Skanska promotes Aparicio and hires Leintz in Southern California

Skanska USA’s Civil Construction business unit announced the promotion of Mike Aparicio to executive vice president for its western region and the hiring of Mark Leintz as vice president of operations.

Aparicio has been leading Skanska USA Civil’s activities in Los Angeles and will now oversee its entire west coast operations, which includes Los Angeles and Riverside, Calif. and Seattle, Wash.

Aparicio is a third-generation California contractor based in Skanska’s L.A. office. For more than 30 years, he has led some of the largest design-build projects in the west, including the $1 billion Los Angeles Metro Gold Line Projects, and, since joining Skanska, the $575 million Expo Line Phase 2 project. He attended Loyola-Marymount University and Linfield College.

Additionally, Skanska hired Mark Leintz as vice president of operations. Leintz has nearly 30 years of experience in the industry, most recently leading Granite’s large projects group in the west. Starting out as a field engineer, Mark has built his career to oversee work in California, Colorado, Texas, and Florida. Leintz will be based in Skanska’s Los Angeles office, reporting to Aparicio, and will play a key part in Skanska’s pursuit of projects utilizing design-build and other alternative delivery methods. Leintz has a degree in civil engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. BD+C

Before you get your shorts in a knot, I have nothing against science, technology, engineering, or even mathematics; to the contrary, I love all four “STEM” disciplines (I’m lying about the math). But I question whether we need to be building K-12 schools that overly emphasize or are totally devoted to STEM.

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Engineering and construction CEOs are cautiously optimistic about the global economy, says PwC

Firm leaders remain leery about the availability of skilled workers, the state of government debt and deficits, and rising material prices, according to PwC’s 2014 Global CEO Survey.