The 2021 Slate of Candidates

Shoshanna has enjoyed being a member of AACE International since 2014. She has participated and contributed to AACE in several different ways through the years, from membership in several technical sub-committees and special interest groups to obtaining her CCP in 2017. Drawing on her project management and project controls experience working for contractors and consultants and owners primarily in the Canadian Nuclear industry, she has authored and presented 5 papers on varying topics in estimating, planning and scheduling, and owner issues and is a primary coauthor for a recommended practice in review. She currently sits on the Board of Directors representing the Education Associate Board and contributes to the Online Learning Initiatives. She is most proud of initiating the Bruce County Section in 2018 and serving as its President. The Section has now gone on to develop 4 new Corporate Membership Organizations affiliated with the Section. She has participated in the T/E/C alignment group which has seen positive returns for all the associate boards. This collaboration has streamlined volunteer efforts and is ensuring that board activities support and enhance each other in a lock-step fashion. Previously, She was also the treasurer of Region 1, covering all of Canada and participated in various task forces, including the 2020 Strategic Planning and Executive Director Search team to help lead AACE into the future to be a vibrant organization serving its members and adapting to the changing face of member’s needs while maintaining the strengths and foundation of our organization.

Shoshanna’s goals and objectives are to:

• Support, strengthen, and promote our Boards.
• Improve member value and communication across the organization.
• Advocate for AACE.
• Promote the value proposition of AACE to a wider audience.
• Support the evolution of AACE member interface and interaction.

Joshua is a servant-leader in the industrial project sector. He has 16+ years’ experience in execution of major capital projects and management of project teams. He is adept at blending strategic thinking with hands-on project delivery. He has strong organizational and communication skills, recently leveraged to create a global project controls organization for a leading specialty chemicals company. Josh currently serves as the Senior Director of Engineering – Lithium at Albemarle Corporation with full responsibility for safe delivery of a $80M+ global project portfolio with operations on 4 continents. Prior to working in the industrial sector, he served in the US Army where he received the Bronze Star for combat leadership in Iraq and the Louisiana Emergency Service Medal for operational support during Hurricane Katrina. Following military service, he returned to Houston where he joined AACE in 2008. He was the Young Professional Chairman from 2012-2014, serving as a guest lecturer on cost engineering and AACE at numerous universities. These outreach events allowed him to speak with over 400 students, faculty members, and administration officials. He was active in the Houston Gulf Coast Section from 2008 – 2019 and joined its Board of Directors in 2013, serving as Vice President (2014 – 2015) then President (2015 – 2016). In both years, the section earned AACE International’s highest Platinum Award. He continues to serve on AACE International’s Technical Board as a Director At-Large since 2014. From 2017-2019, he served as the Region 5 Director and helped to coordinate the regional symposium which raised over $10,000 for the AACE Educational Endowment Fund.

During my 10+ years as a member of AACE, I have enhanced my capabilities as a project professional, gained leadership skills, made great friends, and found an avenue to give back to the profession I love. AACE is strengthened by our members, technical and educational products, and the certification program. For these to be maximized, AACE needs effective and efficient administration. As your President - Elect, I will:

• Build on the momentum created by my predecessor.
• Work closely with the Executive Director, staff, Board, Associate Boards, past presidents, and others to support & strengthen AACE effectiveness and efficiency.
• Communicate openly and transparently with all AACE leadership about important decisions affecting AACE.
• Work with our Associate Boards to strengthen programs, products, education, and services.
• Collaborate with our leadership, stakeholders, and staff for a best-in-class annual Conference & Expo.
• Work with the VP-Finance and Board to find new ways for growth to improve AACE’s financial position.
• Work to ensure that AACE is serving its membership.
• Continue to professionally represent AACE domestically as well as internationally.

I am humbled by this nomination, and if chosen, I will maintain the high standards set by previous presidents and act as a positive force for our Association.

Seeking Re-election

• 1993 - current - employed by MBP, currently VP and Dispute Resolution Service Leader
• 2004 - became a member of AACE
• 2007 - earned CFCC
• 2009 - co-presented technical
• session at AACE Annual Meeting
• 2011 - 2013 - North Florida AACE
• Board of Directors, Section Director
• 2016-2019 - AACE Certification Board member, CFCC committee
• 2019 - current - AACE Board of Directors, VP Administration

Goals/Objectives: 

• To be a unifying voice between the Board of Directors, AACE leadership, and headquarters staff focused on AACE's mission, goals, and vision.
• Communicate with AACE leadership and headquarters staff to ensure they have the support they need to achieve AACE's goals, and if not, then working with them to resolve any issues.

