Alberto Villaman,P.E.
President and CEO/Board Member
Alberto Villaman directs the daily operations of ATANE’s 550-person national and international offices. He is a strong believer in hard work and perseverance and in facing every challenge as a new opportunity. A skilled and consummate professional, Alberto has been instrumental in some of the area’s largest infrastructure improvements. Prior to being named President in March 2017, he served as Executive Vice President of the Construction Inspection Department, where he oversaw vital projects such as the Gowanus Expressway Emergency Repair, which received the 2016 ACEC NY Diamond Award. Alberto is a Professional Engineer in seven states and the District of Columbia.
Bud Griffis,PE, PhD, NA
Board Chairperson
Bud Griffis is Professor of Construction Engineering and Management at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Until July 2006, he was Provost, Dean of Engineering and Applied Science and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Polytechnic University. He is also a Professor Emeritus at Columbia University and former Principal of a New York-based engineering firm. Bud retired as a Colonel from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1986 after serving as Commander and District Engineer of the New York District, responsible for all Army and Air Force construction from Southern New Jersey to Maine, including Greenland and Labrador. In 2007, he received the Golden Eagle Award and in 2015 the Lifetime Achievement Award from SAME.
Albert DiBernardo,PE, CHPC, CHMC
Board Member
Albert DiBernardo’s distinguished career encompasses executive leadership, strategy and development, organizational and business development, quality management, and human resource development. He has served as President of an international consulting firm and on the boards of two mid-size companies. Between 1999 and 2016, he was an adjunct professor of leadership and management at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering. Albert is a Certified High Performance and Leadership Agility Coach and holds the prestigious title of ACC with the International Coach Federation, the gold standard for professional coaches. He is a Professional Engineer in New York.
Franco Balassone,PE, CCM
Executive Vice President
New England Region
Franco Balassone, Executive Vice President and New England Regional Manager, is highly experienced in the management and marketing of services for facility, school and transportation projects. Franco has been instrumental in increasing ATANE’s presence in the New England region and adding area work to our portfolio. He has led award-winning Connecticut bridge inspection programs and oversaw our critical construction engineering and inspection services on the New Haven Main Line. Prior to joining the firm, he reviewed major highway and bridge projects for the FHWA and managed projects for NYSDOT, ConnDOT, and Metro-North, among others. Franco is a Certified Construction Manager and a Professional Engineer in 19 states.
Christine Karg-Palreiro,PE
Senior Vice President
South Mid-Atlantic Region
Christine Karg-Palreiro is responsible for ATANE’s operations and business development in Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia. A seasoned industry pursuit strategist and client relationship manager, Christine brings over 25 years of leadership in marketing and managing construction, design and program management services for large-scale, complex infrastructure projects. She has successfully managed and actively supported the growth of business units serving public- and private-sector clients for national and international engineering consulting firms in the ENR Top 100. Christine is a licensed Professional Engineer and actively involved with industry organizations, including WTS, ACEC, CMAA and SAME.
John Schweppenheiser III,PE, CME
Senior Vice President
North Mid-Atlantic Region
John Schweppenheiser III oversees ATANE’s operations, marketing and business development in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. He is responsible for the design and construction management/inspection of a diverse portfolio, including highway/transportation and commercial, residential and industrial projects, including shopping centers and restaurants, utility/roadway improvements, bridge rehabilitation, residential subdivisions, green infrastructure, dams, and large-scale developments. John coordinated the design and approval of projects involving complex utility relocations and extensions, permitting, BIM modeling, LEED design, and historic considerations, while maintaining a close working relationship with state agencies, transportation owners and authorities, utility companies, and individual counties and municipalities. He is a Professional Engineer in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Raja Sekhar Nelapati
Regional Manager
India
Raja Sekhar Nelapati has extensive experience in planning and execution, design, construction, maintenance, construction materials investigation, and supervision of road and highway projects, including review of road safety management plans and implementation of remedial safety measures. He also has experience coordinating teams of consultants and engineers from executing agencies, monitoring project progress, coordinating with governmental agencies to resolve worksite issues, addressing contract-related issues, and implementing resettlement and relocation action plan/land acquisition-related issues. Prior to joining ATANE, Rajah spent 15 years with the National Highways Authority of India in roles of increasing responsibility.
Ralph Suazo,P.E.
Senior Vice President/Board Member
Construction Inspection
Ralph Suazo is highly skilled in administering, managing and supervising ATANE’s large-scale infrastructure projects. He was most recently Vice President of the Construction Inspection Department and Resident Engineer for the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel Superstorm Sandy restoration and rehabilitation project. Ralph joined ATANE after serving as a New York Division Highway Engineer for the NYSTA, with responsibility for the maintenance of more than 100 miles of superhighway. He went on to manage many of the firm’s award-winning infrastructure projects for clients such as the NYSDOT, NYCDOT, NYSBA, NCDPW, MTA Bridges & Tunnels, NYCT, and ConnDOT. Ralph is a Professional Engineer in New York.
Jeffrey Terzakis,CCM
Senior Vice President
Construction Management
Jeff Terzakis, a Certified Construction Manager, oversees a distinctive range of CM services, including program management, CM/design-build and overall project management under a CM as Advisor capacity. Jeff has led many of the firm’s most prominent CM undertakings, offering our clients his wide-ranging experience in the construction management of housing, healthcare, educational, transportation, aviation, municipal and commercial facilities. His comprehensive project management experience focuses on complex capital programs and developments in both the private and public sectors. Jeff anticipates issues from the outset and manages outcomes through preparedness, consensus and accountability.
