Industry News

Michael J. Paul Elected President of American Concrete Institute

The American Concrete Institute (ACI) announces its 2024-2025 president, vice president, and four board members.

Michael J. Paul has been elected to serve as president of the Institute for 2024-2025, and Scott M. Anderson has been elected ACI vice president for a two-year term. Additionally, four members have been elected to serve on the ACI Board of Direction, each for three-year terms: Corina-Maria Aldea, James H. Hanson, Werner K. Hellmer, and Enrique Pasquel. 

President

Michael J. Paul, FACI, has more than 40 years of construction and engineering experience and is a recognized leader in the concrete industry. He currently serves as Principal Structural Engineer for Larsen & Landis, Inc., based in Philadelphia, PA. In this role, he oversees the engineering, documentation, and management of structural engineering for commercial, institutional, industrial, recreational, and residential projects. Paul’s experience includes troubleshooting, repair, restoration, and rehabilitation of existing concrete structures, in addition to new structure design.

A Fellow of ACI, Paul’s leadership and volunteer efforts with ACI amass a long list. He presently serves as a Trustee of the ACI Foundation and a member of the Foundation’s Financial Task Group and Legal Task Group. He recently stepped down as Chair of the ACI Foundation Development Committee. Paul is also Chair of the ACI Board Task Group on Centers of Excellence, immediate past Chair of the ACI Membership Committee, and a member of the ACI Financial Advisory Committee. His previous service to ACI, which extends nearly 40 years, includes the Board of Direction, Chair of the International Project Awards Committee, and ACI Committee 124, Concrete Aesthetics, for which he edited the “Notable Concrete” series produced for ACI conventions and excerpted in Concrete International. In addition, he served on the editorial review panel for both Sustainable Concrete Guides of the U.S. Green Concrete Council. He is a member or past member of several other ACI committees, including 120, History of Concrete. A frequent speaker and author on concrete topics, Paul has contributed several articles to Concrete International on projects involving the renovation or restoration of historic concrete structures.

Paul received the 2018 ACI Strategic Advancement Award and the 2023 ACI Foundation Building the Future Award.

In addition to his ACI activities, Paul is an active member of ASTM International, serving on ASTM Committee E06, Performance of Buildings, and is a past member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), having served on the editorial panel of the Leadership and Management in Engineering journal. He is a member of the Historic Preservation Commission of the Town of Oro Valley, AZ, USA, and is acting coordinator in the state Disaster Assistance Program for the Arizona Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Paul’s contribution to the industry is also evidenced by his 20 years of undergraduate teaching. Paul was the Coordinator for the Senior Design capstone course in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA. The course received the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) Engineering Award Grand Prize in 2010.

Before joining Larsen & Landis, Inc., Paul held engineering positions with Built Form, LLC; Duffield Associates; Thornton Tomasetti; Guardian Companies; and Gredell & Paul, among others. He has received numerous honors and awards from professional, technical, and community organizations, including the 2008 Engineer of the Year Award from the ASCE Delaware Section.

Paul received his BA from Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA, and his MSCE and MArch from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. He is a licensed professional engineer, a licensed architect (AIA), and is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP).

Vice President

Scott M. Anderson, FACI, is Vice President and General Manager of Keystone Structural Concrete (Keystone), a concrete contractor in Houston, TX. Keystone is a division of the Stewart Holdings Group, a family of companies that performs all types of concrete construction in the Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, TX, markets. At Keystone, he has overseen elevated formed concrete construction since 1999.

Anderson is Chair of the ACI Financial Advisory Committee. He serves on ACI Committees E703, Concrete Construction Practices, and 134, Concrete Constructability, and Joint ACI-ASCC Committee 117, Tolerances. He previously served on the ACI Board of Direction and the Construction Liaison Committee (CLC)

Anderson has been active in the American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC) since 2003. He has served on its Board of Directors since 2007 and was elected President for 2015-2016. He was also Chair of the ASCC Education and Training Committee from 2011-2014. During his tenure as Chair, the committee produced a video detailing the basics of concrete finishing that has been widely used by ASCC members. He continues to be active in ASCC as a Past President. Anderson currently serves on the ASCC Finance Committee and Company Certification Committee and is President of the ASCC Education, Research, and Development Foundation. Concrete Construction named him one of 2018’s “Most Influential People in Concrete Construction,” in part for his leadership at ASCC.

He received his BSCE from the State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA, and his MS for graduate studies researching properties of concrete at The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. Anderson is a licensed professional engineer in Texas.

Directors

Corina-Maria Aldea, FACI, is a Principal Material Engineer at WSP E&I Canada, Burlington, ON, Canada. She has combined technical, scientific, industrial, consulting, management, and academic international experience in various areas of cement-based materials. Her experience encompasses most aspects of cement and cement-based composites technology, a wide variety of materials evaluation and characterization techniques, technology transfer, techno-marketing, and exploratory work involving new materials. In the area of materials consulting and engineering, she has conducted and managed projects related to the durability of advanced cement-based composites, fiber-reinforced cement-based composites, textile reinforcement for applications with architectural materials, asphalt reinforcement and repair, stability and erosion protection, repair and strengthening systems, use of supplementary cementitious materials for various applications, and other materials evaluations, including materials for nuclear and mining applications. Over the years, she has held senior executive posts at international technology-driven organizations, and she has operated in the role of project engineer, project manager, technical reviewer, or materials expert on numerous projects.