Mark is a graduate of Villanova University, where he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering in 1997 and 1998. He joined AACE International in 2001. He has greatly enjoyed his participation and has made many friends along the way. Mark is a past President and Treasurer of the Delaware Valley Section. He currently serves on the Certification Board. He has contributed to RPs 25R-03 and 29R-03, and he is currently working on the project to update RP 29R-03.

Mark has over 20 years of experience as an engineer and manager and has successfully managed projects in the electric utility; fossil, nuclear, and renewable generation; oil and gas; and transportation sectors. He has spoken frequently at the Conference & Expo and at sections in the United States, Brazil, Colombia, India, and Peru. He has enjoyed travelling and meeting many new members over the past few years. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. He holds AACE certifications as a Cost Professional, Planning and Scheduling Professional, and Forensic Claims Consultant. He is also a certified Project Management Professional and Portfolio Management Professional. He and his family live near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Goals/Objectives: 

If elected, my goals for the organization would include increasing membership and participation so that we can more broadly share the excellent work that AACE International has been doing. I believe that this organization has a fantastic repository of knowledge and experience—both in our writings and in the skills and talents of our members—that should be leveraged more broadly by organizations around the world. I would look forward to the opportunity to promote the expansion of membership internationally and to ensure that our knowledge is passed on to the next generation of cost engineers. I would be very interested in hearing the input of the regions to understand how we can best increase awareness of AACE around the world.

Hello, my name is Eric Cannon. I am running for a second consecutive term as Regional Director. During my first term:

• I was able to bring back 3 sections from being inactive to active status.
• I was able to communicate to the local sections as well as other regions, any technical meetings taking place
• I am working with all the active sections in transitioning to the new scoreboard and minimum standards compliance.

 I have held a PSP since 2008 and have also been a member since. I am a member of the Section board of the North Florida Section. I am very active in setting up monthly meetings, participating in quarterly board meetings and going to the annual meetings.

Currently, I am employed with Moss, a family owned construction management entity based out of South Florida with national offices. I have been with this family for the past four years serving as the Director of Scheduling. I lead a team of in-house schedulers and outside consultants in managing over a billion dollars of work.

I have been in Construction Management all throughout my 25 years. I started as a scheduling engineer with one other company and have been lucky to have moved up in position as a Scheduler and Scheduling Manager I am fortunate to have learned both from my mentors as well as my peers.

Goals/Objectives:

I am running for a second consecutive term as Regional Director.

• I will continue in transitioning our sections to the new scoreboard compliance.
• I will continue supporting HQ will modifications required to the scoreboard system.
• I will continue promoting both regional and national transition to a global notification of upcoming technical meetings.

My goals if elected:

• Promote better communication within the sections of this region.
• Promote the use of technology within each section.
• Revive sections that need help in reorganization.

I look forward in serving as Regional Director.

John Armstrong is a degreed engineer, has over 17 years of experience in the construction industry, and has worked as an expert witness, general contractor, and owner’s representative. John provides expert witness services relating to damages and delays arising during construction. He also provides services for project controls, claims avoidance and preparation, risk management, schedule audits and enterprise level planning for owners, schedule development for contractors, and litigation and arbitration support for attorneys. John has worked on various complex projects and programs, including infrastructure, education, correctional facilities, technology, and healthcare. He has provided lead scheduling, change and claims management, project controls, expert testimony, and contract/change management services for over 150 construction projects totaling over $8 billion.  John is also an expert in construction claims and time extension requests across various markets and sectors. John has provided these services for a full spectrum of clients, including construction owners, attorneys, and contractors. These services have included providing forensic analysis of claim packages, damages quantum, and time extension requests using the Time Impact Analyses methodology as well as other delay quantification techniques prescribed within AACE International Recommended Practice 29R-03 “Forensic Schedule Analysis,” dated April 2011. John is also currently serving as a contributing author on the update of AACE International Recommended Practice 29R-03 “Forensic Schedule Analysis”. John was also the lead researcher and primary author of the technical paper Assessing Accuracy of Estimated Activity Durations in Construction CPM Schedules, which was published by the American Society of Civil Engineers (“ASCE”) Construction Research Congress in March 2020. John currently serves as the Arizona Section's President and previously held the Secretary position for two years. He is an active gardener, prefers to spend his free time camping with his wife, and is a passionate advocate for animals!

