People News: Alstom, HDR, SMART

Pictured, left to right: Dana Salloum, Alstom; Lee Caragiale and Mike Washington, HDR; and Michael Coleman, International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers.

Alstom elevates Dana Salloum to Chief Communications Officer. Also, HDR adds Lee Caragiale and Mike Washington to its Transportation Equity and Environmental Justice team; and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) elects Michael Coleman as General President.

Alstom

Dana Salloum on May 15 succeeded Bruno Tourne as Alstom’s Chief Communications Officer. Since August 2021, she had served as Vice President of Communication, External Affairs and CSR for the company’s AMECA (Africa, Middle East and Central Asia) region.

Salloum is a 16-year strategic communications veteran in the aeronautical and transportation industries. She studied communications at the University of Southern California and American University in Washington, D.C., and completed a program on leading companies in sustainable development at Oxford University.

HDR

At HDR, Lee Caragiale and Mike Washington have joined the Transportation Equity and Environmental Justice team as Regional Leaders in Canada and the Central United States, respectively.  

Caragiale will be a Transportation Equity Lead based in HDR’s Toronto office. She comes to the firm from Metrolinx, where she served most recently as Manager of Project Planning. Caragiale played an integral role in advancing equity in the organization’s projects and spearheaded the expansion of project evaluation and public outreach.

Working in HDR’s Denver, Colo., office, Washington will help clients develop actionable equity policies. Previously, he was Deputy State Director and Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the office of U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). In this role, Washington developed a framework to incorporate equity into all of the senator’s policies.

“With the recent U.S. federal executive orders on Equity and Environmental Justice, the objectives set forth in the USDOT Equity Action Plan, and the focus on Environmental Justice in Canada, HDR is well poised to continue to lead the industry in North America in this critical area,” HDR Transportation Equity Director Cathy LaFata said.

SMART

Michael Coleman on June 1 assumed the position of SMART General President, following the retirement of Joseph Sellers, who had led the union since 2015.

Coleman began his career as a SMART sheet metal worker in 1985, when he joined what was then Local 65 in Cleveland, Ohio (Local 65 merged with Local 33 soon after). After graduating into journeyperson status and honing his craft for several years, he ran for election as a member of the local’s Executive Board. From there, Coleman became Business Representative, then Local 33 President and Business Manager in 2012.

Seven years later, Coleman moved to Washington, D.C., to work as SMART’s Director of Business and Management Relations, and shortly thereafter was asked by Joseph Sellers to become Assistant to the General President.

“It is the honor of my lifetime to serve this great union—one that has given myself and my family everything we have,” Coleman said. “General President Sellers has worked tirelessly to position this union for success in the future, from winning pro-worker federal legislation to helping oversee the Green Zone certification of the Sheet Metal Workers National Pension Fund. I look forward to building on his legacy and working to advance SMART members’ priorities.”