Building Congress Event
2019 Industry Recognition Gala
Victoria J. Cerami
Chief Executive Officer
Cerami & Associates
www.ceramiassociates.com
Cerami has earned a reputation as one of the premier acoustical and technology engineering firms in the country. Under Victoria Cerami’s leadership, the firm has grown to be the largest woman owned firm working on building design projects globally.
The firm has worked with world class developers and architects on project designs such as the World Trade Center, Museum of Modern Art, Comcast Innovation Center, FaceBook and Google, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Princeton University.
Victoria is passionate about the firm’s role in public outreach with a focus on mentorship and sponsorship of women. She sits on the Board of ACE (Architecture, Construction, and Engineering) which mentors inner city high school students. The firm sponsors a woman each year entering college to study mechanical engineering in honor of her Father, Vito Cerami.
Victoria is also a board member for the New York Building Congress, member of the University of Hartford’s Board of Regents, Co-Chairwoman of the Council of Industry Woman, and past Chairwoman of the University of Hartford’s Institute of Science and Technology Building Initiative Program.
Victoria holds a Master’s in Business from MIT’s Sloan School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hartford. '
Mitchel W. Simpler, P.E., FACEC
Partner, Managing Partner Emeritus
Jaros, Baum & Bolles
www.jbb.com
Mitchel Simpler joined Jaros, Baum & Bolles, one of New York’s premier consulting engineering firms, in 1977, and has served as its Managing Partner since 2012. He has acted as Project Manager and Partner-in-Charge on high-rise office buildings, healthcare and life science facilities, museums, residential and mixed-use buildings as well as hotels.
Notable among Mr. Simpler’s projects are 1 and 5 Times Square; the Jerome L. Greene Science Center at the Columbia University Manhattanville campus; the New York Genome Center; the Belfer Research Building, the Whitney Pavilion and the Imaging Building for the Weill Cornell Medical College; and the Rohm & Haas Research Center in Shanghai, China. Mr. Simpler has also worked on cultural facilities and landmark buildings such as the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is currently working on the TWA Hotel, the highly anticipated reimagining of Eero Saarinen’s landmark TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport.
Mr. Simpler holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in New York State and a Fellow of the American Council of Engineering Companies, currently serving as National Chairman for ACEC.
ACE Mentor Program of America
Accepted by
Peter J. Davoren
Chairman, ACE National Board
President & CEO, Turner Construction Company
www.acementor.org
The ACE Mentor Program is a not-for-profit organization that helps prepare high school students for careers in design and construction. Their mission is to engage, excite and enlighten high school students to pursue careers in architecture, engineering, and construction management through mentoring and to support their continued advancement in the industry.
The program was founded in New York City in 1994 by leading architects, contractors, engineers and owners. In the 2018-2019 school year, the program, nationally, engaged over 9,500 students and 3,700 volunteer mentors. ACE has 70 affiliates and operates in 36 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico and has presence in more than 200 cities.
ACE not only engages sponsors and volunteer mentors to expose students to real-world opportunities, it financially supports each student's continued success through scholarships and grants and since its inception has awarded over $15 million in scholarships to promising participants.
By working with professionals in real work environments, ACE students receive an invaluable hands-on education — they learn to understand the day-to-day workings of a business by living it, experiencing it, and not merely reading about it.