I have three goals for Region 5:

1. Membership Growth - Continue to invite members and promote membership in previously underrepresented groups within the general contractor community. Section memberships should be an accurate reflection of the local industry's diversity and my goal is to help that effort.
2. Greater Collaboration - Develop a network of Section leaders who share resources to eliminate "re-inventing the wheel" and promote multi-section technical meetings. Help Sections do more without creating additional work!
3. Plan and Host a Regional Training Conference - Establish regularly occurring conferences that directly address our region's needs and its members. This event will also provide an opportunity for professionals to attend an AACE conference that is close to home.

Nour is a Partner and Vice President at Peritia Partners, has over 12 years of experience within the AEC industry. She began her career as a field engineer working her way to serving as a construction consultant & project management expert. In the field, she managed new construction and renovation projects, in both the public and private arenas, on behalf of general contractors and developers. She coordinated safety, quality control and schedule progress via daily walks, subcontractor meetings and field directions. As a construction/project management consultant and claims & litigation expert, she provides scheduling and change order evaluation services on large scale mixed-used projects, infrastructure projects, as well as military projects requiring DoD cost-loaded schedule reporting and time impact analysis requirement. In claims situations, she performs schedule delay analyses, productivity impact assessments, damages quantifications and serves as testifying expert. She also provides technical trainings to owners and contractors, related to scheduling best practices, project controls principles and claims. Dr. Bouhou published multiple technical and white papers for AACE International, along with other academic and professional journals, and spoke at about 20 seminars and conferences. She serves as the President of the SF Bay Area Section. She also served as the Treasurer & Vice President of the Central Texas chapter, as the Secretary and Vice President of the SF Bay Area section, and as a contributing member of the AACE Educational Board. In addition to her diverse officer positions within AACE, she provided PSP certification trainings to prepare AACE members for the PSP certification exam. Dr. Bouhou holds a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Civil Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. In addition to her industry contributions, she is also an Adjunct Professor at California State University, East Bay, in the Construction Management Masters Program.

Goals/Objectives:

• Strengthen the relationship between AACE HQ and local sections to ensure that the organizational visions are aligned and implemented effectively.
• Foster cross section interactions/collaboration, attract a broader range of members & cover larger areas.
• Serve as a communication bridge and a strategic ally to both the sections and the AACE Headquarters.
• Market the AACE certifications added value to attract more members and non-members to get certified.
• Support the local sections in providing quality certification training seminars for their members.
• Improve the local sections interaction with members through online platforms and tools, specifically in current circumstances.

Kamran holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering with a master’s and PhD in Civil Engineering-Project Management. He is a project management expert with more than 22 years of progressive experience in oil, gas, power, and transportation industry projects in North America and Middle East and owns a patented system in schedule optimization. Kamran has been affiliated with AACE since 2009, presented in several events and conferences, and regularly trains professionals. His areas of expertise are Project Management, Project/Program Controls, Planning/Scheduling, Cost Management, Risk Management, and Profitability Analysis. Kamran is currently a Project Control Manager at Sound Transit working on multi-billion-dollar light rail train expansion projects in the Seattle area.

Goals/Objectives:

• Work with Region 6 sections' officers and come up with a plan to keep the monthly meetings going during the pandemic, share the success experiences across sections.
• Discuss ideas to increase outreach and promote AACE to both professionals and new school graduates.
• Plan to approach west coast colleges and universities to present AACE to their senior undergraduate and graduate students as a potential for growing their career in different areas of cost management.
• Evaluate Region 6 performance and set goals to improve performance for all sections.

Norman is a Senior Project Controls Professional with 17-year experience. Passionate for an integrated Cost, Schedule, Risk reporting in a Building Information Model (4D BIM Scheduling) environment. Well versed in Project Cost and Schedule Controls, Resource Management, Earned Value Management and Project Planning on different industries, airport facilities, transportation, wastewater, hydropower generation, manufacturing facilities and structural upgrades. He has been a team member on project management process control teams in creating baseline, change management and work breakdown processes and procedures. Evaluates RFP and BAFO contractor submittals (as owner representative) on contractual and baseline schedules. Assists a group of planners to create an integrated master schedule procedure. Creates and defines planning and scheduling management plans. Practices project controls methodologies from AACE (Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International) and PMI (Project Management Institute). Multiple assignments have made him versatile in monitoring and controlling programs and projects in any industry.

