Two CI Members Elected ASCE Distinguished Members
CI Members Retired Maj. Gen. Joseph A. “Bud” Ahearn, P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, NAC, and Raymond E. Levitt, Ph.D., Dist.M.ASCE, were recently named Distinguished Members of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Formerly known as honorary membership, distinguished membership is the
Society's highest accolade and recognizes those who have achieved
eminence in a branch of engineering. The active roster of distinguished
members is comprised of only 193 of the Society's more than 140,000
members worldwide. They will be formally inducted on Thursday, November 6,
2008, at ASCE's Annual Civil Engineering Conference in Pittsburgh.
Ahearn, a senior executive with CH2M HILL in Denver, is being honored for his demonstrated leadership in the design and construction industry, his advocacy for innovation as a means to improve industry productivity, performance and quality, and his dedicated military service.
In his current position at CH2M HILL, Ahearn serves as the executive sponsor for the $11 billion U.S. Forces Korea Relocation program. During his 16-year tenure with the company, he has served in several capacities, including transportation business group president, eastern region manager and senior vice president, federal programs director and principal-in-charge for two major transportation corridor projects in California. In addition, he has served as vice chairman of the board, where he worked in collaboration with senior executives to effectively represent the firm and was responsible for strategic planning, governmental affairs, strategic communications and leadership development.
Prior to joining CH2M HILL, Ahearn served in the military for 34 years, retiring with the rank of major general of the U.S. Air Force. As the Air Force Civil Engineer, he was responsible for the war fighting readiness of combat engineering forces and for shaping financial strategy, developing budgets and executing infrastructure programs totaling more than $10 billion annually.
Ahearn has been actively involved in ASCE’s Civil Engineering Forum for Innovation (CEFI) and, as a founding sponsor, an active board member of Engineers Without Borders–USA. He is a former national president of the Society of American Military Engineers and the 2008 recipient of their Golden Eagle Award for exemplary industry leadership. He is also a founder and leader of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education Coalition in Denver, an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects and a member of the National Academy of Construction. In addition to his numerous military awards, Ahearn received the Air Force Order of the Sword—the highest honor the Noncommissioned Officer Corps of the U.S. Air Force can bestow, the University of Notre Dame College of Engineering’s Honor Award for Professional Achievement and the Newman Medal from the Society of American Military Engineers for outstanding military engineering achievement in Europe.
Ahearn received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Notre Dame and his master’s degree in engineering administration from Syracuse University. He is a resident of Greenwood Village, Colorado.
Levitt, who is being honored for his achievements in
construction engineering and management research, and for his work in
developing new theory, methods and tools to design optimal work processes
and organizational configurations for highly concurrent facility and product
development teams, currently serves as director of Stanford's Collaboratory for Research on
Global Projects (CRGP) and as academic director for the award-winning
Stanford Advanced Project Management executive education program.
Additionally, he developed the Virtual Design Team (VDT) research group at
Stanford, which predicts project cost, schedule and quality for alternative
organizational designs with increasing accuracy. VDT was initially validated
and calibrated against data from utility repairs by the Pacific Gas and Electric
Company following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and North Sea oil
platform experiences. In March 1995, the VDT group accurately predicted a
four-month delay of Lockheed Martin's LMLV1 – a prototype launch vehicle
adapting missile technology for commercial satellite launch vehicles. In July
1996, Levitt took leave from Stanford to commercialize the results of the VDT
research. It has subsequently been used to design organizations that can
shrink 'time-to-market' for a variety of complex new products and services.
Currently, Levitt's research group is conducting ethnographic and case study
research to understand the behaviors of, and interactions among,
participants from different national origins on global infrastructure and
industrial projects. Results of these observations are being used to extend
VDT so it can help managers design more optimal organization structures for
global construction projects and multinational, multi-sectoral post-conflict
resolution efforts.
Levitt is a previous recipient of ASCE's Computing in Civil Engineering and Peurifoy Research awards and is an active member of ASCE's Construction Research Council. In addition, he co-founded and served as the initial trustee of the New England Chapter of the Project Management Institute.
Levitt received his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Witwatersrand
University in South Africa and his master's degree and doctorate in
construction engineering and management from Stanford University. He is a
resident of Stanford, California.