Clark Promotes Four to Vice President

Bethesda, MD – Clark is pleased to announce that Brian Ahern, Mark Blackmon, Karri Novak, and Tim Stroud have been promoted to Vice President.

Recently promoted to Vice President of Clark Civil, Brian Ahern joined the company in 1999.

While still attending college, Brian started his career with Clark as a field engineer and concrete laborer on the NIH Building 40 project in Bethesda, Md. After an internship with the Walter E. Washington Convention Center team, Mr. Ahern started full-time as an office engineer on the 901 New York Avenue, NW, project.In 2002, Mr. Ahern joined the Clark Foundations/Civil team on the WMATA Largo Town Center/Morgan Boulevard Station project. Two years later, he was promoted to project manager and helped lead our efforts on the design-build WMATA Brentwood Shop Expansion where he was promoted to senior project manager.

For the past several years, as a project executive, Mr. Ahern managed Clark Civil’s efforts at Dulles International Airport, including the Tier 2/Concourse C Connector, the International Arrivals Building Expansion, the Dulles East Bag Advanced Package, and the Dulles Concourse C/D Passenger Boarding Bridges. He also currently manages operations of the $280 million WMATA Orange and Blue Line renovation project.

As Vice President, Mr. Ahern will focus on Clark Civil’s pursuits in the rail and aviation markets, as well as manage the group’s aviation portfolio, including the Dulles East and West EDS In-Line Screening, the DCA Outbound BHS, and the DCA Terminal A Security Screening Checkpoint projects.

Mr. Ahern has a bachelor’s degree from Villanova University. He is an active member of the Design-Build Institute of America’s Mid-Atlantic Region and is a certified Design-Build Professional. He also is a LEED Accredited Professional.

Mr. Blackmon joined Clark in 1997 as an office engineer on the John A. Wilson Building Renovation project in Washington, D.C. After completing the job, he was promoted to project engineer and remained on site to manage an interior fit-out for the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Blackmon was promoted to project manager while working on the Nigerian Chancery and, in that role, helped lead our efforts building Gallaudet University’s Washburn Arts Center and Academic Center.

In 2002, Mr. Blackmon was promoted to senior project manager and relocated to the Western Region. He was responsible for construction of the 960,000 square-foot, 2,279-bed San Jose State University Campus Village Housing project and Poly Canyon Village, a nine-building, 2,677-bed residential community at the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus. While at Poly Canyon Village, he was promoted to project executive.

In 2008, Mr. Blackmon relocated to Texas where he was part of the San Antonio Military Medical Center’s (SAMMC) leadership team. The $761 million hospital project was completed under the 2005 Base Relocation and Closure Act and included constructing a new 764,000 square-foot medical tower and 358,000 square feet of renovations. Following SAMMC’s completion, he returned to the Western Region on the $540 million CHCF-Stockton project. Mr. Blackmon has recently relocated to the Mid-Atlantic Region and joined the Dulles Metrorail Silver Line Phase II team as Project Controls Manager.

Mr. Blackmon holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Clemson University.

Ms. Novak started with Atkinson Construction as a college intern and joined the company full-time in 1993 as a project estimator. The following year, she transitioned to operations where she served as a project engineer on the Butte Canyon overpass, I-280 Viaduct Repair, and San Mateo Bridge Seismic Retrofit projects.  

In 1998, Ms. Novak joined Clark’s Oakland office and helped prepare estimates and bids on projects in Northern California, including the Capitol Area East End Complex in Sacramento and Genentech Hall at the University of California, San Francisco. After Clark was awarded the Genentech Hall project, Karri joined the project team.Ms. Novak relocated to Southern California in 2001 to expand the Western Region’s Preconstruction and Estimating Group. Since then, she has helped lead the group through a period of significant growth. Ms. Novak was part of the preconstruction and estimating team on many successful pursuits, including Pacific Beacon, UCSD Villages II, DCA Cars Land, Clovis Medical Center, Naval Hospital at Camp Pendleton, the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse, and Ventura County Medical Center. During this time, she also had responsibility for the Western Region’s Human Resources efforts.

In her new role, Ms. Novak will serve as the education market lead in the Western Region. 

Ms. Novak has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She is a LEED Accredited Professional and a licensed Professional Engineer.

Mr. Stroud was recently promoted to Vice President of Atkinson Construction. Mr. Stroud joined Clark in 2003 as an office engineer on the South County High School project in Fairfax County, Va. After being promoted to project engineer, he was part of the Mission Ridge at Westfields project. He was promoted to project manager in 2006.

After performing preconstruction work on 901 K Street, Mr. Stroud joined the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center project team as a senior project manager in 2009. He was responsible for managing 450,000 square feet of renovations to the existing medical facilities at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Most recently, Mr. Stroud was a project executive leading Clark’s Research and Development Group. Under his guidance, the team worked with clients and subcontractors in the Mid-Atlantic Region to refine and enhance our preconstruction services processes.

In his new role, Mr. Stroud has relocated to Southern California and joined the Atkinson team delivering the State Route 91 Corridor Improvement Project.

Mr. Stroud has bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering and systems engineering and a master’s degree in systems engineering from the University of Virginia. He is a LEED Accredited Professional, a Safety Trained Supervisor, an American Society for Healthcare Engineering Certified Healthcare Constructor, and has a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Quality Management certification.