing her master's degree in advanced architectural design from Columbia University in New York. Before her architectural studies, she worked in the field of interior design, where she managed several multimillion-dollar projects.

Colorado Gov. Bill Owens has appointed Thomas M. Walsh of Craig to a four-year term on the Colorado Transportation Commission. Walsh will represent District Six, which includes Moffat, Rio Blanco, Routt, Jackson, Grand, Gilpin and Clear Creek counties.

Anderson Mason Dale Architects has announces several promotions.

Doug Reisbeck, AIA, has been named senior associate. Reisbeck has 30 years of professional experience and has been with AMD since 1995. He is also the director of quality control for the firm.

Michelle Cooper, David Harman, AIA, Roger Johnson, AIA, and Charlie Schmidt, AIA, have been named associates.

Cooper is the marketing coordinator for AMD and has been with the firm for more than seven years. Harman joined Anderson Mason Dale five years ago and is heavily involved in educational design.

Johnson has 32 years of experience and serves as AMD's director of construction administration. Schmidt is a designer with 15 years of professional experience, nine of those with AMD.

Laura Muñiz has been named the small business liaison officer. She is the contact person concerning any potential small business subcontracting opportunities or potential teaming opportunities.

Shannon & Wilson has announced that Bruce Stover has joined its Denver office as an associate. Stover is a professional geologist with more than 20 years of experience interpreting complex geology and developing geotechnical solutions for projects related to geologic hazards - rockfall, mine subsidence, landslides, debris flows and swelling soils - mitigation, dam safety evaluation and repairs, tunneling, mine development, coal and hard rock mine reclamation, water resources, and underground mine and tunnel rehabilitation.

Drahota LLC has announced the promotions of Dan Brown to project engineer and Scott Ranweiler to assistant project manager and that Bo Miller has joined the firm as a site superintendent and Sarah Woods Bucholt has joined as a project engineer.

As a project engineer, Brown is responsible for coordinating projects between the subcontractors and architects, along with pricing change orders, submittals and RFIs.

As an assistant project manager, Ranweiler is responsible for estimating, scheduling and managing The Timbers multifamily project in Fort Collins.

Miller has been in the construction industry for 30 years. He worked his way through the ranks of the construction industry, beginning as a laborer, and has been a site supervisor for the last 14 years.

Bucholt has a bachelor's degree in construction management from Colorado State University and has previous experience working in construction. Her previous job titles include preconstruction assistant, superintendent assistant and office engineer.

MW Golden Constructors of Castle Rock has announced that Jake McClain, estimator, sat for the associate constructor exam in November 2003 and obtained the associate constructor designation.

Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc. has announced the addition of two new staff members.

Robert (Bob) Jones, PE, is a project manager with extensive experience in airport improvement projects for general aviation, air carrier and cargo airports. His responsibilities include overall management of engineering design and construction projects. Jones is based in the SEH Westminster office.

George Walton, PE, is a senior engineer with 15 years of experience in highway design, highway construction and environmental documentation of transportation projects. He has managed and delivered numerous preliminary engineering packages for urban and rural roadway projects. Walton has conducted environmental studies, developed context-sensitive highway design criteria for roads through national parks and managed designs for large-scale design-build contracts. He is currently based in the firm's Cheyenne office.