• To better serve different Sections
• To gain more Section members
• To maintain and gain trust from Sections

 Objectives:

• To entice Section Leaders to participate
• To create programs for each Section to entice members to join
• To promote different section webinars/dinner meetings for all

Sankar Subrahmaniyam, EVP
Sankar is a postgraduate candidate in Construction Management with the College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai, India, having more than 24+ years of qualitative experience. He is member of AACE since 2012 and holding EVP Certification since 2013. Sankar is currently the Regional Director. He served as President of South India Section and Chair of the India Taskforce. He has coordinated association between AACE and several associations in India. Included is the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Delhi, and the Indian School of Business and Construction Industry Development Council. These entities have supported AACE events and Sankar was instrumental in forging these partnerships. Under his leadership as Section President, he obtained section sponsorship from the Karle Infra board, the real estate arm of Karle Group based at Bangalore, India. This enabled the section to have an office address in India, sponsorship for conducting meetings and conferences, secretarial and administrative support. Sankar has partnered with PMI Chennai Chapter. The South India Section conducted two successful national level conferences at IIT Madras and organized several workshops. Sankar initiated combining the three sections North, South and Central Sections in India and created a combined India Section to provide better services. Sankar works very closely with Indian government, academia, and private organizations to promote the section in India. Sankar has registered the section as a non-profit organization with the registrar of companies, India, opened a bank account for the section and GST registration to bring serious commitment from the section to the Indian market. Sankar is also a Fellow of Institution of Engineers, India, and advisor of PMI’s Engineering and Construction forum of Bangalore India Chapter. Under his leadership, Region 08 received award recognition from the Project Controls Institute in 2019.

My goals and objectives will include, but not limited to:

Be an enabler of transformation in the field of asset lifecycle management, help organizations, government, and institutions, improve their maturity in the field of cost engineering by aligning with AACE’s Knowledge capital.

• Forge association with government, corporates and institutions and collaborate for improving Cost Engineering.
• Work closely with the AACE Board, provide strategic input, help developing new ways of engagement in APAC Region.
• Lay foundation for making Region 8 the largest section in terms of membership and revenue in 7 to 10 years. 
• Establish networking opportunity as one of the key membership benefits and continue to enable across regions.
• Work closely with educational institutions, take TCM knowledge to more universities in Region 8, catch the engineers when they are young, implant the Cost Engineering seed.

David Chigne
David has more than 15 years of experience in the development and/or management of projects in Energy, Oil & Gas, and Mining Industry between small (USD 300k - 10.00 MM) and megaprojects (CAPEX USD 5.4 Billion) under WATERFALL and AGILE methodologies. David was part of the team that manages the PMO (Project Management Office) for the "Talara Refinery Modernization Project" (PMRT), MegaProject CAPEX of $ 5,400 MM USD, and develop as Subject Matter Expert Consulting for Mining Megaprojects (Cost, Schedule & Risk Management). David has been involved with the AACE Peru Section since 2015, holding important positions (treasurer, vice-president, president) since 2016. David - among other important achievements - as a 2019 president, he has managed to double the Peru Section membership, reinforce the "RP's Spanish translation team" and he achieved the sold-out milestone for the AACE 2019 Peru congress (sponsorship and attendees). David is an Electrical (B.Eng.Sc.) Engineer with a postgraduate specialization in Electrical Power Systems (honorific mention in thesis project), as well as different courses/diplomas in finance, accounting, and especially project management. Certified Auditor by Bureau Veritas School (ISO 21,500 - Project Management Systems), “Project Management Professional” (PMP®), “Risk Manager Professional" (PMI-RMP®) and Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP®) by the Project Management Institute (PMI®). With emphasis and interest about incorporate an added dimension to this approach using others project management standards (AACE, CII & PMI), AGILE Methods and ongoing governance to ensure that the project portfolios is meeting its desired objectives: managing assets estimations (time, cost, resources, etc.), minimize threats and uncertainty, etc. that ensures and maximizes the utility and profitability of the projects, for the benefit of internal stakeholders and customer satisfaction. David has a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) degree and is the Past-president of the Peru Section.

