Advisory Board

James "Jim" Becker

Cornell B.S. Civil & Environmental Engr '65
MS Civil & Environmental Engr '67
Skanska AB

James M. Becker is a Vice President of Skanska AB, the third largest global contractor. Dr. Becker is responsible for Special Projects that look to knowledge sharing between Skanska AB's 14 Business Units. Additionally, he is active within Skanska USA Building as an Account Manager in the Higher Education Market.

Prior to his current position, Dr. Becker was the President and CEO of Beacon Skanska Inc. (now Skanska's New England office), which were sold to Skanska by Beacon Properties in 1997. Several of Dr. Becker's projects have been awarded the national AON “Build America” Award, one of the construction industry's highest honors; these include Rowes Wharf in Boston and Sage Hall at Cornell University.

Dr. Becker received degrees from Cornell University and a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley. He was a professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and the Center for Real Estate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He is Past President of the Associated General Contractors of Massachusetts; former Chairman of The Engineering Center Education Trust, Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Cornell University and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Brimmer & May School.

Ben Holzman

Ben Holzman has delivered impact across a variety of sectors including finance, technology, and business services. As the Director of Sales Operations and Strategy at Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM), the leading provider of information lifecycle management solutions, Ben sets direction and oversees implementation of new initiatives for the firm's North American sales forces. Prior to Iron Mountain, Ben spent five years at Fidelity Ventures and helped lead the firm's push into infrastructure software, focusing the firm on systems, server, storage and security management software. Ben also served clients across a wide variety of industries as a consultant with McKinsey & Company. He holds a B.S.E. in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from Duke University and an M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.

Richard W. Jennings, FAIA

Richard Jennings has been involved in the design and construction of more than $1 billion of commercial office buildings, hotels, and mixed use developments for such clients as Prudential Insurance Company, Hines Interests and the Marriott Corporation in his more than thirty years of experience in architecture, construction and real estate. Jennings has been involved in real estate development and consulting, as President and CEO of a nationally-operating architectural firm and Senior Vice President of 3D/International, a global design and construction management company. He is a member of the Project Management Institute and a licensed real estate broker. A graduate of Harvard University, Jennings is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, holds the National Council of Architectural Boards (NCARB) certificate, and is registered to practice architecture in multiple states. Richard taught in the School of Architecture at Rice University, has authored several articles, and holds Master of Design Studies, (MDes) Master of Architecture, (MArch) Master of Business Administration, (MBA) and Bachelor of Science degrees (BS).

Prof. Dr. Spiro N. Pollalis

Spiro N. Pollalis is Professor of Design Technology and Management at the Harvard Design School. He received his first engineering degree from the National Technical University of Athens and his Master's and PhD from MIT. His MBA in high technology is from Northeastern University, and his honorary Master's degree in Architecture is from Harvard.

Pollalis's design area is signature bridges, central to urban and regional development. He also specializes in project management of high-profile projects, and in the applications of information technology to facilitate the process and management of such projects.

In 1997 Pollalis founded the Center for Design Informatics (CDI) at the GSD, which he directed until the Center closed in 2004. The center was dedicated to the exploration of Internet and technology in the design, real estate and construction fields. Pollalis has conducted research for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the General Services Administration (GSA) and has been visiting professor at the ETH-Zurich and at the TU-Delft.

He has applied information technology to enable his teaching since the mid 1990s, has received grants for the research of IT-based local and remote teaching, has served as a member of the Harvard Academic Computing Committee (HACC), has co-chaired the Harvard-wide Internet and Society conference in 2000, and was the head of ETH-World Center at ETH-Zurich during his sabbatical year 2001-2002.

Pollalis is the author of numerous papers and several books including: "Concept and Implementation of the new Boston Bridge" (forthcoming), "The Making of Bilbao Guggenheim Museum" (forthcoming), Stretching Time and Space (2001), Remote Teaching (2000), What is a Bridge? (1999, 2002), Build-Operate-Transfer (1996), Case Studies on Management and Technology (1993), and Computer-Aided Project Management (1993); the editor of Uncertainty and Risk in International Construction Markets (1996) and the co-inventor of the patented Task Management (1991).

At the GSD, Pollalis is academic advisor in the area of Project Management at the Master in Design Studies program. He served as Director of the Doctor of Design and Master in Design Studies programs for the period 1995-2002.

Harvard Gazette newspaper links:

• Prof. Pollalis's contribution to the Zakim bridge in Boston: Harvard's help spans Charles River.
• Green buidlings: Pushing the Envelope, Building Envelopes.
• Designer's work and the Internet: The revolution.
• Remote synchronous education: She's In a class by herself.
• Excerpt from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, People, Faculty.

Gabor Vizvary

A 1964 electrical engineering graduate from the Hungarian Air Force Academy, Gabor immigrated to Canada in 1966 and worked in various capacities in the consulting engineering field, gradually gravitating toward site inspection, commissioning, contract and project management and administration.

Gabor is the President and CEO of Integral Engineering Ltd. a Toronto based M&E consulting engineering firm since 1983. Prior to 1983, Gabor served as Contracts Manager for Cansult Ltd., a Toronto based international multidisciplinary consulting engineering company in their Muscat, Oman office and as Managing Director for Rybka Smith and Ginsler Ltd. M&E consulting engineering company in their London (UK) office.

Drawing on 40 years of experience he is also providing contract administration and project management services to prominent luxury hotels in collaboration with Rybka Smith and Ginsler Ltd, now a division of Marshall Macklin Monaghan, a major Canadian multidisciplinary consulting engineering company.