Sustainability Experts

General Session

Mike Ireland
President & CEO, Portland Cement Association

Michael Ireland is the President and CEO of the Portland Cement Association (PCA). During his time as PCA President and CEO, he supervised the development of the PCA Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality and achieved closer coordination with other concrete-related associations. Throughout his career, he has been known for fostering a culture of camaraderie and customer focus, thanks to his sense of creativity and ability to help organizations positively navigate strategic change.

Andrew Mayock
Chief Sustainability Officer, Biden Harris Administration

On February 9, 2021, President Biden appointed Andrew Mayock to serve as the Federal Chief Sustainability Officer. As the Federal Chief Sustainability Officer, Andrew Mayock leads President Biden's efforts to improve the sustainability of the Federal government, including by helping Federal agencies prepare for and respond to the impacts of climate change on their operations and services. Andrew brings over 25 years of public and private sector experience to the Biden Administration, including service in the Obama and Clinton Administrations.

Sean O'Neill
Senior Vice President, Government Affairs, PCA

O’Neill joins PCA from the Associated General Contractors of America as VP of Congressional Relations/Infrastructure Advancement. Previously he served as Director of Government Affairs at the International Association of Fire Fighters, Special Assistant to Secretary Elaine Chao and Chief of Staff for Congressman John Sweeney.

Massimo Toso
President and CEO, Buzzi Unicem USA
Vice Chairman, PCA Board of Directors
PCA Climate and Sustainability Chair

Massimo Toso has been elected PCA Vice Chairman. Toso is the President and CEO of Buzzi Unicem USA Inc. He served as the inaugural co-chair of PCA’s Climate and Sustainability Council where he led efforts to develop the industry’s Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality. As co-chair, Toso continues to lead the Council as PCA has transitioned from initial development to ongoing implementation of the Roadmap.

Eric Holard
CEO, National Cement Company, Inc.
PCA Climate and Sustainability Chair

Eric Holard is Deputy Managing Director of VICAT Group and he oversees the North American Operations as National Cement Company, Inc. ’s Chief Executive Officer. He graduated from the French Engineering School, Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Arts et Metiers, Paris and received an Executive MBA from HEC, Paris. He joined VICAT in 1991 and, prior to his current position, he was responsible for the operations in West Africa (Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania), Egypt and India. He was a board member of all the companies and chairman of VICAT SAGAR Co. He also held different management positions in the cement industry as country managing director, industrial director, and plant manager.

Clinker

Adam Swercheck

Environmental Manager for Cement, Heidelberg Materials

PCA Clinker Task Group Leader

Danielle Flagg

CCUS Project Development Manager, Sargent Lundy

Danielle Flagg is a manager in S&L’s Energy and Industrial Group and is a registered professional chemical engineer with 15 years of experience. In her current role as CCUS Project Development Manager, Danielle oversees and coordinates S&L’s involvement with all project development related to the carbon capture, utilization, and storage in both the power and industrial markets. Danielle has served as the project manager for power and industrial projects, worked on numerous environmental control projects for power plants focused on SO2, NOX, mercury, and CO2, and has been involved in a large number of CO2 capture studies and estimates spanning various technologies and facility types.

Andrew Baxter
President, Sustainable Energy Solutions, a Chart Company

At the end of 2008 Andrew Baxter co-founded Sustainable Energy Solutions to help develop a breakthrough integrated carbon capture and energy storage technology. Andrew has led the company through the development and demonstration of this technology to date and remains the president and CEO of SES which was acquired by Chart Industries in December of 2020. The combination of SES’ innovative technology with Chart’s decades of experience bringing highly engineered cryogenic equipment to market makes for a terrific team to scale and commercialize Cryogenic Carbon Capture.

Corwyn Bruce
Project Director, CCUS, Heidelberg Materials

Corwyn Bruce, is the Director of Project Engineering at Heidelberg Materials in Edmonton, Alberta. He leads the Edmonton CCUS project, a first mover initiative that will utilize carbon capture to deliver the first net-zero carbon cement without the use of offsets. With 15 years of experience in the practical application of carbon capture, Corwyn has been engaged with the Edmonton CCUS project since its inception. Prior to joining Heidelberg Materials, he served as the Vice-President of Project Development and Advisory Services at the International CCS Knowledge Centre where he and his team shared their practical experience, guiding capture proponents worldwide through consultative engagements, executing comprehensive studies, and publishing influential articles and papers.

