Balfour Beatty, a Dallas-based construction company, announced senior leadership changes within its US Civils business appointing Mark Johnnie as chief operating officer and Kelly Phariss to vice president of West operations.

The company said the appointments support intentional and strategic planning of its highways and bridges, rail, and water businesses to expand Balfour Beatty’s Civils operations.

“Our Civils business continues to experience significant progress with excellent opportunities on the horizon. Mark and Kelly’s appointments will not only strengthen, grow and sustain our operations but support intentional strategies that focus on engaging select market sectors across the nation,” Balfour Beatty Civils President and U.S. Rail Managing Director Mark Konchar said in a statement. “At the same time, these leadership changes are a key investment in preserving the fabric of our people-first culture and values which is vital to our teammates’ development and business success.

Overseeing highways and bridges

As COO, Johnnie will lead Balfour Beatty’s commitment to operational excellence spanning across all vertical markets including highways and bridges, rail, and water. He will work with leaders throughout the business to ensure consistency in execution, high quality of standards and client experiences are delivered, and industry-leading operational processes are embedded across verticals, the company said.

In addition to his COO responsibilities, Balfour Beatty said that Johnnie will keep his current role overseeing the highways and bridges work across the Southeast and will now expand to cover the Southwest. Johnnie has been with Balfour Beatty since 1998 and he has a track record of consistent delivery in the Southeast, deep knowledge of the market sector and strong commitment to fostering the company’s Civils construction capability to clients, the company said.

Leader in LAX people mover project

Phariss has been promoted to vice president where he will head operations in the West managing its diverse project portfolio within the rail, highways and bridges, and water sectors in California, Oregon and Washington.

Phariss is a longtime Balfour Beatty Civils employee and is a critical leader on Los Angeles World Airport’s Automated People Mover (APM) project, the company said. He will remain deputy director on the LAX APM project in addition to his new role where he will support and pursue opportunities that blend scopes of work involving Balfour Beatty’s expert Buildings and Civils construction services.

“I’m excited to work alongside Mark and Kelly in maintaining momentum that promotes Balfour Beatty’s US Civils business as a thriving and bright place to work as well as executing strategies that offer outstanding capability to clients,” Konchar said.

Balfour Beatty is a leading provider of general contracting, at-risk construction management, and design-build services for public and private sector clients nationwide.