People and company potpourri: Aercoustics, MMM, SNC-Lavalin, BC Ministry of Transportation awards

John O’Keefe, P.Eng., one of the founders of Aercoustics Engineering in Toronto, has recently retired. O’Keefe is one of Canada’s foremost architectural acousticians, responsible for the acoustic design of many performing arts centres, such as Vancouver’s Orpheum and Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre in Medicine Hat, Alberta, and Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre. The firm, which was launched in 1974, has won several Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards, including the Schreyer Award. Steve Titus is now president and chief executive office of the company.

Bruce Bodden, P.Eng., formerly of MMM Group in Toronto, has been appointed to the board of Infrastructure Ontario, the government body that manages large P3 projects and oversees the province’s real estate portfolio. Bodden will serve for three years on the board. Prior to his retirement he was president and chief executive officer of MMM, based in Toronto. He is also a past-chair of Consulting Engineers Ontario and a past director of ACEC-Canada. He is on the editorial committee of this magazine.

Ian A. Bourne, chair of the board of SNC-Lavalin, has stepped down, effective March 16. Lawrence N. Stevenson, who has been appointed chair of the board in Bourne’s place, thanked him for his significant contribution to the company. Bourne was a director of SNC-Lavalin from 2009, interim chief executive officer from March 2012 to October 2012, and chair of the board from May 2013.

The B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure’s Deputy Minister’s Consulting Engineering Awards were announced early in March. The awards recognize work by consulting engineers in partnership with the Ministry. The Ministry nominates the projects to go forward. Assistant Deputy Minister David Duncan handed out the awards on March 5.

Five first place awards were given:

• CWMM Consulting Engineers won in the design and contract preparation—structures category for the Highway 2, Tupper Creek to 192nd Road project.
• Clean Energy Compression Corp. won in the transit engineering services category for Long-Term CNG Fueling Solutions.
• BGC Engineering won in the specialized engineering services category for Alaska Highway No. 97 South Taylor Hill project.
• McElhanney Consulting won in the design and contract preparation—roads category for the Highway 1, Malahat Safety Improvement Project (Shawnigan Lake Road to Summit Weather Station) project.
• Glacier Technical Services won in the construction management and supervision services category for the Little Sands Bridge Replacement project.

Finalists in the program were McElhanney, Herold Engineering, WSP Canada, Thurber Engineering, Capilano Maritime Design, Associated Engineering, R.F. Binnie & Associates, CMS Construction/Focus, and Tetra Tech.

To see the full results and photos, click here.

John O’Keefe.

Bruce Bodden.

Lawrence Stevenson, SNC-Lavalin.