The American Concrete Institute (ACI) introduced its new president, vice president, and four board members during the ACI Spring 2009 Convention in San Antonio, Texas.

New ACI President Florian G. Barth officially assumed his one-year term, and new Vice President Kenneth C. Hover began his two-year term, while four new Board members began their three-year terms.

Barth is the founder and former president of FBA, Inc., a structural engineering firm with offices in the San Francisco Bay area, Sacramento, and Orange County, Calif., specializing in concrete structures. He is a professional engineer with over 30 years of experience, having analyzed, designed, and evaluated more than 700 prestressed concrete structures. He has been a member of numerous ACI technical committees, including being a voting member of ACI Committee 318, Structural Concrete Building Code, since 1995.

Hover is professor of civil and environmental engineering and Stephen Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. An ACI member since 1980, he currently chairs ACI Committee 301-C, Concrete Mixtures, Handling, Placing, Consolidating, and Curing, and serves on several other technical committees. Hover previously served on the ACI Board of Direction and was named a Fellow of ACI in 1992.

Elected as a new member of ACI’s Board of Direction is Dennis C. Ahal, chairman and CEO of Ahal Contracting Company, Inc., a 63-year-old concrete contracting firm in St. Louis, Mo., that specializes in flatwork, tilt-up, small foundations, and architectural concrete. He has 48 years of experience in the concrete business, with 23 as president of Ahal Contracting and nine as its chairman. He currently serves as Secretary of ACI Committee 302, Construction of Concrete Floors.

Emmanuel K. Attiogbe has also begun his post as a member of ACI’s Board of Direction. He is currently head of technical services at BASF Construction Chemicals, LLC–Admixture Systems in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to joining BASF Construction Chemicals (then Master Builders) in 1990, he was a structural engineer with Associated Consultants in Accra, Ghana, and a research engineer, first at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., and then at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.

Also joining the ACI Board of Direction for the first time is Ron Klemencic. He is president of Magnusson Klemencic Associates, Inc., an award-winning structural and civil engineering firm based in Seattle, Wash. He is a Fellow of ACI and a member of several technical committees, including 318, Structural Concrete Building Code.

Joseph C. Sanders, a 30-year veteran in the field of construction, also joins the ACI Board of Direction this year. Sanders is senior vice president and director of Operations for the Charles Pankow Builders, Ltd. (CPBL), Pasadena, Calif., a division of Pankow, one of the foremost innovators of concrete construction methodologies and an industry leader in design-build project delivery in the U.S. Since joining Pankow in 1979 as a field engineer, Sanders has held various leadership roles including project sponsor, regional manager, and director of engineering.