Aldea is a member of the ACI Technical Activities Committee and has been an active member of several ACI committees. She has served ACI in various capacities over the years, including contributions to document development, organizing technical sessions, editing symposium publications, peer reviewing ACI publications, and presenting in technical sessions. She has been a judge for several ACI Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards. She is a past member of RILEM and has been a reviewer for several international professional publications. She has authored and co-authored numerous publications in international technical journals, conference proceedings, and books.

Aldea received her BS and PhD in civil engineering from the Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Advanced Cement-Based Materials (ACBM) at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA; a Scientific Research Fund (FNRS) Scholar at Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium; and a postdoctoral fellow at ACBM at Northwestern University. She is a licensed professional engineer in Ontario, Canada.

James H. Hanson, FACI, is Department Head and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rose- Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, IN, where his teaching emphasis is on structural analysis and design. He helped form the Center for the Practice and Scholarship of Education at Rose- Hulman. He is the author of the textbook Structural Analysis: Skills for Practice.

Hanson serves as Secretary for ACI Committee 314, Simplified Design of Concrete Buildings, and Joint ACI- ASCE Committee 446, Fracture Mechanics of Concrete. He is also a member of the ACI Financial Advisory Committee and ACI Committees S802, Teaching Methods and Educational Materials, and 132, Responsibility in Concrete Construction. Hanson has previously served on the ACI Convention Committee, Publications Committee (Chair), Membership Committee, and Students and Young Professional Activities Committee (Chair).

He is an award-winning teacher and author. Hanson is a Dean’s Outstanding Teaching Award recipient at Rose- Hulman, a once-in-a-career honor. He received the 2006 ACI Young Member Award for Professional Achievement and the 2007 ACI Walter P. Moore, Jr. Faculty Achievement Award. He has also received the Ferdinand P. Beer and E. Russel Johnston, Jr. Outstanding New Mechanics Educator Award, Outstanding Teaching Award, and Best Paper Award from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). He received the Daniel V. Terrell Award for outstanding ethics paper from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

Hanson is a member of ASEE, where he is Chair of the Illinois-Indiana Section. He is also a member of ASCE.

He received his BS in civil engineering and his MEng and PhD in structural engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. He served 4 years in the U.S. Army as an Engineer Officer, and he is a licensed professional engineer in New York and Indiana.

Werner K. Hellmer, FACI, is Deputy Director of the Clark County Building Department, Las Vegas, NV, where he has served in various capacities since 1999. He presently oversees the Permitting, Plans Exam, and Engineering Divisions. Hellmer has been involved with some of the largest projects on the Las Vegas Strip, performing structural and geotechnical plan review, oversight of special inspection and testing programs, and monitoring of structural observation programs. He has been actively involved in the building code development process at both the local and national levels.

Hellmer’s prior experience includes working for a small engineering firm that performed geotechnical design, inspection, and testing of construction materials. He has also worked for a general contractor, performing construction management and quality assurance. His research interests include concrete anchorage and concrete durability.

Hellmer is a past Chair of ACI Committee C630, Construction Inspector Certification. He is also a member of ACI Committees C631, Concrete Transportation Construction Inspector Certification; C670, Masonry Technician Certification; C680, Adhesive Anchor Installer Certification; and C681, Concrete Anchor Installation Inspector Certification. He received the 2017 ACI Chapter Activities Award and the 2019 ACI Certification Award.

He is a committee member of the International Code Council Evaluation Service (ICC-ES) Evaluation Committee and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Structural Engineers Association of Southern Nevada.

Hellmer received his BS in civil and environmental engineering from The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA, in 1994, and his MS in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, in 2003. He is a licensed professional engineer in Nevada. He is also a Certified Building Official with ICC.

Enrique Pasquel is an ACI Honorary Member and the Founder and President of Pasquel Consultores, a consulting company focused on concrete technology and special construction processes, and Control Mix Express, a concrete quality control firm, both located in Lima, Peru.

From 1975 to 1981, he was a Researcher and Manager at the Seismic Structures and Testing Materials Laboratories in the Engineering Department of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, San Miguel, Peru. Pasquel has been a Professor of Concrete Technology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in Lima, Peru, since 1995. For more than 35 years, he has worked as a researcher, contractor, or consultant on major concrete projects, including buildings, nuclear plants, irrigation systems, airports, bridges, harbors, repairs, and restorations in Peru. From 1997 to 2011, he was R&D Manager of UNICON, Peru’s largest ready mixed concrete company.

Pasquel wrote a book on concrete technology basics and published several papers on concrete durability in severe environments, shotcrete for mining applications, volumetric changes and cracking of concrete, concrete admixtures, high- performance concrete, and behavior of concrete at high altitudes.

An ACI member since 1993, he served as President of the ACI Peru Chapter from 2001 to 2005. Pasquel became a Fellow of ACI in 2006 and an ACI Honorary Member in 2014. He received the 2007 ACI Henry C. Turner Medal and the 2007 ACI Chapter Activities Award.

Pasquel is a member of ACI Committees 237, Self- Consolidating Concrete; 304, Measuring, Mixing, Transporting, and Placing Concrete; and 305, Hot Weather Concreting; and ACI Subcommittees 318-L, International Liaison, and 318-S, Spanish Translation.

He has also been active in ASTM International since 1993, serving as a member on several ASTM technical committees and is a Certified Instructor for ASTM courses in Latin America.

He received his degree in civil engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in 1974, and training in concrete research at Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands, in 1980.

Visit concrete.org for additional information.