People News: Burns, Bentley Systems, KCS, SEPTA, Cummins

From left to right: VP of Burns' Railroad and Transit Practice Tony Koltuv; Bentley Systems Chief Revenue Officer Brock Ballard; Bentley Systems Investor Relations Officer Eric Boyer; KCS LEAD–Operations and LRW Awards Chair Denise Williams; and Cummins Vice President and Chief Technical Officer Jim Fier.

Tony Koltuv joins Burns Engineering (Burns) as Vice President of the company’s Railroad and Transit Practice. Also, Bentley Systems announces promotion of Brock Ballard to Chief Revenue Officer and Eric Boyer joining as Investor Relations Officer; The League of Railway Women (LRW) selects Kansas City Southern’s (KCS) LEAD–Operations Denise Williams as Awards Chair; the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) appoints Emmanuella Myrthil new Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer; and Jim Fier retires from Cummins Inc. after 36 years with the company.

Burns

Burns announced Jan. 3 that Tony Koltuv, PMP, has been named Vice President of the company’s Railroad and Transit Practice.

With more than 25 years of transportation project management experience, Koltuv brings “a unique ability to untangle the logistical, organizational and technical challenges that commonly ensnare capital programs,” Burns said. “Koltuv is widely respected as a results-oriented consensus builder, unifying stakeholders and motivating his teams to guide the industry’s most ambitious rail system improvements.”

“We are delighted Tony will be leading our Railroad and Transit practice during a period of significant growth and opportunity,” said Burns President and CEO Matt Burns. “Tony has built a stellar industry reputation through his relentless pursuit of rail safety progress and system performance. Tony truly embodies Burns’ dedication to engineering excellence.”

Koltuv joins Burns as the company celebrates the retirement of outgoing Vice President Daren Petroski, PE. “We are deeply grateful for Daren’s visionary leadership and wish him the best during his next chapter,” the company stated.

“I have long respected Burns’ amazing engineering talents. It is an honor to lead this incredible team,” Koltuv said. “I look forward to collaborating with our clients and partners, advancing next-generation rail technologies and transit system modernization initiatives across the country.”

Burns is a provider of specialized railroad and transit engineering services, “bringing highly technical, sought-after expertise to complex transportation and critical infrastructure projects.”

Bentley Systems

Infrastructure engineering software company Bentley Systems announced Jan. 4 that Brock Ballard, previously Vice President and Regional Executive, Americas, has been promoted to the role of Chief Revenue Officer; and Eric Boyer has joined the company as Investor Relations Officer. Ballard succeeds newly retired Gus Bergsma who joined Bentley Systems’ acquisition of RAM International in 2005.

Prior to joining Bentley Systems in 2020, Ballard served in sales leadership positions with Dassault Systèmes, Autodesk and Océ, after earning a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Information Sciences from the University of Alabama in 2001. He reports to COO Nicholas Cumins, who said:

“In addition to leading our Americas account teams to unprecedented ARR growth, Brock has driven our Enterprise 365 subscription program globally, to reach new levels of business partnership with many of the world’s largest infrastructure engineering firms and owner-operators. Brock’s energy, resourcefulness, and collegial leadership have been proven through business development opportunities with our accounts to advance infrastructure by going digital. While we will all miss Gus Bergsma, we congratulate him upon his long-earned retirement and thank him for his relentless focus on delivering success and establishing a high-performing account advancement organization, preparing Brock for success in 2023 and beyond.”

Boyer brings more than 20 years of experience in investor relations and equity research, a deep knowledge of capital markets, and a strong network of relationships. During his tenure as Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations at IHS Markit Ltd., which was a global information services leader, its market capitalization increased from $8 billion to $44 billion, according to the company. He was also consistently recognized by Institutional Investor as a leading IR professional.

Prior to Boyer’s investor relations career, he spent more than a decade as a sell-side equity analyst at Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank, where he covered various technology and related services sectors and was recognized by The Wall Street Journal’s “Best on the Street” survey for his stock selections. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Logistics and International Business from Penn State University in 1999. Boyer will report to CEO Greg Bentley.

“We could not have come nearly so far without Gus’s indefatigable resolve and empathy for both infrastructure engineers, where he started professionally himself, and for our colleagues whose successful careers in sales he, in many cases, launched, and certainly exemplified,” said Bentley. “Gus has shown the way from cofounding a startup to achieving Bentley Systems’ billion-dollar revenue milestone as a public company. And we now welcome Eric Boyer as our inaugural Investor Relations Officer, reporting directly to me. Eric combines a wealth of experience and strategic acumen to help us create a world-class investor relations function. I look forward to working very closely with Eric to extend and improve our outreach and communications with the investment community globally.”

KCS

KCS announced Jan. 4 via a LinkedIn post that Denise Williams, MBA, CPCM, CRIS, LEAD–Operations has been selected to serve as LRW’s Awards Chair.

Williams joined KCS in 2018 as the Purchasing Compliance Manager and in 2021 was one of seven participants selected for the KCS LEAD (Learn, Engage, Accelerate, Deliver) program where she has spent a year in Health, Safety and Environmental followed by her current rotation (second of three) in Operations, including Network Operations, Transportation, Mechanical and Engineering.

