Burns & McDonnell Launches Expansion of Life Sciences Capabilities
International engineering, construction and architecture firm Burns & McDonnell is redoubling its support of the life sciences industry. The firm has hired a dozen professionals across the country, collectively bringing more than 200 years of additional design and construction experience in the pharmaceutical, biotech, animal health, medical device and gene therapy sectors.
“The life sciences industry is facing demand like we’ve never seen before,” says Mike Fenske, senior vice president and Global Facilities Group general manager at Burns & McDonnell. “With this demand comes a host of challenges, including managing cost, enhancing quality and accelerating speed to market. We’re expanding our Life Sciences Team to help clients tackle those challenges with integrated design-build solutions. Our experienced team’s design-build delivery approach helps us eliminate waste, increase productivity and reduce cost.”
Within the past three years, Burns & McDonnell has supported manufacturing projects that have helped customers achieve a less than 2% variance from front-end loading-3 (FEL-3) — an advanced stage of engineering design — to construction on a combined total project cost of more than $2.5 billion. The firm’s multidisciplinary Life Sciences Teamdelivers complete design and construction services — with a focus on project execution — to drive informed decisions and control costs.
Recent additions to the firm’s national group include:
Southeast
Edwin Paoli Perez leads the process architecture and life science facility design team for Burns & McDonnell. As a senior technologist and process architect, Edwin possesses more than two decades of experience in advanced manufacturing, biotech, life sciences, oral solid dosage, active pharmaceutical ingredient, highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients and therapeutics. Throughout his career, Perez has led business and technology development, front-end design and master planning for both greenfield and brownfield projects ranging from $10 million to $2 billion.
Todd Mion leads facilities integration projects throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions. Specializing in front-end architectural design, Mion has nearly two decades of industry experience as a designer and project manager within the architectural design, corporate facilities management and multidiscipline architecture/engineering, advanced manufacturing, semiconductor and microelectronics, solar panel manufacturing and bio-fuels sectors. He has overseen facilities integration projects for clients in the automotive, chemical, defense, food and beverage, and life science industries.
Nicholas Williams leads mechanical systems projects throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions. With more than 25 years of industry experience, Williams specializes in equipment specification and procurement for life science projects. With extensive knowledge in material handling, process capabilities and vessel design, he has successfully served clients in the chemical, food and beverage, metals, mining, pharmaceutical and recycling industries.
Neil Gamble leads pharmaceutical process design services for a wide range of life sciences projects. Throughout the past four years, Gamble has delivered comprehensive design solutions to clients in the biotechnical, industrial manufacturing, life science and pharmaceutical industries. He is well-versed in the conceptual and detailed design of chromatography, bioreactors and utility systems, including the development of Water for Injection, industrial water and wastewater systems within projects across the U.S. ranging from $30 million to $2 billion.
Chris Funk leads consumer products, microelectronics, pharmaceutical, health and beauty care, oral care, fibers, liquid detergents, chemical, nuclear, water treatment, environmental and pulp and paper projects for Burns & McDonnell in Greenville, South Carolina. Chris brings more than 30 years of experience in mechanical engineering and construction. He is a registered professional engineer in South Carolina.
Heiko Stugg leads a wide range of manufacturing, advanced manufacturing and life science projects across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions, including automotive, semiconductor, microelectronics, solar panel, chemical, institutional, laboratory, ports of entry and shipyard, chemical and carbon fiber plant and health, beauty and oral care. He brings nearly three decades of electrical experience in engineering and construction, including more than 15 years of experience with medium voltage distribution systems. Throughout his career, he’s supported more than 50 projects — up to $1 billion in size — for clients across the U.S. He is a registered professional engineer in five states and a leader in arc flash and shock hazard assessments and mitigation.
Mike Glenn supports pharmaceutical and manufacturing clients’ critical facility and infrastructure project needs. Glenn has more than 30 years of international consulting, engineering and construction experience working with public and private sector clients in industrial, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, technology and federal industries. He’s successfully managed numerous global, multimillion-dollar initiatives.
David Haselton is dedicated to project delivery and execution for pharmaceutical, biotech and gene therapy clients. He is primarily focused on developing client solutions through design-build project execution strategies. Haselton’s significant experience broadens the firm’s project delivery and execution capabilities for pharmaceutical clients.
Midwest
Spencer Chestnut leads process engineering for animal health, oral solids and liquid dosage product manufacturing. He brings a depth of experience in manufacturing processes at a large animal health facility, where he led the design, qualification and validation of equipment sets. He also managed plant expansions for new product lines, including compressed solid dosage, extrusion, medical implant and non-sterile liquid mixing.
Fritz Hengge leads manufacturing and industrial, pharmaceutical, institutional, commercial and food, beverage and consumer products projects throughout the Upper Midwest. As both a licensed professional architect, with certifications in 18 states, and registered professional engineer in Wisconsin, Hengge has served in a variety of roles on complex projects. By leveraging his more than 20 years of experience in architectural design, project management and construction administration, he’s delivered innovative design solutions and projects for laboratories, industrial facilities, warehouses and commercial office spaces across the U.S.
Haider Tarar leads process engineering for aseptic fill/finish manufacturing projects in the pharmaceuticals sector. His project experience includes remediation, process design/optimization, validation and capital project management for a large sterile, injectable manufacturing plant. He is certified by the Parenteral Drug Association in aseptic processing and in regulatory affairs by the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society. He also holds a certification in Lean Six Sigma.
Northeast
Craig Dahlin leads technology deployment in highly regulated sectors throughout the Northeast. Equipped with 37 years of experience as a project controls engineer, data analyst and an investigator, Dahlin is skilled in construction, maintenance, manufacturing, industrial process and technology development services. He has served industrial clients at labor, subcontractor, vendor, government agency and senior management levels, delivering industrial process technology improvements to maximize organizational efficiency.
