HKA expands construction practice in Canada

HKA has significantly enhanced its construction consulting capabilities in Canada with the addition of nine executives across its Montreal and Calgary operations. With the new hires, HKA now employs 37 construction consulting executives in Canada, including nine testifying experts, making it one of the largest construction claims practices in the country.

HKA’s growth has coincided with its expansion into construction advisory services, providing full project lifecycle support to companies participating in large capital expansion programs. Its growth also comes as Canada’s federal and provincial governments have budgeted nearly $500 billion for infrastructure and institutional capital expansion.

“As our growth demonstrates, HKA has made the Canadian construction claims market a top priority,” said Rick Moffat, HKA Partner. “We welcome our new team members and look forward to their contribution.”

“The addition of these professionals expands our ability to support clients throughout Canada. Their skill sets complement our existing team and add depth to our Montreal and Calgary operations,” said Frank Giunta, HKA Partner and Head of Americas.

Headlining the new additions is Maged Abdelsayed, who joins as Partner based in Montreal. A professional engineer with 35 years of experience in the construction industry, Maged has provided dispute management and claims-related expertise on Canadian and international construction projects.

Maged has also served as an expert witness before various courts and arbitration panels in Canada and the United States in disputes relating to project delays, labor productivity losses, the impact of changes on construction work, and damages assessment. Maged was recently featured in Who’s Who Legal (WWL) as a top construction delay and quantum claims consultant.

The additional hires are as follows:

Michael Bodnar joins as Principal based in Calgary. Michael has 25 years of engineering experience in a range of technical and leadership roles, specializing in forensic engineering. With an educational and practical background in fluid dynamics, materials science, and fire protection engineering, he focuses on fire investigation and the analysis of other failure incidents, including water loss events.

• Nader Akkaoui joins as Director based in Montreal. With over 14 years of construction, project management, and claims & dispute resolution experience, he has held various positions working for a global engineering and construction corporation on international, multi-billion-dollar projects in North America, the Arabian Gulf and Africa. His experience spans the LNG, Mining & Metals and Infrastructure sectors.
• Charles Bucci joins as Director based in Montreal. As a professional engineer, Charles brings 13 years of experience in construction, preparing and defending construction claims related to delays, loss of productivity, quantification of damages and optimizing project management processes. He also has experience reviewing and implementing project controls and providing program and project management services for owners.
• Vincent Laroche joins as Associate Director based in Montreal. Vincent brings 10 years of experience in construction management, project planning, project estimation and project management. He has consulted on various complex projects in the private sector, including commercial, institutional and industrial buildings and provides construction advisory services to various Owner’s organizations.
• Pierre-Olivier Dionne joins as Manager based in Montreal. Pierre-Olivier has experience with the preparation of construction claims and expert reports. He has also prepared delay and forensic schedule analysis, loss of productivity analysis, project cost analysis and quantification of damages.
• Sung Ho Lee joins as Senior Associate Consultant based in Montreal. With 19 years of experience in the construction and telecommunication industries, Sung Ho has assisted team members in managing complex databases of project data, analyzing project records, preparing deliverables on mandates, and providing IT technical support.
• Kristaps Thompson joins as Senior Associate Consultant based in Montreal. Kristaps has experience assisting in preparing expert reports and construction claims regarding the analysis of delays, cost overruns and productivity losses. He also provides assistance on construction advisory services.
• Stephanie Ladurantaye joins as Administrative Assistant based in Montreal. Stephanie is an experienced administrator, holding previous positions with prominent firms such as Bombardier, Deloitte and Invessa.