Company Wrench, Carroll, Ohio, has announced three staff promotions within the company. Cam Gabbard has been promoted to vice president and will oversee the daily operations of the sales, service, and parts departments. Gabbard has 24 years experience working in the heavy equipment industry. Debbie Agee has been promoted to branch director. She will oversee all seven branch locations in Cleveland and Piketon, Ohio; Washington, Pa.; Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.; Augusta, Ga.;  and Pasco, Wash. Kevin Allen has been promoted to chief operations officer. He will oversee the daily operations of the service and parts departments. Allen has 10 years experience in the heavy equipment industry.

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Mark Loizeaux, president, Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI) was recently named by Engineering-News Record as one of the top 25 News Makers in the Construction Industry in 2009. Loizeaux was awarded the honor for his company’s implosion of the structurally ailing, 33 story Ocean Tower project in South Padre Island, Texas. After more than six months of intense preparation, CDI dropped building successfully on December 13, without injuries or incidents.

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Dr. Anthony E. Fiorato will head the Slag Cement Association as executive director effective February 1, 2010. Fiorato served as president and CEO of CTLGroup, an engineering, testing and research firm, from 1999 until his retirement in 2007. From 1989 to 1999 he was vice president of research and technical services for the Portland Cement Association. He joined PCA in 1973 as a structural engineer and served in a number of professional and management positions within the association and its subsidiary, CTLGroup.

Fiorato is a fellow and past president of the American Concrete Institute. He currently serves on ACI Committee 318 Structural Concrete Building Code, the ACI Standards Board, and the ACI Board Advisory Committee on ISO TC 71 on Concrete, Reinforced Concrete, and Prestressed Concrete. A fellow of ASTM International, Fiorato currently serves on ASTM Committees C01 on Cement, C09 on Concrete and Concrete Aggregates, and E36 on Laboratory and Inspection Agency Accreditation. He is chairman of Committee C09 and the Executive Committee of the Cement and Concrete Reference Laboratory.

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Jessie Weigel secretary/ treasurer of CMRA member Zanker Road Landfill and a driving force in the California recycling industry, recently passed away. He had been a leader in the recycling and solid waste business for more than 40 years. From his early beginnings as a garbage collector in the City of Mountain View to becoming president and owner of several waste collection, disposal and landfill operations, his career has been uniquely varied and singularly outstanding. As co-founder and partner of GreenWaste Recovery, Inc. and Zanker Road Resource Management, Ltd., Weigel designed and implemented several innovative processes for resource recovery. His inventions include an automated demolition debris recycling plant, and a state-of-the-art composting operation, which have been recognized by the California Resource Recovery Association for innovation. The City of San Jose has also recognized Zanker’s composting operation by awarding the facility the City’s first two-year pilot and subsequent citywide composting program.

Weigel designed and built the 52,000 square foot Material Recovery Facility at GreenWaste’s Charles Street property in San Jose which includes a single stream recycling line which processes more than 20 tons per hour and an innovative and state of the art “Dirty MRF” that is able to process and recover material at a rate of 85%. This is material that would previously have been land filled. Weigel also designed and built Z-Best’s food waste processing facility which processes more than 1,500 tons per day of compostable food waste and yard waste. Weigel was on the board of directors of both Zanker Road Resource Management and GreenWaste Recovery.

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Gary J. Lopes passed away in early February 2010. He was vice president of G. Lopes Construction Co. and also CMRA member New England Recycling Co., both in Taunton, Mass. He began working for both companies while still a student in high school. Along with his brother, Gil, he was a supporter of philanthropic causes throughout southeastern Massachusetts. The Lopes Complex for baseball in Dighton, the Lewis Field at the Taunton Boys and Girls Club were some of them. He enjoyed racing Pro-Stocks for Lopes Motorsports, camping, cooking, snowmobiling and fishing. Lopes was also a very active supporter of the Dighton-Rehoboth High School Marching Band.