ORGANIZATIONS – OCTOBER 2017

Convening in Chicago for its Fall Congress, Portland Cement Association announced recipients of the 2017 John P. Gleason, Jr., Leadership Awards. Named for PCA’s president from 1986–2007, they honor individuals in three categories who have exhibited leadership in association activities tied to member company objectives and operations:

Business Continuity. Buzzi Unicem USA Senior Vice President, Technical Services and Government Affairs Daniel Nugent, who has played a key role in industry regulatory and legislative initiatives, including greenhouse gas emissions and other significant issues that impact cement manufacturing. Category finalists: Cemex USA Vice President of Technical Services and Quality Assurance Hamid Farzzam and CalPortland Co. Senior Vice President of Corporate Services Regis.

Market Development. Ash Grove Cement Co. Sustainable Products and Promotion Manager Matt Wood, credited for work at national and local levels to advance such cement-based products or solutions as roller-compacted concrete and full-depth reclamation paving. Category finalists: GCC of America Market Manager David Gray and Lehigh Hanson Inc. Manager of Marketing and Technical Services Larry Rowland.

Young Leaders. Salt River Materials Group Director of Corporate Affairs Ruben Guerrero Jr. for engagement in PCA’s Government Affairs Council, Industry Communications Committee and State Government Affairs Task Force, and helping the industry navigate issues from legislative and regulatory policy affecting a single cement plant to managing public perception about the industry as a whole. Category finalists: CalPortland Co. Environmental Manager Desirea Haggard and Titan America Senior Environmental Manager William Kissel.

“Jay Gleason embodied the spirit of leadership. He was a strong manager and brought a true passion to the job,” says PCA Chairman Allen Hamblen (CalPortland). “The awards given in his honor recognize individuals with that same spirit and who are important to our association and industry.”



Brian Schudiske

Skokie, Ill. consulting, engineering and material science expert CTLGroup has named Brian Schudiske president and chief executive officer. He brings 20 years’ experience in manufacturing, supply chain, operations, and engineering management, and most recently was general manager, U.S. Materials and Manufacturing, for SGS North America Inc. Schudiske takes the helm after Chief Operating Officer Timothy Tonyan’s 12 months of interim leadership. Dr. Tonyan retains his post and will continue to focus on business and client development, project management, and expert leadership promotion.

The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute has named Beth Taylor as chief financial officer. She arrives with 30 years’ experience in nonprofit administration and financial management, most recently serving as chief operations officer for the American Marketing Association, Chicago.

Separately, the group has announced 2017 PCI Journal Award recipients:

  • Martin P. Korn Award, named for PCI’s inaugural executive director, to Amir Botros, Gary Klein, Gregory Lucier, Sami Rizkalla and Paul Zia for their March-April article, “Dapped Ends of Prestressed Concrete Thin-Stemmed Members: Part 1, Experimental Testing and Behavior”;
  • Robert J. Lyman Award, recognizing the article that offers the greatest contribution in the area of precast/prestressed plant production, site erection or general construction, to Maher Tadros, Kromel Hanna, Nader Jaber and Jenna Hansen for the March-April edition’s “Transversely Posttensioned, Pretopped Box-Slab System for Precast Concrete Parking Structures”;
  • Charles C. Zollman Award, honoring the article on the best state-of-the-art precast/prestressed concrete application, to J.P. Binard for “UHPC: A Game-Changing Material for PCI Bridge Producers,” in the March-April 2017 edition; and,
  • George D. Nasser Award, recognizing authors 40 years of age or younger for outstanding papers on design, research, production, or construction, to Amir Botros, Blake Andrews and Kurt Holloway, co-authors with Gary Klein on the March-April article, “Dapped Ends of Prestressed Concrete Thin-Stemmed Members: Part 2, Design.”

The authors will be honored this month at the 2017 PCI Fall Committee Days and Membership Conference in Rosemont, Ill.

The American Concrete Institute has created a new graphic for organizations and individuals to show their support for ACI Certification via e-mail, website, stationery and other materials. Notes ACI Managing Director, Certification John Nehasil, “We hear from finishers, contractors, testing technicians, specifiers, and engineers who find value in these programs, and this graphic provides these supporters with an easy way to show their passion for the concrete industry’s most popular certifications.”

ACI’s 23 certification programs outline a minimum qualification for personnel employed within the concrete construction industry. Certification examinations and optional training courses are conducted through an international network of more than 100 sponsoring groups. Since 1980, ACI has administered exams to more than 555,000 individuals. It currently maintains 100,000-plus certifications.

The Slag Cement Association has launched a mobile-friendly website featuring slag cement-related tools, resources and downloadable materials for concrete producers, engineers and other industry professionals. Along with a guide to suppliers by state, the new www.slagcement.org helps the construction community understand the different applications for the material and performance benefits in finished structures.

The site’s archive of airport, bridge, stadium, highway, soil stabilization, residential, hospital, and building case studies, plus information sheets, help design and engineering professionals specify slag cement for private and public projects. SCA’s recently released Life Cycle Assessment Calculator, also part of free site download resources, is used to quantify and interpret cradle-to-gate LCA environmental impacts of ready-mixed concrete mixtures with and without slag cement.