Past President:
Jacob Brennan - Sika
My name is Jacob Brennan, and I am a Senior Sales Representative for the Sika Corporation in the Admixtures division. I have been with Sika for over 13 years covering Southern California. I began my career in Texas in 1994 working for Pioneer Concrete in Houston and Dallas. While at Pioneer, I had stints in aggregate operations, concrete quality control and concrete operations. I then spent four years with Suncoast Post-Tension in Houston and Phoenix in commercial sales and as a plant manager. In 2003, I moved to California and worked for Campbell Concrete (later SelectBuild) where I started their post-tension and reinforcing division in Riverside. When the recession hit in early 2008, I started my own business, Premier Reinforcing, where we manufactured and installed rebar and post-tension foundations, as well as designed post-tensioned slabs on grade. I then reunited with my former Pioneer Concrete manager and started working for Sika in 2010. I graduated from Texas A&M University in 1994 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering. While working for Suncoast in Arizona, I obtained my Professional Engineering license and added licenses from Nevada and California when I moved to the west coast. I received my NRMCA Concrete Technologist Level 4 certification in 2014 and I am currently active in the ACPA (Concrete Pipe) and the CPCA (Precast) Associations. From 2019 to 2021, I served on the ACI Southern California Board as a Director. During that time, I was the Chair of the Membership Committee and the Golf Tournament Committee, and I am currently an Examiner for ACI Field Grade I Certification. In 2023, I served the chapter as Vice President and head of the Programs Committee, where we had a successful mix of technical and social events bringing ACI members and non-members together to learn and network. I currently live in Temecula with my wife, Alicia, and we have three children, Matthew (26), Joshua (24) and Emma (22). In my spare time I enjoy playing golf, “glamping” in our travel trailer and watching pretty much every Texas A&M sporting event..
President:
Sydney Zaragoza – CalPortland Company
Sydney Zaragoza is the Southwest Region Cement Technical Services Manager at CalPortland where she is responsible for the cement manufactured by CalPortland in Arizona and Southern California and the cement terminals in Arizona, Southern California, and Las Vegas, Nevada. Sydney graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Mathematics from the University of Arizona. During her studies, Sydney interned at the CalPortland Rillito Cement Plant where she focused on energy consumption at the Rillito Cement Plant as well as throughout the company. During the last five years at CalPortland, Sydney also worked as a Research Chemist at CalPortland’s Crestmore Center for Technical Excellence where she focused on cement and raw material chemistry. Sydney served as a director in 2022 and served as Treasurer from 2023 through 2024 for the ACI Southern California Chapter.
Vice President:
Margaux Burkholder – Walter P Moore
Margaux Burkholder is a licensed California structural engineer with 13 years of experience in the Los Angeles area. She has worked on a range of project types and has experience with high-rise and performance-based design, seismic retrofit and rehabilitation, multi-family residential, commercial, mixed use, retail, sports and entertainment. A graduate of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Margaux has focused her career in the high seismic regions of California, working with architects and developers to provide elegant yet cost effective structural solutions to their projects. As a result of her experience with tall buildings and performance based design, Margaux has emerged as an area expert in concrete design and served on the ACI SoCal Board of Directors from 2020-2022. She is also an active member of the Structural Engineers Association of Southern California Concrete and Sustainability committees and co-chairs the Women in Structural Engineering Committee. A personal passion for Margaux is the fostering of young students’ interest in the design and construction industry. As a result, she is a mentor for the ACE Mentor Los Angeles program and also sits on the Advisory Board for the Structural Engineering Department at Cal Poly, SLO which helps to guide the future of the curriculum and prepare future college graduates for success in the Architecture/Construction/Engineering Industry.
Directors:
Eric DeCrescenzo – Catalina Pacific Concrete, A CALPORTLAND Co.
Eric entered into the Concrete industry in January 1998 when a family friend offered a summer job driving a ready mix truck for Greene’s Ready Mixes Concrete Co. in Torrance, CA . At the time, he was a Los Angeles County Firefighter Explorer and Auxiliary Firefighter for the Santa Anna FD while going to El Camino College studying construction technology and fire science.