Mahmood Mohammed,PE
Executive Vice President/Board Member
Structural Inspection and Evaluation
Mahmood Mohammed heads the Structural Inspection and Evaluation Department, which comprises over 30 inspection teams conducting more than 1,000 bridge and 700 ancillary inspections annually. His expertise has been instrumental in making ATANE one of the Northeast region’s premier bridge inspection and analysis firms. Mahmood has managed the inspection and evaluation of over 4,000 bridges and 3,500 ancillary structures, including major bridges like the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, the first extradosed bridge in the U.S. He also led the first-of-its-kind investigation/monitoring of the Gold Star Bridge, which received an ACEC NY Platinum Award. Mahmood is a Professional Engineer in 10 states.
Paul Nietzschmann,PE
Executive Vice President
Engineering Design
Paul Nietzschmann, Executive Vice President of Engineering Design, joined ATANE after serving for 14 years as Vice President and Senior Vice President of a global engineering consulting firm, most recently leading the Bridge Design practice across New York and New Jersey. His distinguished career encompasses project management, design, inspection and seismic and structural analysis for major bridges, highways and transit structures in complex urban areas. He is a Professional Engineer in New York and New Jersey and recipient of the ASCE Met Section 2013 Civil Engineer of the Year and 2017 Roebling awards.
Todd Yanoff,PE
Senior Vice President
Water/Wastewater
As Senior Vice President of the Water/Wastewater Department, Todd Yanoff has key involvement on the firm’s infrastructure work on tunnels, dams, aqueducts, CSOs and other water/wastewater facilities. He is especially adept at organizational and operational assessments and managerial and strategic planning for the effective delivery of projects and major construction initiatives. Projects under his purview include citywide wastewater treatment plant capital improvements, for which ATANE is providing full-time, on-site management. Prior to joining the firm, Todd served as Resident Engineer for several New York State Thruway projects. He is a Professional Engineer in New York.
Alfred D. Barcenilla,Sr., PE, P.L.S.
Senior Vice President
Land Surveying and Mapping
Alfred Barcenilla directs ATANE’s Land Surveying and Mapping Department, which performs major topographical, property line, right-of-way, utility, construction, design and control surveys employing state-of-the-art high-definition 3D laser scanning and subsurface utility ground penetrating radar equipment as well as Mobile LiDAR. As Chief of Survey, he has overseen survey and mapping services for NYCT, Metro-North, LIRR and PANYNJ. During his tenure, he managed and coordinated the Ground Zero survey monitoring and mapping for the 9/11 rescue, recovery and demolition phases. Al is a Professional Engineer in New York and a Professional Land Surveyor in New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
Richard Hallahan,P.E.
Senior Vice President
Special Inspections and Material Testing
Richard Hallahan heads ATANE’s Special Inspection Department and its state-of-the-art material testing laboratories. He is adept at construction, materials inspection, special and controlled inspections, inspection monitoring, progress inspections, building assessments, and quality control. Projects under his purview have included batch plant inspections for all MTA Capital Construction and NYCT projects under construction; post-Superstorm Sandy inspections in hard-hit areas of New York City; SCA special inspections at more than 300 facilities citywide; special and forensic inspections at NYCHA housing developments; and special inspections for a platform over active LIRR tracks that will support two high-rise towers at Hudson Yards. Rich is a Professional Engineer in New York and New Jersey.
Anish Deshpande,PE, PG
Assistant Vice President/Senior Project Manager
Environmental Services
Anish Deshpande is a leading member of our Environmental practice, which serves developers, real estate property owners, asset investors, and facility managers as well as public agencies. His in-depth experience encompasses employment with A/E/C consulting firms and environmental specialty organizations. He has led a task order contract for USEPA-compliant environmental site assessments and investigations of brownfield sites for the NYC Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation. As Project Manager for the Chelsea Piers Redevelopment, Anish led environmental engineering services for a proposed private redevelopment that required remediation of VOC and SVOC contamination via Best Management Practices. Anish is a Professional Engineer in New Jersey and a Professional Geologist in New Hampshire.
Meryle A. Kaleda
Vice President and General Counsel
As General Counsel, Meryle Kaleda advises senior management on all corporate legal matters pertaining to contracts, procurement, risk management, regulatory compliance, finance, human resources and employment, and safety. She reviews, drafts and negotiates contracts and other business agreements and provides insurance defense litigation oversight and insurance contract compliance supervision. Prior to joining ATANE, she served as Associate General Counsel and Vice President of a New York City-based women/minority-owned professional design and construction firm. Meryle is admitted to practice law in New York State and the Second District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Andrew Sandor
Senior Vice President
Business Development
Andrew Sandor directs ATANE’s business development initiatives with a combination of technical and business development acumen that enables him to assemble quality teams, lead successful project pursuits, and maintain ongoing relationships with clients, partners and subcontractors. A key decision maker on strategic teaming, Andrew’s distinguished 35-year career includes overseeing and implementing business development/marketing strategies across various market segments and geographic regions. As a civil engineer, his early work included construction and condition inspections, structural design, and project management for a diversity of projects. Andrew has served on several agency subcommittees, including the PANYNJ, NJ Transit, NYSTA, and DASNY.
Yusuf Poonawala,PE, F.ASCE
Senior Vice President
Marketing
Yusuf Poonawala, Senior Vice President of the Marketing Department, is responsible for developing strategic business and marketing plans and managing operations for ATANE’s ongoing work in India. His proven leadership capabilities and wealth of diversified experience have resulted in annual sales of over $150 million. As Senior Engineer, Yusuf reviews technical scopes of work for all infrastructure and facility construction and rehabilitation projects and prepares project engineering technical approach reports and labor and cost estimates for governmental agencies throughout the eastern US. Yusuf is a Professional Engineer in ten states and an ASCE Fellow.
