Moles, Beavers Bestow Top Honors

Each January, the Beavers and the Moles pay homage to the men and women who have served the industry throughout their careers with their annual awards ceremonies. The Moles, an East Coast based fraternal organization founded in 1937, began the annual tradition of bestowing awards in 1941. The Beavers, the Moles’ West Coast counterpart, was founded in 1955 and started its annual awards in 1956.

A look back at past award winners reveals a Who’s Who of industry luminaries in the tunneling and heavy civil construction sectors. We offer our congratulations to the winners!

Golden Beaver Awards

Wilford Clyde of Clyde Companies, 2015 President of The Beavers, has announced the selections for the 2016 Golden Beaver Awards, which will be presented at the 61st Annual Awards Dinner to be held Friday, Jan. 22, 2016, at the J. W. Marriott at LA Live in Los Angeles. The guest speaker at the event will be Steve Forbes.

Golden-Beaver-Management-Grewcock The Management Award will be presented to Bruce E. Grewcock, Chairman and CEO of Kiewit Corporation. An engineering graduate of the Colorado School of Mines, Grewcock joined Kiewit in 1982 as chief engineer at Black Butte Mine in Wyoming. He was subsequently promoted to vice president and operations manager. In 1992 Grewcock was named president of Kiewit Mining Group, including responsibilities for the company’s construction materials and quarries operations. Construction operations were added in 1994, the same year he was elected as a director. Grewcock was named president and COO in 2000, assuming the CEO role in 2005 and added the chairman title in 2013. Under his guidance as CEO, Kiewit’s revenues have increased from $4.1 billion in 2005 to a record of nearly $12 billion in 2013.

Golden-Beaver-Supervision-Donnino Michael F. Donnino, Senior Vice President and Large Projects Division Manager of Granite Construction Inc., will receive the Supervision Award. A civil engineering graduate of the University of Minnesota, he began his 43-year career as a surveyor. Donnino progressed through positions as an estimator, then various roles in project engineering and project management before being named Area Manager in 1991, followed by regional and national responsibilities for Granite. He oversaw the reorganization of the company to form the Large Projects Group, which involves all heavy civil infrastructure projects over $50 million.

Golden-Beaver-Engineering-Essex The Engineering Award will be presented to Randall J. Essex, Executive Vice President and Director of Professional Excellence for Hatch Mott MacDonald. The former Director of Tunneling for the firm, Essex has been involved in the planning, design, construction engineering or dispute resolution of over 160 tunnels on a worldwide basis during his 34-year career. A graduate of the University of Rochester with master’s degrees from the University of California Berkeley, Essex currently serves as the U.S. representative to the International Tunneling Association and is a past Chairman of the ASCE Underground Technology Research Council.

Golden-Beaver-Service-Supply-Hecker Susan Hecker, Executive Vice President and National Director of Contract Surety for Gallagher Construction Services, a division of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., will receive the Service & Supply Award. She started her career with Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, where she rose to become Branch Manager of the San Francisco office, the company’s largest office nationwide, and under her guidance and relationships with major contractors, the most profitable. In 1997 she joined Lamberson Koster & Co., which had been acquired by Arthur J. Gallagher the previous year, and transitioned into the role of surety broker, where she has earned a reputation as a trusted advisor, consultant and partner to many contractors. Hecker is serving as the 2015-16 President of the National Associate of Surety Bond Producers.

Moles Awards

Moles---Corwin Arthur B. Corwin, President and CEO of Moretrench American Corp., Rockaway, New Jersey, and Wayne E. Jones, Project Manager for Traylor Bros. Inc., Evansville, Indiana, have been selected for top honors by The Moles, one of the industry’s foremost construction organizations. The awards will be presented at The Moles’ Annual Award dinner at the New York Hilton on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016. Corwin will accept The Moles Member Award and Jones will receive the Moles Non-Member Award.

Corwin earned his A.A.S. degree from SUNY at Farmingdale and his B.S. in civil engineering from Polytechnic University of New York in 1979. Corwin has since dedicated his entire career to the growth and success of specialty geotechnical contractor Moretrench American. He has served in progressively challenging engineering and executive capacities, including: election to the Board of Directors in 1988; appointed President and Chief Operating Officer in 2003; CEO in 2007; and Chairman of the Board in 2010. His leadership has placed Moretrench in the forefront of the geotechnical construction industry. Moretrench is widely recognized for its successful resolution of complex issues including the challenging Northern Boulevard Crossing of the East Side Access project, which required multiple techniques to facilitate SEM tunnel mining, including jet grouting and compaction and compensation grouting in conjunction with ground freezing. Corwin is Treasurer of the General Contractors Association of New York and serves on the Board of Associated Construction Contractors of New Jersey in addition to serving on the boards of several companies in the construction industry. During his 25-year membership with The Moles, Corwin has served in many capacities including President (2012) and Trustee (2013-present).

Moles---Jones Jones, a Captain of the U.S. Army Reserve (retired), served for a period exceeding 19 years. Jones joined the private sector in 1978 with Harbert Construction/Harbert International and during his tenure, garnered high praise for two major Central American contracts with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: the construction of the 1,700-man Central American Regional Training Center in Honduras and the Pomerola Military Airbase near Comayagua. Utilizing local labor promoted good will in the community and both projects were completed without disruption to active base operations. In 1995, Jones joined Traylor Bros. Inc. and has successfully managed major innovative and challenging marine projects including the Braddock Dam; Neuse River Bridge; IHNC Approach Walls (New Orleans); the post-Katrina $1 billion Lake Borgne barrier in New Orleans, for which he was awarded ENR’s 2013 Man of the Year Award of Excellence; and the Corps of Engineers’ New Orleans Permanent Canal Closure Pump Stations, a joint venture project by Kiewit, Traylor and Pittman.

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