He drove ready mix trucks for Greene’s which became Westside Concrete under the management of Patrick Greene and Melanie O’Regan. In 2000 he took a leave of absence to open a construction business specializing in property set up for mobile homes in Coeur d’Alene, ID. This included pouring the foundation for the structure, running electrical, water and phone lines, and installing the septic system. With winter, that industry goes dormant so he returned to Southern California to driver for Westside Concrete again.
His career has included being part of projects that have shaped Los Angeles. Some such projects are Sofi Stadium, Intuit Dome, Academy Museum of Motion Picture, Guinness World Book Record Wilshire Grand Pour, LAX Automated People Mover, LAWA ConRAC, Oschin Air and Space Ctr., LACMA, Oceanwide, Shore Hotel SM.
Jon Layne – Soloman Colors
Jonathan Layne has been married for 24 years and has 3 kids who keep him busy with soccer, golf, volleyball, and an occasional Cars and Coffee. He’s been in the contracting and construction materials industry for nearly 30 years in Southern California. Starting out as a laborer in the grading business, Jonathan ‘worked his way up through the ranks’ over the years. From grading to trucking import/export, asphalt sales, transportation infrastructure construction, mine reclamation, aggregate sales, and cement sales. Over the last four years, Jonathan enjoys working for Solomon Colors/Brickform providing integral concrete pigments and concrete decorative products to distributors and contractors in Southern California, Central Coast, and Las Vegas markets. Jonathan is actively involved in both ACI SoCal and San Diego but also with NRMCA, CMACN, and CalCIMA.
Josh Willis – Cemex
Josh currently holds the role of student chapter liaison for our ACI SoCal chapter. He helped get our two student chapters at CalPoly Pomona and CalPoly SLO get started and has continued to be an active member in ACI. Josh has been very involved in the concrete industry in Southern California and has passion for being a concrete advocate. He is a Concrete Industry Management (CIM) graduate from MTSU and has been in the industry for over fifteen years. Josh is currently the Senior Quality Control Manager for Cemex in Southern California and was previously the Sustainable Infrastructure Solutions Manager at Cemex. Thank you all for your support!
Mackenzi Coan – Coan Construction
Raised by a family of concrete contractors, from a young age Mackenzi Coan was inspired seeing buildings being constructed from the ground up. She’s learned from the best tradesmen the company’s employed through the years. Today she is incredibly proud to hold the honor as the third-generation owner of Coan Construction. Passionate about the trade and its future, through ACI she is dedicated to strengthening the local industry and inspiring the next generation to join and grow within the field.
Zach Van Matre – Van Matre Lumber Company
Zach Van Matre is the Vice President of Sales at Van Matre Lumber Company, a full-service supplier specializing in wood products for concrete forming. Upon graduating from Arizona State University (ASU), Zach joined Van Matre Lumber. He and his team are committed to providing high-quality products and support to the industry through proper specifications and product knowledge. Throughout his career, Zach has been deeply involved in a wide range of projects across multiple sectors, including heavy civil infrastructure, ports, dams, bridges, and low-rise, mid-rise, and high-rise towers throughout Southern and Northern California, as well as the western United States. Notably, he contributed to the 2024 ACI Excellence in Concrete Construction Award-winning project for Mid-Rise Structures, First Place winner, Cal Poly William and Linda Frost Center in San Luis Obispo, CA. In addition to his role at Van Matre Lumber, Zach is an active member of both the Southern California and Northern California & Western Nevada Chapters of the American Concrete Institute (ACI). He has attended numerous ACI national conventions, gaining valuable insights into industry trends and engaging in constructive conversations with experienced professionals about the future of the industry, and his role within that. Recently, Zach was appointed as an Associate Member of the ACI 303 Committee on Architectural Cast-in-Place Concrete. In this capacity, he looks forward to contributing his knowledge of lumber and plywood on both a regional and national level.