Eric Grol
Chemical Engineer, NETL (National Energy Technology Laboratory)

Eric Grol is a Senior Energy Systems Analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Throughout his career he has spent time performing techno-economic evaluations of fossil-based energy systems including coal gasification, fuel cells, advanced combustion and water treatment systems. He currently leads the analysis efforts in support of NETL industrial decarbonization R&D. Since 2010 he has also been the lead regulatory analyst at NETL, and has assumed technical responsibility for all air, water, and solid waste regulations pertaining to the use of fossil energy for power generation.

Frank Morton
Director of Technology, National Carbon Capture Center

Frank Morton currently serves as Consulting Engineer for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Carbon Capture Center, after more than 40 years of experience as a chemical engineer in both industrial and research roles. He is currently responsible for bringing university, government, research and industrial organizations to the center for collaborative technology development. This role includes identifying technology developers and coordinating agreement among the developer, the U.S. Department of Energy and National Carbon Capture Center industrial partners on contracts, funding and test plans.

Cement

Nick Popoff

Vice President, Product Performance and Development

PCA Cement Task Group Leader

Jason Weiss
Professor, School of Civil and Construction Engineering

Jason Weiss is the Edwards Distinguished Chair in Engineering. Before joining Oregon State as the Head of the School of Civil and Construction Engineering (2015-2020) he was a faculty member at Purdue University for over 16 years where he held the position of the Jack and Kay Hockema Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Pankow Materials Laboratory. He is actively involved in research on cement and concrete materials specifically focused on early-age property development, cracking, transport in concrete, and concrete durability. Specifically, he is known for research his group has performed in the areas of shrinkage and cracking reduction, the use of the ring and dual ring test, use of electrical resistivity and the formation factor, salt damage and oxychloride, use of internally cured concrete, and concrete pavement durability.

Ross Gorman
Manager of Technical Services, SEFA Group

Ross Gorman, Ph.D., P.E., is Manager of Technical Services for The SEFA Group. Ross manages the SEFA Ash Testing Lab which is responsible for fly ash quality control and provides support for fly ash operations, business development, and other activities related to development of technologies to beneficiate coal combustion residuals (CCR). Ross also is SEFA’s primary technical representative at ASTM, ACI, and ACAA. Ross has been with SEFA for over 9 years and prior to his time as Manager of Technical Services was a Process Engineer who provided process support for thermal operations.

Radhika Lalit
Head of Cement and Concrete, Mission Possible Partnership

Radhika Lalit is a Principal at RMI, and also the Head of Cement and Concrete at the Mission Possible Partnership. In her role, Radhika is driving multiple global projects to accelerate the decarbonization of the cement and concrete sector. Radhika specializes in incubating and launching high-impact initiatives engaging coalitions of partners across industry, governments, and the financial sector to drive platform solutions to combat climate change.

Concrete

Jim Mack

Director, Market Development, CEMEX

PCA Concrete Task Group Leader

Lionel Lemay
Executive Vice President / Division Head, Structures and Sustainability, NRMCA

Mr. Lemay is Executive Vice President, Structures and Sustainability for the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA). He leads a team of professionals to offer building owners and designers cost effective, durable and sustainable concrete building solutions though communications, education, research, design assistance and codes and standards advocacy.

Eric Ferrebee
Senior Director of Technical Services, ACPA

Eric Ferrebee is the Senior Director of Technical Services with the American Concrete Pavement Association. He is responsible for providing technical resources and consulting services to ACPA members and the agencies and owners they serve. He is a key team member in the development of industry resources including PavementDesigner.org, WikiPave, and ACPA’s Sustainability efforts.

Trygve Hoff
Director – Government Relations | Northeast Region Engineer, ACPA

Tryg is the Director of Government Relations and Northeast Region Engineer for the American Concrete Pipe Association (ACPA). He graduated with a BS in Civil Engineering from The Ohio State University and his professional experience ranges from environmental consulting in Columbus, Ohio, to architectural engineering in beautiful Lake Tahoe, California. He currently lives in Madison, Virginia, near the Blue Ridge mountains with his wife, Brooks, on a small 40‐acre horse farm. Tryg is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio, and an Envision Sustainability Professional. He has been promoting resilient, sustainable infrastructure with the ACPA since 2012.

Amy Trygestad
Vice President of Engineering, CRSI

As the Vice President of Engineering, Ms. Trygestad is responsible for overseeing all technical activities performed by the CRSI engineering team. She will continue to serve as the chair of the Alliance of Concrete Codes and Standards, collaborating with allies on code and advocacy initiatives for the reinforced concrete industry. Ms. Trygestad has over 25 years of experience in the design and construction of reinforced concrete structures.