Williams holds a B.A. in Management and Human Relations from MidAmerica Nazarene University and an M.B.A. from Missouri Western State University, as well as a master’s certificate in Commercial Contract Management from Villanova University.

SEPTA

SEPTA announced Jan. 4 that Emmanuella Myrthil has been appointed as the agency’s Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer. She will report to SEPTA General Manager and CEO Leslie S. Richards.

According to SEPTA, the Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer is a newly created role that demonstrates the agency’s “commitment to ensure a healthy, vibrant and rewarding environment for everyone who works at or does business with the Authority.”

Myrthil is tasked with “continuing to build and cultivate a culture within SEPTA that promotes inclusion, diversity, equity and access for employees, customers, vendors, contractors and diverse communities,” the agency said. She will provide the vision, leadership and direction for SEPTA’s diversity and equity programs, including the Diversity, Equity and Belonging (DEB) strategy and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) programs. Myrthil will also provide counsel and guidance to the SEPTA Board and management team, and report on SEPTA’s equal opportunity compliance and equity-related statistics, both to them and to outside regulatory agencies.

Myrthil comes to SEPTA from HNTB, where she served as Division Diversity Director for the company’s Southeast Division. At HNTB, Myrthil worked to “change business as usual practices to remove barriers and expand access for minority businesses, as well as diversify small business participation in transportation projects throughout the Southeast.” To “create greater cultural effectiveness, shared learning and increased engagement,” she piloted an Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Allyship program at the company, and implemented a social responsibility employee resource group and adoption program to support Atlanta’s Thomasville Heights Elementary School community.

Myrthil brings more than 18 years of experience in the transportation industry. Prior to joining HNTB, she was the DBE manager for the Georgia Department of Transportation. She has also been active in the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO), Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS), the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), and was named Engineering Georgia’s 100 Top Influential Women in 2021 and 2022. Myrthil earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from the State University of New York at New Paltz.

“I am extremely proud of SEPTA’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts,” said SEPTA General Manager and CEO Leslie S. Richards. “I am excited that Emmanuella Myrthil will continue to build on that foundation to further strengthen SEPTA as an organization that is diverse, inclusive and enables all people to get equal opportunities. Her experience and values make her the ideal person to take on this new role and advance our commitment to creating a more trusting and culturally competent environment for our employees, our customers, and the communities we serve,” Richards added.

Cummins

Cummins announced Jan. 4 that Vice President and Chief Technical Officer Jim Fier will be retiring at the end of March after 36 years with the company. Vice President of New Power Engineering Jonathan Wood will succeed Fier as Chief Technical Officer, effective April 1.

Fier spent his entire career of 36 years at Cummins, leaving his mark on the company’s products and people. He began his Cummins career as a service engineer, then worked in current product support, new product introduction and R&T, “gaining broad technical knowledge and leadership experience, while accelerating the development and launch of the company’s market-leading engine platforms and innovations,” the company said.

Serving as Chief Technical Officer since 2019, Fier played a key role in “ensuring Cummins innovates and delivers the right solutions to its customers at the right time,” the company said. “His leadership of simulation-based product development has bolstered Cummins’ ability to develop products that address the critical needs of our customers, meet the more stringent requirements of emissions and position the company to lead during the energy transition.” In addition, Cummins says, Fier and his global teams have led Cummins’ key initiatives to address the global climate crisis, including PLANET 2050 and Destination Zero, the company’s zero emissions strategy.

“I am grateful for Jim’s leadership and friendship and his commitment to delivering on our brand promise to our customers, advocacy in building our global technical capability and advancing our diversity, equity and inclusion work,” said Cummins President and CEO Jennifer Rumsey. “His legacy at Cummins will be felt for many years to come.”

Wood, who is based in the United Kingdom, joined Cummins in 1994 as part of the Cummins Turbo Technologies (CTT) Aftermarket and Service team. His more recent roles include Executive Director, Engineering–Turbo Technologies at CTT, Executive Director, Engineering–Emission Solutions, and Vice President–Components Engineering. Wood is “a skilled and collaborative leader and strategic thinker and these attributes led to Cummins’ successful Components business effort to meet Global VI emissions regulations,” according to the company.

During his time with CTT, Wood was based in Wuxi, China, while leading the Asia Engineering Organization, and served as the Europe ABO Technical Leader from 2017 to 2022. “His global perspective, collaborative approach, keen technical skills and customer experience are a tremendous asset to Cummins,” the company said.  Throughout his career, Wood has developed global engineering teams and championed diversity and inclusion across the technical organization.

Wood has master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sheffield, is a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Wood will continue to be based in the U.K. and travel globally to connect with key stakeholders.

“Given the significance of this role, we have been working for quite some time on a thoughtful and planned transition and I am thrilled that Jonathan Wood will assume the CTO role,” said Rumsey. “Jon’s career has been defined by his commitment to technical excellence and his caring leadership approach. His technical leadership experiences in our Components and New Power businesses make him uniquely qualified for this role as we continue to advance our strategy and develop innovative technologies at the right time for our customers and enhance our technical workforce and capabilities.”