Koch to Head Governors Island Redevelopment

The former CEO of the Fund for Public Schools is now in charge of redeveloping the 172-acre island in New York Harbor. Also, Edwards and Kelcey, EMCOR, and Structure Tone name new CFOs.

NEW HIRES

Steven Kirschenbaum has been named executive vice president and chief administrative officer for Swig Equities, a real estate development, investment, and management firm based in New York. Also, Todd Korren has been promoted to senior vice president and director of commercial leasing and operations and Paul Sygrove has been named executive vice president and chief investment officer.

David Thornhill has joined Edwards and Kelcey, an engineering, design, planning, and construction management firm based in Morristown, N.J., as chief financial officer. The firm also hired Thomas Furlong as its new director of communications.

Leslie Koch has been appointed president of the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corp., a subsidiary of New York's Empire State Development Corp. that is responsible for the redevelopment of the island in New York Harbor.

Basil Vasilkioti has been hired as a senior vice president in the New York office of Jones Lang LaSalle, a real estate development manager and services provider based in Chicago.

Brett Phillips has been hired as chief financial officer of the Structure Tone Organization, a construction services company based in New York.

Roger Mathison has joined the marketing team of ICS Builders, a general contracting firm based in New York, as senior vice president.

Bill Brody has been named vice president for business development at IBEX Construction, a construction firm based in New York.

Robyn Ice has joined Rosenberg & Estis, a New York-based real estate law firm, as a partner.

Jason Snell has been hired as a litigation associate at John E. Osborn P.C., a New York-based law firm specializing in construction, environmental, and real estate law.

PROMOTIONS

Samantha Sheeber has been named partner of Starr Associates, a residential and commercial real estate law firm based in New York.

Donna McHugh has been promoted to director of marketing at Mast Construction Services, an owner's representative, construction manager, and distressed projects consulting firm based in Little Falls, N.J.

Mark Pompa has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer of EMCOR Group, a mechanical and electrical construction company based in Norwalk, Conn.

Kevin Dow has been promoted to vice president and deputy operations manager for the Connecticut business unit of Turner Construction, a New York-based construction manager. Also in the New Jersey office of Turner Casualty and Surety, a Turner subsidiary, Kevin King has been promoted to vice president of claims and legal services and Donald Oshiro has been named vice president of finance and accounting.

Varughese Cherian has been promoted to principal at the New York office of Arup, a planning, design, engineering, and business consulting firm with headquarters in London.

HONORS AND APPOINTMENTS

Lawrence Longua, a senior managing director of Multi Capital Group, a real estate investment company based in New York, has been named director of the REIT Center at New York University's Real Estate Institute.

Joseph Bellina, executive vice president of Newmark Knight Frank, a New York-headquartered real estate firm, has been named Professional of the Year by the Torch Foundation, a California-based nonprofit group offering leadership training to at-risk youth.

Lee Weintraub of Lee Weintraub Landscape Architecture based in Yonkers, N.Y., was one of 31 inductees from across the nation this year to the Council of Fellows of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Costas Kondylis of New York-based Costas Kondylis and Partners has been honored for his work to strengthen Israel's economy by State of Israel Bonds, an international organization that has secured $25 billion in investment capital for the state of Israel since 1951.

Marie-Claire Cunningham, senior vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, has won the Real Estate Award of Honor from the Irish American Building Society of New York. The group also gave Charles Murphy, vice president and general manager at Turner Construction, its Construction Award of Honor.

COMPANY NEWS

Don Erwin, Sharon Lobo, and Ron Bielinski, formerly of Thornton Tomasetti Group/LZA Technology, have started Erwin Lobo Bielinski PLLC, a forensic architecture and engineering firm based in New York that specializes in investigation and analysis of building defects.

Hill International, a program management, construction management, and construction claims services company based in Marlton, N.J., has opened an office in Las Vegas.