Edith Gallandorm
Director, Codes and Standards, PCI

Edith Gallandorm is the director of codes and standards with the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute. Her primary focus is managing PCI’s code development process and coordinating efforts both inside and outside of the institute to advance and disseminate information regarding precast and precast, prestressed concrete. Ms. Gallandorm is staff liaison for PCI Design Standards Committee, Building Code Committee, Precast Concrete Insulated wall panel Committee, Fire committee, and is Secretariat of PCI’s Standards Committee as an ANSI accredited standards developer organization. Gallandorm is a member of ACI 318 and was recently named Fellow of the institute.

Construction

David Perkins

Vice President - Government Affairs and Communications, Heidelberg Materials

PCA Construction Task Group Leader

Steven Burke
Director of Sustainability, Consigli Construction Co.

Steven is the Sustainability Director for Consigli Construction, a multibillion dollar construction company with 11 regional offices and over 1,600 employees (and a self-perform concrete division). He has guided the sustainability process on over 30 million square feet of projects across many different building types and sizes, including but not limited to: K-12 schools, higher education facilities, mid-rise and high-rise residential, commercial interiors, retail interiors and commercial office buildings.

Kimberly Martin
Senior Engineer - Innovation & Sustainability, Keller Inc.

Kimberly Martin is a Senior Engineer at Keller-NA. In this role, she is responsible for developing and implementing Keller's sustainability strategy in North America, which includes leading innovation initiatives to support Keller's carbon targets. Kimberly previously worked in the oil and gas industry as a lead geotechnical engineer on development projects across the globe. She is the past chair of the Arizona Geo-Institute and is the current secretary of the Geo-Institute's Sustainability in Geotechnical Engineering Committee. Kimberly also sits on the DFI's sustainability committee and serves as co-chair of the EFFC-DFI Sustainability Guides Task Group.

Robert Nussmeier
President, Baker Concrete Construction

Bob Nussmeier, Vice President at Baker Concrete Construction. Baker is the largest concrete and foundations Contractor in the US focused on clean energy projects. He’s a true professional in executive level relationship support, with over 32 years of construction industry experience. He specializes in the construction of LNG Terminals, oil, gas, petrochemical, nuclear fuels, and clean energy power plants; EPCM execution teams; microchip plants; and carbon emissions reductions coming from concrete technologies.

Maddie Gosser
HR OpX Program Manager, Baker Concrete Construction

Maddie Gosser is the HR OpX Program Manager with Baker Concrete Construction in Washington, DC. She has several years of experience working in the construction industry and for non-profit organizations and is a member of Baker Concrete Enterprise’s Sustainability Leadership Committee, Carbon Leadership Forum’s DC Hub, ACI, and NAWIC. Born and raised in the Midwest, Maddie earned her bachelor’s degree in Communications and Spanish Language from Edgewood College (Madison, WI). Maddie also studied at the University of Málaga in Málaga, Spain.

Carbonation

Gina Lotito

Chief Sustainability Officer, GCC

PCA Carbonation Task Group Leader

Hessam AzariJafari
Deputy Director, MIT CSHub (Concrete Sustainability Hub)

Hessam Azari Jafari, Ph.D., is Deputy Director of the Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His background is in industrial ecology and its application to construction management and engineering. As a principal investigator and researcher, Hessam has led various projects related to the life cycle sustainability assessment and the nexus of pavements, buildings, and vehicles.

Maria Knake
Program Manager, Standards Coordination, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

Maria has over 17 years of experience in managing conformity assessments (audits) for the largest construction materials testing accreditation program in the United States at the American Association for State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). She is an industry leader and subject-matter expert in construction materials testing (CMT) as well as quality management systems. Maria has been an active member of ASTM International for over 15 years and is currently the Chair of ASTM Committee D04 on Road and Paving Materials.

Conclusion

Lindsey Geiger
Director, Environment and Sustainability, PCA

Lindsey Geiger is the Director of Environment & Sustainability at Portland Cement Association. In this role, she develops narratives to illustrate PCA’s Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality goals and show progress. Ms. Geiger holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA, and a master’s degree in environmental engineering from Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI. She is a Professional Engineer (PE), registered in Virginia and Colorado, and has earned two sustainability credentials: Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP) and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional Building Design and Construction (LEED AP BD+C).