Announcements

Past 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.

 

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.

 

Vice President:

Andrew Metropolis - Turner Construction

 Andrew Metropolis is currently a Senior Project Engineer with Turner Construction, based out of their Anaheim office. Andrew received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts. Throughout his studies, Andrew and was able to serve co-ops with CDM Smith and Turner, prior to joining Turner full time upon graduation. Starting his career in Boston, Andrew gained experience as a field engineer performing line and grade surveying, working directly with Turner’s concrete self-perform division. Andrew has applied his appreciation for the trades and technical field knowledge established during his time as a field engineer to his other roles within the company. As his career has progressed, Andrew’s positions have included Project Superintendent, SPD Project Manager, and Senior Project Engineer, within the education, aviation, pharmaceutical, and healthcare market segments.  Andrew’s exposure to concrete includes his time performing layout with Turner’s concrete self-perform division, working as a Superintendent of foundation and structure activities, and as a Project Engineer managing the concrete and structure scopes. Throughout his experience, Andrew has found passion in lean construction, and was the Project Superintendent of a nationally recognized “Lean Go and See” job within Turner. As concrete activities can be a significant schedule driver, Andrew sees extreme value in working with his concrete trade partners to develop the most efficient and effective plan to achieve success for all parties. Andrew values the relationship with his trade partners and understands their expertise is invaluable.

Directors:

Jered Miller – Penetron USA

I grew up on the aggregate side of the industry working over the summers for my father Mark Miller Vice President for Warner Corporations/Foster Sand and Gravel.  I left the industry after school to join the US Navy Submarines and served for just over a decade.  Unfortunately, due to an injury on duty I was medically/honorably retired.  I went to college up in Michigan and graduated from their concrete program.

After graduating Summa Cum Laude, I worked for the Quickrete companies and handled QA/QC for the Western Region as well as the Mountain Region (Quikrete manufacturing plants, Pavestone plants, Veneer Stone plants, Block Plants and Custom-Building supplies).  I was responsible for optimizing mix designs, writing programs to calculate bottle necks, preparing sites for internal/county/state/federal audits, aggregate approvals and jobsite inspections.

I left Quikrete to care for my daughter who spent the better part of her early childhood in and out of hospitals.  In 2021/2022 she was successfully diagnosed and has since not had to stay at a hospital.After my daughter and I acclimated to this new freedom it was time to rejoin the industry. I joined Penetron USA in July of 2024 as Southern California, Arizona and Nevada’s account manager.  Penetron produces and supplies crystalline waterproofing and anti-microbial admixture for concrete. Thank you Board Members for taking the time to review my request to join ACI So Cal.

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.

 

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.

 

 

Stephanie Weldon – Largo Concrete

Stephanie Weldon is currently a Senior Project Manager with Largo Concrete, working on projects based out of Orange County, Los Angeles and San Diego. Stephanie received a B.S. in Civil Engineering from NYU. Her career started at Kiewit Infrastructure in the bay area as a field engineer and superintendent working on water and wastewater treatment projects. Stephanie then pivoted her career to commercial construc-on with Cahill Contractors’ self-perform concrete division before moving to Orange County and joining Largo Concrete. Stephanie holds two ACI cer-fica-ons, an F-number technician cer-fica-on and an OSHA 30 cer-fica-on. She has served mul-ple years as an Architecture Construc-on Engineering (ACE) mentor for high school students and on the UC Riverside Women in Leadership Execu-ve Program Advisory Board. Stephanie is proud to have been a part of the LAX ConRAC QTA team that won the 2023 ACI Infrastructure award and is even more proud to be a mom of two future ACI members.