Engineering Influence from ACEC

Introducing Adam Jones, Incoming NAECE President

We sat down with Adam Jones, ACEC SC Executive Director, and incoming NAECE President on what he expects to accomplish during his tenure in the position.

Introducing the Market Briefings Intel for Engineers

The Engineering Influence Podcast from ACEC National is thrilled to announce a new series called "Market Briefings for Engineers." Scheduled to be launched online on February 21st, this series was crafted after thoughtful feedback from our engaged member community. We designed it to provide relevant market intelligence, focusing on significant trends, legislation, and opportunities impacting today's markets.
Register for our first event here: https://www.acec.org/event/market-briefings-the-growing-energy-market/ 
The Market Briefings Engineers will delve into crucial areas like vertical infrastructure, construction spending, AE revenues, and more, all the while offering expert interviews, insight into our industry, and comprehensive five-year forecasts. Our series aims to deliver valuable insider intel, zeroing in on growth markets using data derived from extensive ACEC research.
We will explore major growth areas anticipated for the next five years, including energy, office, healthcare and life sciences, data centers, and telecommunications. Our inaugural session on February 21st will discuss trending topics in the energy market, including renewable alternatives, power plant development, and more. Future sessions will cover topics such as adaptive reuse, trends in healthcare and life sciences, and the growth of data centers and telecommunications.
Each session is expertly curated to deliver information about robust market sectors by presenting panels of clients, developers, and industry experts. We aim to benefit our members by highlighting opportunities, trends, and areas set for growth. To further the cause, we also plan to offer recordings of each session so that you can catch up whenever you want.
We encourage you to join us on this enlightening journey and look forward to your participation this year. If you need more information, please don't hesitate to reach out to us directly.

Catching up with our Board Chair, Jay Wolverton

We sat down with our Board Chair Jay Wolverton to catch up on a busy year of activity at ACEC.  We discussed the results of the recent Executive Committee meeting, the work of the new workforce committee and more.  

Introducing 2024-2025 Chair-Elect John Rathke

John A. Rathke, PE, SE, FACEC – Wisconsin Vice President and Principal, Mead & Hunt, Inc. Chair-Elect, 2024-2025, Chair 2025-2026
John Rathke is a Vice President and Principal at Mead & Hunt, Inc., in Wisconsin. He completed his term as Vice Chair on the ACEC Executive Committee at the Annual Convention in June 2023. John was previously inducted into the College of Fellows in 2019.
He has served on the Planning Cabinet from 2021 to 2023, responsible for determining metrics to measure progress in achieving the ACEC Strategic Plan Goals and to explore whether ACEC is devoting enough resources to the water and energy markets. The latter ultimately resulted in the forming of a new Energy Committee to focus on the engineering business of the energy market.
John is active on ACEC’s Transportation Committee and Risk Management Committee. He has served as National Director and ACEC/Wisconsin Chair-Elect, Chairman of the Board, and Nominating Committee Chair. He holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Platteville.

A Conversation with Rodney Chester - Chair of ACEC's new Workforce Committee

We sat down with Gresham Smith's Rodney Chester, Chair of the ACEC Workforce Committee, to discuss his plans for the new group.

Introducing 2024-2026 Vice-Chair James Hoffman

James P. Hoffman, PE, LEED AP O+M, CEM – Metropolitan Washington President, Summer Consultants, Inc. Vice Chair (2024-2026)
Jim Hoffman is President of Summer Consultants, Inc., a small business providing mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection engineering and commissioning services for designing government, institutional, and historic facility projects. Jim is a mechanical engineer with nearly 35 years of experience including heating, air conditioning, refrigeration, steam, plumbing, and automatic temperature control systems.
He holds a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a Masters of Engineering Management from The George Washington University.
Before joining Summer Consultants, Jim served as a combat engineer officer in the U.S. Army with the 317th Engineer Battalion from 1989 to 1992. In addition to his engineering credentials, Jim is a LEED accredited professional and a certified energy manager.
He served as Chair of the ACEC Federal Agencies & Procurement Advocacy Committee and is a member of the Executive Committee of the ACEC Small Firm Coalition. He is also the Immediate Past Chair of ACEC Metropolitan Washington.

An Introduction to Gary Raba, ACEC Chair-Elect

Gary W. Raba. leads organic and inorganic growth for Raba Kistner, Inc. (RK).
Before taking this responsibility, Gary served as CEO of Raba Kistner, Inc. He has also served as COO of Raba-Kistner, Inc., and COO of a new startup division, Raba-Kistner Infrastructure, Inc. Gary was CEO during the 2018 sale of RK to private equity firm Crescent Capital of Brisbane, Australia, and served on the RK Executive Committee during the subsequent transaction to the Family Office of KIWA, Rijswijk, the Netherlands, in 2020. Gary has served in multiple board, committee, and volunteer roles for ACEC-Texas and ACEC National. Gary has been in engineering for 35 years and is licensed in several states.

An Introduction to 2024-2026 ACECVice-Chair, Sean McCone

Sean McCone, PE, CCM – MarylandExecutive Vice President and Board Member at Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson, Inc.Vice Chair (2024-2026)
Sean McCone is an Executive Vice President and Board Member at Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson, Inc. (JMT), an employee-owned firm, that provides a full range of multi-disciplined engineering, architectural, and related services. Sean serves as the Chief Strategy Officer, focusing on corporate strategy, particularly around technology, innovation, change management, and company-wide process improvement. He has over 27 years of experience in the industry.
Sean received his Bachelor of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
An active member of ACEC/MD, he has served on several committees, chairing the Legislative and CEPAC committees. In 2015, Sean was appointed by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to serve on the Task Force to Study Small and Minority Design Firm Participation in State Procurement. He is the current vice chair of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging Committee for ACEC National. His numerous publications include an article in ASCE’s Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, and a textbook published by Prentice Hall on construction dispute resolution techniques.
Outside of the engineering industry, he has held philanthropic volunteer and leadership positions at the Al Cesky Scholarship Fund, the 21St Century Education Foundation, ACE Mentor Program, Boy Scouts of America, Lake Shore Youth Baseball, March of Dimes, and GBMC Foundation