The Association for the Capital Projects Engineering & Construction Community.

The Prestigious ECC Awards

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Honored at the Annual ECC Conference, the ECC Awards are given to the most inspirational, exemplary, outstanding industry executives and leaders. Winners must meet a varied list of criteria and are selected by a special committee of distinguished and esteemed industry pioneers.

ECC Achievement Award

The ECC Achievement Award was originally introduced to the industry in 1988 as the ECC Division Award, and has been honoring recipients who exhibited the most well-rounded aspects of a true industry leader. This prestigious award honors industry professionals who are:

  • Bold risk-takers
  • True visionaries
  • Leaders with integrity
  • Professionals who have had a lasting and positive impact on the competitive face of business; and
  • Candidates who possess stature among their industry peers.

Past recipients of this award vary from high-office executives to doctorate-level engineers. Dating all the way back to the ‘80s, these amazing examples of industry pioneers are:

2023 Recipient: Richard “Dick” Westney

Richard “Dick” Westney
Director
R/MW Consulting, Inc.

Richard (Dick) Westney is Director of R/MW Consulting, Inc., implementing the firm’s Planet-Centric PM™ methodology to assist owner/operators and service providers in navigating the energy transition. Previously the founder of Westney Consulting Group Inc., (acquired by McKinsey & Company in 2019) his consulting areas include strategic project planning, risk management, and organization effectiveness for projects in the upstream, midstream, downstream, renewable, and petrochemical sectors.

Dick is the author or co-author of six books on project management, the most recent being The ESG Planning Guide for Energy Projects. He has served as visiting faculty for graduate and executive programs at Texas A&M, Rice, and Stanford Universities, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Houston, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and Moscow School of Management.

A licensed professional engineer and certified project management professional, Dick received the ECC Achievement Award in 2023, and was inducted into the National Academy of Construction in 2016. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the City College of New York, an MS in Management Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an Executive MBA from Harvard Business School.

Based in Houston, he can be reached at r_westney@richardwestney.com

2022 Recipient: John Zachry

John B. Zachry
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Zachry Group

John Zachry is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Zachry Group. Zachry Group provides engineering, construction, maintenance, turnarounds/outages, pipe fabrication and other services across multiple energy, industrial and manufacturing markets. The company employs 20,000 people and has offices across North America, and the Philippines. Additional affiliated businesses include oil and gas exploration/production, real estate, software development, energy transition/decarbonization, and consulting.

John earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University and a M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. Active within the industry, John is a member of the National Academy of Construction and the Construction Industry Round Table and is a past Chairman of the Construction Industry Institute. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Texas A&M University College of Engineering Advisory Council and on the Board of Directors of the Association of Former Students. His civic volunteer activities include serving on the Board of Trustees of the United Way and the Texas Biomedical Research Institute. In addition, John is a Trustee of the Texas Foundation for Conservation and serves as a Director of the San Antonio Livestock Exposition, where he is a past member of the Executive Committee. John is a past Chairman of the American Heart Association–Southwest Affiliate Boardandapast Chairmanof the Board of Trustees of San Antonio Academy. He is also a former member of the Executive Committee of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation and the Alamo Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He is a past Board member of the Texas Research & Technology Foundation, Clear Channel Communications, and the San Antonio Spurs. Currently, John serves on the Board of Directors of D.M. Weekley, Inc. John and his wife, Laura, have three sons and live in San Antonio.

2021 RECIPIENT: GREG GARLAND

Greg Garland
Chairman and CEO of Phillips 66

Greg Garland is chairman and CEO of Phillips 66, a diversified energy manufacturing and logistics company. A chemical engineer, Garland has 40 years of industry experience in technical and executive leadership positions within the oil and natural gas and chemicals industries.

Previously, Garland had served as senior vice president, Exploration and Production, Americas, for ConocoPhillips since 2010. Prior to joining ConocoPhillips, Garland was president and chief executive officer of Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, which is now a joint venture between Phillips 66 and Chevron. Before his election to that position, Garland served Chevron Phillips as senior vice president, Planning & Specialty Chemicals. His prior experience includes serving as general manager of Qatar/Middle East for Phillips, a position he assumed in 1997. From 1995 to 1997, he served as general manager of natural gas liquids after serving as manager of planning and development in planning and technology. From 1992 to 1994, he was manager of the K-Resin® business unit.

Garland began his career with Phillips in 1980 as a project engineer for the Plastics Technical Center. He later worked as a sales engineer for Phillips' plastics resins, business service manager for advanced materials, business development director, and olefins manager for chemicals.

