Arkansas

Roger Nelson recently joined Darragh Co. as account manager for the company's Springdale division.

Charles Harrison Hankins was recently appointed director of the industrial/distribution division for May Construction Co.

May Construction is based in Little Rock. 501-663-5524.

Nabholz Construction Corp.'s Ozark Division recently appointed Darryl Harris as business development officer.

The company's Ozark Division is located in Rogers.

Alabama

Scott Chastain, Matthew Edwards and Bradley L. Martin with Auburn University - Borderlands received first place in the Design Category during the recent 2003 Student Awards sponsored by The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).

Of the 210 entries submitted for consideration, the seven-member jury selected 14 projects to receive first-place awards in 10 categories and 29 projects to receive special commendations in seven categories.

The awards were presented during the recent ASLA Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

Founded in 1899, ASLA is the national professional association for landscape architects, representing more than 13,500 members.

Billy Finley recently joined The Stellar Group of Birmingham as a parts manager for the Parts & Service Division.

Finley will be responsible for supplying industrial refrigeration parts and equipment to existing and new customers for the area. Other duties will include the management of inventory and creating cost efficient logistics programs for refrigeration systems, components and replacement parts.

Finley started his career as an ammonia refrigeration technician servicing reciprocating compressors and rotary vane compressors, and later worked as a refrigeration supervisor for a large meat processing company.

He brings more than 23 years of refrigeration experience to the Stellar team.

Stellar is a design/build firm providing design, engineering, construction and mechanical services consisting of refrigeration services, fabrication, parts, safety and power & utilities.

Bobby Middlebrooks, president of Bush Hog LLC of Selma, Ala., was recently elected to serve on the Association of Equipment Manufacturers' Board of Directors.

AEM also announced that Ronald DeFeo, chairman and chief executive officer of Terex Corp. of Westport, Conn., was elected AEM chairman. Other officers elected were First Vice Chairman Charles Stamp Jr., vice president public affairs worldwide, Deere & Co., Moline, Ill.; Second Vice Chairman Gerald Shaheen, group president, Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, Ill.; Treasurer Charles Martz, president, Link-Belt Construction Equipment, Lexington, Ky.; and Secretary Dennis Slater, AEM's full-time president.

The AEM officers, with the association's board, set the guidelines and operating policies of the association on behalf of its members in areas including product safety and technical services, equipment statistics, government legislation and regulations, education and training and international market support, among other issues.

The Alabama Chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors recently approved Lynn Jones of Brasfield & Gorrie to serve on the National ABC Board for a three-year term.

Jones has served on the state board for the last two years, and is a senior project manger for Brasfield & Gorrie. His local project experience includes Baptist Shelby, UAB and the YMCA.

ABC is a national trade association representing more than 23,000 merit shop contractors, subcontractors, materials suppliers and related firms in 80 chapters across the United States.

Mississippi

Natchez resident Joseph D. McFarland, construction representative at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Vidalia Area Engineer Office, was recently named the Construction Representative of the Year for the entire Corps Mississippi Valley Division.

For the past year, McFarland was primarily responsible for quality assurance activities on "Roth Hill Road Betterment," a $900,000-project that was funded entirely by the City of Natchez.

The award recognized "his keen knowledge of contract requirements, valuable input, recommendations, and professional working relationship with the contractors and city officials that helped to ensure successful completion of the project."

During his eight-year career with the Corps, McFarland has worked on a wide variety of projects that have included mat casting, new levee construction and enlargement, drainage structures, and numerous revetment and bank paving projects.

He also serves as sector commander for approximately 56 miles of the Sicily Island Levee system. McFarland also assisted in the flood fight on the Mississippi main line levee this past year.

The Vidalia Area Engineer Office manages projects in north Louisiana and southwest Mississippi. The Corps' Mississippi Valley Division manages water resource and civil works activities along Mississippi River from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

Matt Mills was recently promoted by Carothers Construction to vice president of procurement. He has 12 years of construction experience.

Mills is a graduate of Belhaven College.

Gov. Ronnie Musgrove recently appointed Donald Doleac of Hattiesburg to the Mississippi State Board of Contractors.

Doleac is the president and director of Doleac Electric Co. Inc. He is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi.

Tennessee

Jeffrey L. Beard has resigned his position of president and CEO of the Design-Build Institute of America to pursue a Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Beard served as DBIA's first-ever executive, opening the DBIA offices on Pennsylvania Avenue on July 1, 1993.

Since that time, the organization has grown from seven founding companies to more than 900 national organizations and is now served by 17 professional staff at its headquarters office.

Beard will complete his doctorate at Georgia Tech while teaching courses in design-build organization and management and advanced project management. He will continue to work with DBIA, by assisting the Foundation for Integrated Services in developing and managing research projects focusing on design-build and integrated services delivery.

Craig H. Unger, DBIA's vice president of government affairs, has been named interim president. Unger has been DBIA's lead spokesperson and advocate for specific legislative, regulatory, and other government actions at the national, state, and local levels.

His priorities this year have focused on supporting key legislative initiatives in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky and Arkansas.

Before coming to DBIA, Unger served for 26 years at the Department of Justice. Most recently, he was the federal detention trustee, where he was responsible for the detention of federal prisoners in the custody of the U.S. Marshal Service, and the detention of aliens in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Before assuming that position, Unger was the procurement executive for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

His responsibilities included policy development and management of the BOP's nationwide contracting, procurement, and property management for more than 100 correctional institutions. Under Unger's leadership, the BOP changed the way it acquired new construction and retrofit of its buildings, moving from a one-dimensional project delivery approach to one that embraced alternative delivery systems.

The DBIA Board of Directors, led by 2003 Chair Robert E. Daniels, have begun a nationwide search for a permanent president and CEO.