Trends Winter 2015 | Page 22

PERSPECTIVES Office Opened, Inspector Hired Ayres Associates has opened an office in Titusville, Florida. The office provides structural inspection, transportation engineering, structural engineering, and design services. Tim Howell has joined Ayres’ structural inspection group in Florida, providing inspection services, project management, and business development from our Titusville office. Howell brings more than 24 years of experience in the management, operation, maintenance, construction, and inspection of bridges and other structures throughout Florida. For the past 13 years he has served as a consulting regional bridge project manager responsible for $100 million in asset management contracts. Howell, a project manager/lead inspector, is a Florida DOT Certified Bridge Inspector and holds several certifications in construction engineering inspection. Urban Planner Joins Ayres Matt Ashby has joined Ayres Associates, bringing urban planning expertise to complement Ayres’ engineering, architectural, geospatial, and environmental services. Based in our Cheyenne, Wyoming, office, Ashby will provide planning services on projects nationwide. He served the past seven years as planning director for the City of Cheyenne and brings nearly 15 years of planning experience. Educated at the University of Colorado, Ashby holds dual master’s degrees in urban design and urban and regional planning, as well as planning and urban design certifications from the American Institute of Certified Planners. Project Manager Added in Colo. Dale Mathison has joined Ayres’ municipal group in Colorado, bringing 16 years of experience in project management, municipal utilities, pipeline design, and hydraulic analysis. He brings public and private sector design and construction perspectives, having previously worked for Ayres Associates before a lengthy stint with the Department of Utilities in Sacramento, California. Mathison, a project manager, has managed water, sewer, and stormwater capital improvement projects from planning and design through construction, including cured-in-place pipe lining, large diameter gravity systems, pipe jacking, and pipe bursting projects. He also brings experience with river hydraulics analysis and land and bathymetric GPS surveying. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Colorado State University. New Executive VP Named Bruce Ommen was recently named executive vice president at Ayres Associates. He will continue to serve as vice president of the firm’s Wisconsin and Arizona transportation operations, in addition to overseeing the architecture and Wisconsin engineering services divisions. Ommen joined Ayres in 1990, initially designing bridges and performing construction observation for the transportation structures division. He later moved to the highways group and served as vice president of Midwest transportation operations. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota and is a registered professional engineer in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Florida. Pulse Elected ACEC Fellow Tom Pulse, Ayres Associates’ president, was elected to the American Council of Engineering Companies College of Fellows, a distinguished class of engineers chosen by their peers as deserving