Goals/Objectives:

I’ve always been a natural leader. Since 1999, I have been involved with volunteer associations where I have received recognition for my work. Now, with more than 15 years of experience in project management and talking specifically about the last 5 years involved with the AACE Peru Section, I’ve exceeded my KPIs and have been promoted - because of my results - in the things that I do. I look it back at those successes and I know that I wouldn’t have reached them if I hadn’t built and led teams composed of highly skilled and diverse individuals. I’m really proud of my ability to get cross-functional (volunteer) groups to work on the same page. I think it's time to use the local experience to do more for Region 10 to promote and continue the important labor that the actual directors are developing, in alignment with the AACE Headquarters standards.

Carlos Ortega
Carlos Ortega is a Senior Director for Alvarez and Marsal. His practice areas are infrastructure and capital projects as well as disputes and investigations. Mr. Ortega specializes in project management services and policies and has lead PM teams for a diverse number of large-scale infrastructure construction projects in Latin America and Australia. Mr. Ortega is a registered technical expert with the International Chamber of Commerce, ICC, as well as the several Chambers of Commerce and Arbitration Centers in Latin America. For the past 18 years, Mr. Ortega has provided PM and claims consulting work for key projects, such as the M7 Motorway construction project, the upgrade of the Sydney metro stations in Revesby, Ashfield, Lidcombe, Macdonaldtown, amongst others, in Sydney, Australia, the new El Dorado Airport in Bogota, Colombia, and the Talara Refinery Expansion in Peru. In arbitration proceedings, Mr. Ortega has acted as a technical expert and expert witness for cases like the Talara Refinery in Peru (US$5.2B), Bogotá water & wastewater operations contract, the construction of the El Quimbo hydropower plant, the construction of the General Public Hospital in San Andrés Island, the construction of the Command and Operations Center for the Bogota Mass Transit System, Transmilenio in Bogota, and a multimodal sea port in Mexico and several large-scale road concessions in Colombia, with accumulated value over US$5B.

Mr. Ortega was recently selected to the Who’s Who Legal: Construction 2019 and 2020, as Global Leader as a Construction Expert, and only Latin American based expert to make the list.

Mr. Ortega is a Civil Engineer from Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, and has a Master of Engineering Management and an MBA with primary focus on Engineering Management & Policy from University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. Mr. Ortega is the Founding Past President of AACE Colombia Section and is a current member of the Global Communities Committee.

Goals/Objectives:

In my mind, AACE is at a point where it needs to migrate from being a US-based international association, to really a global association. We are still very US based, and international sections are "reinventing the wheel" every time around with little or no guidance from AACE International. We need to provide more guidance and support to international sections so we can grow to the next level and really achieve the international recognition that AACE has in North America and Europe.

Having been part of the creation of AACE Colombia Section in Region 10, I understand the nuances that the international sections face, and believe we can achieve a better integration with these sections. We need to provide them with more detailed guidelines, marketing and other supporting activities that may help them achieve faster and larger growth, which in turn, will broaden the AACE global community.

Piero G. Anticona Tello
Piero Anticona is a senior project controller with a Certified Cost Professional and a Guild of Project Controls Fellow certifications. Advocates AACE's best practices for managing portfolios of assets and supporting his clients' decision-making processes. His professional experience is related to the sectors of Mining, Energy, and Oil and Gas.

He published as an author at PM World Journal with featured papers related to Contingency, Drones, Estimating, 5D BIM, Business Intelligence, and E-Contracting.

He participated in different owners, EPCM, and contractor project teams in Peru, Spain, and France. As a member of the Peru Section, he was past-president and vice-president of the AACE International Peru Section. He also collaborates in technical meetings, congresses, and volunteering in different events in the Latin American region.

He graduated from SKEMA (France) with a master’s degree in Program and Project Management. Besides, he holds a degree in Mechanical Electrical Engineering from Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería (Peru).

Goals/Objectives:

My goals with Region 10 are to maintain the excellent job of former directors. Maintain the growth of members. Sections keep providing the high quality of technical meetings and congresses. To let them know that AACE offers the right tools for their career and certifications to validate their experience and make them outstanding among their peers.