KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Burns & McDonnell has named its new chief administrative officer and promoted six employee-owners to vice president. These individuals contributed to another record year of growth for the 100% employee-owned engineering, construction and architecture firm that produced $4.3 billion in sales, resulted in the support of more than 15,000 projects and the addition of nearly 1,000 employees.

“In 2019, we experienced strong growth, expanding to more than 50 offices around the world to provide even greater support to our clients,” says Ray Kowalik, chairman and CEO of Burns & McDonnell. “This would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of all our employee-owners. Our new officers have been critical to leading our success and growth — they are game changers within our company and the industries we serve, exemplifying the values of our employee-owned firm.”

After serving as general manager of the California offices for Burns & McDonnell for more than a decade, Renita Mollman has been selected to serve as chief administrative officer. Mollman began her career as a civil engineer at Burns & McDonnell in 1988, providing aviation design and construction services across the U.S. Throughout the next two decades, she supported more than a hundred projects for multiple aviation and military clients. In 2009, she was promoted to general manager for the California region and in 2011 was promoted to vice president. Under her leadership, this regional team grew from just a few employees to more than 250, the firm was named a best place to work seven times in southern California and revenue nearly quadrupled. 

New vice presidents and members of the Burns & McDonnell officer group include the following employee-owners:

Jason Cabral is regional manager of the firm’s Transmission & Distribution (T&D) Group in the Northeast. Cabral’s team of more than 100 project managers, engineers and technical professionals support a wide range of transmission, distribution, substation and network design projects across the U.S. He joined Burns & McDonnell in 2006 as a project manager for high-profile transmission projects in the Northeast, helping major utilities provide safer, more reliable energy to millions of customers. Under his leadership throughout the last two years, the regional T&D Group has grown by nearly 100% and increased T&D revenue in the Northeast to more than $30 million. Additionally, Cabral serves as the firm’s executive in charge for the rapidly expanding offshore wind market.

Mike DeBacker serves as general manager of the Transportation Group at Burns & McDonnell. An industry veteran with nearly 30 years’ experience, DeBacker leads the charge in facilitating market development and delivering high-quality transportation infrastructure nationwide. He has managed and participated in major-capital transportation studies and projects across the nation, including multistate planning projects, complex bridge and highway projects and asset management planning and implementation. DeBacker is a co-champion of the Big 5 transportation initiative, an effort with the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce to develop future transportation strategies for the region. He is also past chairman of the American Council of Engineering Companies for Missouri, a member of the leadership academy of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association and serves in several roles with chambers of commerce and nonprofit organizations.

Kelly Jeffcote serves as director of procurement for Burns & McDonnell. Since assuming her current role in 2016, Jeffcote has skillfully managed supplier relations and developed purchasing strategies, policies and programs for the firm. She currently oversees expenditures throughout the enterprise, leading more than 100 professionals who provide sourcing, contract negotiation, purchasing, expediting, supplier quality, transportation and business diversity services. Prior to serving as director of procurement at the firm’s world headquarters in Kansas City, Jeffcote led procurement efforts for Burns & McDonnell in Houston — the firm’s largest regional office — for eight years.

Chris Norquist serves Burns & McDonnell as director of engineering for the firm’s T&D Group. In this role, Norquist oversees more than 600 design professionals providing substation, transmission and communication solutions for electrical utilities across the U.S. Under his leadership, the team has consistently grown by more than 10% annually. In his previous role, Norquist served as director of transmission projects, where he led a revenue growth of more than 50% in four years. Throughout Norquist’s career, he’s helped foster a culture of excellence and successfully delivered electrical transmission projects for clients nationwide.

Ray Schieferecke is regional manager of the firm’s Construction/Design-Build (CDB) Group for the Rocky Mountain region. After serving as a project manager for six years in the Kansas City office, Schieferecke was promoted to lead the growing CDB team in Denver in 2009. He has played an invaluable role in strengthening the firm’s construction and design-build capabilities across the U.S. and has grown the regional team from four to nearly 50 project controls and construction professionals. Schieferecke’s commitment to excellent client service and project performance translates into the team’s consistent successful execution of major capital projects throughout the U.S.

Scott Strawn serves Burns & McDonnell as the U.S. sales and marketing director for the Energy Group. Since joining the firm as a mechanical engineer in 2006, Strawn served as an account manager for more than 10 years before being promoted to his current role in 2018. Strawn’s ability to develop efficient, comprehensive solutions to meet the demands of the quickly evolving energy market has been essential to his group’s growth and continued success. His wealth of industry insight helps major utilities develop future major capital projects, new generation and renewable initiatives and prudent capital investment strategies that rise to the challenges presented by today’s power industry.

About Burns & McDonnell

Founded by two entrepreneurs in 1898, Burns & McDonnell is a family of companies made up of more than 7,600 engineers, architects, construction professionals, scientists, consultants and innovators with offices across the country and throughout the world. We strive to create amazing success for our clients and amazing careers for our employee-owners. Burns & McDonnell is 100% employee-owned and is proud to be on Fortune’s 2019 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For.