He is the chairman and CEO of Phillips 66 Partners. He serves on the board of directors for Phillips 66 Partners, DCP Midstream, Amgen, the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, the Greater Houston Partnership, Junior Achievement for Southeast Texas, and the National Petroleum Council. He is chairman of American Petroleum Institute and a member of the engineering advisory board for Texas A&M University. He is also one of the founding CEOs of the American Cancer Society’s CEOs Against Cancer initiative in the U.S. Gulf Coast region and a member of the Board of Visitors for MD Anderson.

Garland received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Texas A&M University in 1980.

2019 Recipient: Janice L. Tuchman

Janice L. Tuchman
Editor-in-Chief, Engineering News-Record

For the past 2 decades, Janice (Jan) Lyn Tuchman has served as Editor-in-Chief at Engineering News-Record (ENR), the magazine the industry depends on for weekly news, long-term trend analysis, and in-depth features on important events and accomplishments in construction. For most industry leaders, Jan is something of a fixture—ever present at the important conferences and meetings, always involved in the vanguard initiatives—reliably making sense of the rapid change and evolving challenges faced by executives and project professionals alike. The focused and forward-looking content she produces with her team, week after week, reflects her long career at ENR and her ascent to its editorship.

Jan received a BS in Journalism with a minor in Architecture as well as a master’s in Journalism at University of Colorado in Boulder. She was hired at ENR as an assistant editor in 1976, then in 2001, rose to the position she holds today, taking charge of the entire magazine. For her, the job of editor-in-chief is a twofold sacred trust: to keep news and data flowing to help keep the industry vital and evergreen; and to keep the flame of ENR—a pioneer of business-to-business journalism published since 1874— burning brightly. Keeping both commitments requires a tremendous sensitivity to change. Indeed, in this role, the challenge of keeping up with the pace of change in the industry is matched only by that of keeping up with new developments in publishing. In this regard, Jan helped manage ENR’s conversion to desktop publishing, guided the launch of its website, and advocated for its mobile news app and its current tablet-based app. 

To keep the industry informed, Jan keeps the magazine focused on current market challenges and opportunities, while staying alert to emerging trends and breakthroughs. In 2012, she oversaw the launch of ENR’s 10 regional editions, to respond to readers’ calls for more news about their own diverse and complex markets. Led by Jan’s vision, ENR enterprise is now on multiple platforms, offering print, electronic, and in-person content. 

As part of her commitment to recruiting young people into construction, she led a federally funded project to custom-publish a series of magazines for high school students about high-growth industries such as construction. The program, called In Demand, published a million of copies of each issue for distribution in every U.S. high school. 

Watch the video

2018 Recipient: Neil Duffin

  • 2017 - Jacqueline Hinman, CH2M
  • 2016 - James G. Slaughter, Jr. S&B Founder (retired)
  • 2015 - John W. Dalton, Sr. - Wood Group Mustang (retired) — Watch the video
  • 2014 - Richard Tucker, Founder, Construction Industry Institute, National Academy of Construction
  • 2013 - Emmitt Nelson, Shell (retired), Co-Founder Zero Injury Institute
  • 2012 - Alan Boeckmann, Chairman, Fluor
  • 2011 - Khalid Farid, Sr. Vice President, Strategic Planning, AMEC
  • 2010 - Dr. Jorge Vanegas, Dean, College of Architecture, Texas A&M University
  • 2009 - Don Vardeman, Vice President of Worldwide Projects, Anadarko
  • 2008 - Louis J. Cabano, Chairman, Pathfinder LLC
  • 2007 - Noel G. Watson, Executive Chairman, Jacobs Engineering Group
  • 2006 - Bill Greehey, Chairman of the Board, Valero Energy Corporation
  • 2005 - James B. Porter, Jr., Du Pont
  • 2004 - Bill Higgs and Paul Redmon, Mustang Engineers
  • 2003 - Larry Evans, AspenTech
  • 2002 - Jeet Bindra, Chevron/Caltex
  • 2001 - Ed Merrow, IPA
  • 2000 - Hugh K. Coble, Fluor Corporation
  • 1999 - John Mihm, Phillips Petroleum Company
  • 1998 - William A. Brookshire, S&B Engineering & Constructors Ltd.
  • 1997 - W. I. (Irv) Doty, Shell Oil
  • 1996 - Ted C. Kennedy, BE&K Inc.
  • 1995 - Shelby Pierce, Amoco Corp.
  • 1994 - Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr., Bechtel Group, Inc.
  • 1993 - Robert H. Miller, E.I. duPont de Nemours & Company
  • 1992 - Dr. Joseph J. Jacobs, Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.
  • 1991 - Wallace L. Tanner, Shell Oil
  • 1990 - Dave Tappan, Fluor Daniel
  • 1989 - Al Crosby, Exxon
  • 1988 - Albert Dib, Bubler, King & Bubler