The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) made three executive-level appointments in March. Darcy Buryniuk was appointed chief program management officer. He will spearhead the agency’s capital program. Ilyssa DeCasperis was named chief people officer, responsible for building out key areas for strategic growth, including talent acquisition, performance management and learning and development. Ray Sosa was promoted to chief planning officer. He brings more than 25 years of experience in transportation project planning at local, national and international levels.

Jerry Avalos has been named president of Vanir Construction Management Inc., Sacramento, Calif. He started his career at Vanir 25 years ago as a project manager in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Burns & McDonnell announced several promotions. Zach Herrington was promoted to senior vice president and leader of the Americas West region. Herrington will lead the firm’s business in the Western U.S., including the California, Southwest and Mountain regions. Pablo L. Lorenzo was named vice president and manager of the aviation and federal group. Over the last five years, he has focused on building the firm’s California aerospace business into a multimillion-dollar practice. Kevin Sepulveda was named director of commercial construction for Burns & McDonnell’s California region. He previously served as construction department manager and project manager in food and consumer products.

Trevor Coffey has been promoted to senior vice president, overseeing HITT’s offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Clara, Calif.

Tony Ramm has been promoted to senior vice president of manufacturing at Roseburg in Springfield, Ore. Ramm joined the firm in May 2014 as plant manager and most recently served as senior vice president of human resources.

Kristine Thorpe has been hired as vice president of marketing and communications at consulting firm Dudek, Encinitas, Calif. She brings nearly 25 years of AEC industry experience in sales, marketing and business development.

Joining HNTB Corp. as a vice president in the firm’s advisory practice in Los Angeles is Andrea Meyerowitz. Keith Collins also was hired as West region business development leader for sports architecture. He is also based in Los Angeles.

Payman Tehrani has been hired as a principal and vice president with Simpson Gumpertz & Heger’s (SGH) structural mechanics and materials division, based in San Jose, Calif. He was previously principal engineer and director of engineering at SC Solutions.

Annie Kao has been promoted to vice president of strategic partnerships and engagement at Simpson Strong-Tie, based in Pleasanton, Calif. She most recently served as vice president of engineering.

WSP announced two promotions in Seattle. Ginette Lalonde was appointed vice president, West region water deputy for operations. She was most recently local business lead for water in Washington state. Kelsey Hinsperger was named vice president, local business leader for water in Washington. She had been wastewater market sector lead for the firm’s Pacific Mountain West states.

Orange, Calif.-based AO has announced several promotions. Ruba Awad-Moran was named partner in AO’s interiors studio; Paolo Leon was elevated to partner in the multifamily studio; and William (Bill) Perkins was promoted to principal. Additionally, five individuals were promoted to senior associate: Damian Daniel, Christopher Gutierrez, José Ho, Ryan Labrum and José Mendez.

Jenn Chen has been promoted to partner at LMN Architects in Seattle. She is the first interior designer to join the firm’s partnership.

Seattle-based Graphite Design Group has hired Alex Shapleigh as design principal and retail market specialist. Most recently, Shapleigh led REI Co-op’s in-house store design and visual merchandising teams.

Lamar Johnson Collaborative (LJC) has announced two new hires on its West Coast industrial team based in Los Angeles. Cory Adams has joined LJC as regional industrial market leader and principal. He was previously director of architecture at Ware Malcomb. Michael Gee has been hired as an associate principal, providing leadership and business financial management.

Chee Keong Lin has been elevated to health studio leader at SmithGroup, based in San Francisco. Lin leads a wide range of health care projects across Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.

Alexa Braun has joined Arup as Americas management consultancy leader based in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Gilbane Building Co. has announced two promotions: Shaik Sihabuddin is elevated to operations manager in San Jose, Calif., and Rich Arndt has been promoted to senior project executive in Reno, Nev.

Quattrocchi Kwok Architects (QKA) has announced several additions to its Oakland, Calif., office. Ector Mojica will serve as studio lead, Elias Vasquez as project designer and Elizabeth Watt as job captain.

Ware Malcomb promoted Akanksha Singh to studio manager, science and technology in Pleasanton, Calif. He joined its advanced manufacturing group in 2017.

Parametrix announced a series of West Coast new hires. Andrew Merges has rejoined as a senior consultant in Seattle and Craig Buitrago also returned as a senior consultant, based in Puyallup, Wash. Samir El-Hage has also joined the firm in Seattle as a senior intelligent traffic systems consultant. At the San Diego office, Ryan Whipple has been hired as a senior consultant and mobility lead. Additionally, Ghazal Hasani was hired as a senior planner and Sandra Frimpong as a senior bridge engineer. Michael Horntvedt has been promoted to operations manager in Bremerton, Wash.

CA White has joined the Lease Crutcher Lewis’ education team in Portland, Ore., as a project executive. He brings more than 30 years of construction experience, mostly in delivering K-12 projects across the Pacific Northwest.

Keith Phillips was appointed group general superintendent at JE Dunn Construction in Portland, Ore., to oversee Northwest field operations. Kyle Chase was named project director in San Jose, Calif. He has spent the last decade at JE Dunn. In his new role, Chase provides strategic leadership on projects and client relations.

Coffman Engineers Inc. has elevated Christopher Haight to general manager of the Orange County office in Newport Beach, Calif. He joined Coffman in 2017 following its acquisition of Hope-Amundson Inc.

Betty Lynn Senes has joined DPR Construction as a project executive based in Newport Beach, Calif. She currently serves as president of the Design Build Institute of America, Western Pacific region.

Tangram Interiors has promoted Lora Apodaca to director of business development. She joined the firm in 2017 as an executive assistant and shifted to the business development team in 2021.

Professional services firm STV has named Eugene Kim as senior vice president and California area manager in its Transportation West group. He formerly led West Coast transportation business at AECOM and also served as deputy executive officer of mobility corridors at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro). Paul Dutton also joined the firm in Seattle as senior geotechnical and tunneling engineer. He was an associate at Mott MacDonald. Nathan Nagai was hired as a senior architect. He most recently worked as a senior project designer at Perkins+Will.

RS&H has hired Alex Howard as principal consultant to lead company resilience and sustainability projects in its Northwest region based in Portland, Ore. Most recently, she worked at the Port of Portland, where she led an airport resilience program, advanced the Portland International Airport Resilient Runway project and formed a new public affairs policy program.