KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Burns & McDonnell has promoted 12 employee-owners to the Principal Group across the U.S. Representing less than 2% of the engineering, construction and architecture firm’s employees worldwide, principals are selected based on demonstrated exceptional performance and technical excellence, as well as acknowledgement of future leadership roles contributing to the success of Burns & McDonnell.

“Principal leaders are the core of innovation and leadership and will propel our firm forward in the years to come,” says Ray Kowalik, chairman and CEO, Burns & McDonnell. “By going above and beyond to make our clients and communities successful, these 12 individuals epitomize what it means to be an employee-owner at Burns & McDonnell. With vast knowledge, experience and dedication, they are champions of progress at our firm, across the industries we serve and throughout the communities in which we live and work.”

Members of the Burns & McDonnell class of 2020 Principals include the following employee-owners:

Shawn Briggs, Project Director for the Transmission & Distribution Group

Shawn Briggs serves as project director of engineer-procure-construct (EPC) projects within the firm’s Transmission & Distribution Group. He has more than 28 years of experience in the development, permitting, engineering, procurement and construction of power generation, electrical transmission, industrial, facility and environmental projects worldwide. As a leader in three key roles — enterprise account manager, account manager and EPC project director — Briggs plays a vital role in the group’s sustained success and actively pursues EPC projects in new and growing international markets, including the U.K., Chile and Mexico.

Darrell Butler, Manager of the Columbus, Ohio, Office

Darrell Butler is manager of the Burns & McDonnell office in Columbus, Ohio. With nearly 20 years of engineering, construction and project management experience, Butler leads a team of more than 30 multidiscipline professionals supporting oil and gas, mission-critical facilities, power generation, electrical transmission and distribution, water and wastewater, manufacturing, and environmental permitting and remediation projects across the Upper Midwest. Under Butler’s leadership, Burns & McDonnell has managed hundreds of millions of dollars in design and construction projects across Ohio throughout the past three years.

Rob Darnell, Regional Manager of the Aviation & Federal Group

Rob Darnell serves as regional manager of the Aviation & Federal Group in the firm’s Minneapolis-St. Paul office. With more than three decades of diverse experience, Darnell leads a team of multidiscipline engineers, architects and construction professionals in delivering innovative, cost-effective solutions to clients nationwide. Darnell has led and supported federal, higher education, data center, mission-critical, cleanroom, high-tech and manufacturing facility planning, design, construction and commissioning projects nationwide and is a registered professional engineer in 27 states.

William Garcia, Construction Manager in the Construction/Design-Build Group

William Garcia serves as construction manager within the Construction/Design-Build Group. A seasoned professional with more than two decades of experience managing large-scale construction projects nationwide, Garcia specializes in utility system expansions, commercial buildings and industrial facilities. His nearly 40-year career spans utility system expansions for large campus developments, installation of commercial window systems in high-rise buildings and large facilities and fabrication and installation of commercial, retail and residential casework/millwork.

Kent Herzog, Managing Director of 1898 & Co.

Kent Herzog is managing director in the Northeast for 1898 & Co., part of Burns & McDonnell. In his current role, he leads a team of nearly 40 professionals providing utility, technology and management consulting services. With more than two decades of advisory, engineering and construction experience, Herzog has developed, directed and consulted on billions of dollars in projects. He is a trusted advisor to generation and transmission developers across the country.

John Hesemann, Remediation Department Manager in the Environmental Services Group

John Hesemann leads the firm’s remediation services within the Environmental Services Group. A geological and environmental remediation engineer with more than 20 years of experience, Hesemann has served as project manager, lead engineer or project engineer on more than 100 remediation projects in 20 states. As leader of remediation at Burns & McDonnell, Hesemann supports nationwide strategy development, field implementation and optimization efforts for environmental remediation technologies to help clients address a wide variety of contaminants, including petroleum hydrocarbons, chlorinated ethenes and methanes, radionuclides, energetics, metals and inorganics.

Danny Kaminsky, Project Director for the Transmission & Distribution Group

Danny Kaminsky serves as project director and account manager for one of the Transmission & Distribution Group’s largest clients. With a background in high-voltage substation design, Danny now oversees operations across four business units, including electric transmission, distribution modernization, networks integration and natural gas pipelines. Highly experienced in EPC and program management delivery, he directs a team of nearly 140 engineers, designers and project management professionals in Burns & McDonnell offices across the globe.

Jason Mayyak, Regional Manager of the Transmission & Distribution Group

Jason Mayyak is regional manager of the firm’s Transmission & Distribution Group for the northwestern U.S. Since joining Burns & McDonnell in 2009, Mayyak has taken on new and increasingly challenging work and responsibility, now leading a team of more than 100 professionals across two offices, supporting clients in the Rocky Mountain region, Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska and western Canada. Currently, Mayyak and his team are executing more than $25 million in engineering services and more than $30 million in design-build projects per year.

Kyle Roberts, Civil Department Manager in the Aviation & Federal Group

Kyle Roberts leads civil design and construction projects within the Aviation & Federal Group, and oversees one of the largest civil engineering departments at Burns & McDonnell. Since starting his career at the firm in 2004, Roberts has contributed to more than 400 federal-, aviation- and industrial- sector projects as a civil engineer, master planner and project manager, including work throughout the U.S. and internationally in Iraq, Afghanistan, Australia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Morocco and the U.K. He works closely with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Air Force Civil Engineer Center, Air Force and Army National Guards, Federal Aviation Administration, various Departments of Transportation, City and Public Works administrations and international clients in support of U.S. government programs.

Gustavo Rodriguez, Regional Manager of the Transmission & Distribution Group

Gustavo Rodriguez serves as regional manager of the firm’s Transmission & Distribution Group in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. Since assuming his leadership role in 2015, Rodriguez has been instrumental in quickly and effectively building one of the strongest production teams in the nation — growing the regional group from just a few to more than 40 professionals. He has led his group strategically through profitable growth while maintaining high levels of quality and service in complex electric power grid infrastructure projects across Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia and the Northeast.

Kathy Smink, Procurement Department Manager in the Construction/Design-Build Group

Kathy Smink leads procurement for the firm’s Construction/Design-Build Group in Houston, Texas. Within this role, she leads more than 30 procurement professionals who are instrumental to the success of EPC/design-build projects across the U.S. In addition to leading the group’s procurement team, Smink has served as project procurement manager on several of the Houston office’s most critical projects, among the more than 200 projects she has contributed to throughout her career with the firm.

Eric Walters, Cybersecurity and IT Department Manager for Burns & McDonnell

Eric Walters leads cybersecurity and IT infrastructure management for Burns & McDonnell. In his role, Walters is responsible for development and enhancement of the firm’s information security strategy, program, policies and procedures. With more than 20 years of experience, Walters’ multi-industry background includes healthcare cross-disciplinary compliance and privacy, software development, information security program management, cybersecurity managed services, federal government IT cloud deployments and global transition operations.

About Burns & McDonnell

Burns & McDonnell is a family of companies bringing together an unmatched team of 7,600 engineers, construction professionals, architects, planners, technologists and scientists to design and build our critical infrastructure. With an integrated construction and design mindset, we offer full-service capabilities with more than 55 offices, globally. Founded in 1898, Burns & McDonnell is a 100% employee-owned company and proud to be on Fortune’s 2020 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. Learn how we are on call through it all.