Advisory Council

Kristin Barbato

Organization: Build Edison

Occupation: Founder

Kristin Barbato has a long career in energy and sustainability leadership and has held various executive positions in both private and public sector.  She provides energy management advisory services for customers and investors as well as go-to-market and planning strategies for cleantechs and ESCOs. With her experience running large operations along with her tenure as both a provider and buyer of energy services for utilities, commercial/industrial companies, and municipalities, she provides unique energy market insight to move strategies into commercial action. As the founder of Build Edison, her company helps bridge the gap to commercialization for cleantechs and provides faster insights for investors and customers. Ms. Barbato graduated Cornell University with a B.S. in Civil Engineering. She also holds an M.S. in Organizational Leadership from Mercy College and completed her MBA in Finance and Economics from Columbia University in May 2008. 

James M. Becker

Organization: SKANSKA USA Building, Inc.

Position: Retired Executive, Skanska

Leadership Activities

Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Engineering Center of Educational Trust, member of Board of Trustees of Massachusetts Alliance of Small Contractors, Member and former President of Board of AGC of Massachusetts.

Jeremy Billig

Organization: McLaren Engineering Group

Acting as the firm’s President since January of 2019, Jeremy has been involved in many aspects of the firm’s growth.  Jeremy joined the firm in 2005 after completing his Master of Engineering at Cornell, from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.  As President, he is accountable for the overall operations of the company, including overseeing technical production, finances, and the firm’s marketing initiatives for the firm’s 7 technical divisions and 11 offices worldwide.  With his direction, the firm’s growth and expansion is being driven through out-of-the-box thinking, creative solutions and a dedication to high quality work.

As an accomplished engineer licensed in 9 states, Jeremy has worked across the firm’s 10 markets, with projects ranging from bridge work to entertainment venues, healthcare facilities to comprehensive structural work, and the restoration of landmarked buildings.  Billig is known throughout the AEC arena as a trusted leader with the ability to quickly gauge the needs of clients and develop custom-tailored solutions. He has a talent for communicating technical concepts effectively and is dedicated to maintaining high standards in the firm’s execution and delivery. (Cornell B.S. ’04; M.Eng ’05)

Prashanth Chandrasekar

Organization: Stack Overflow

Prashanth Chandrasekar is Chief Executive Officer of Stack Overflow and is responsible for driving Stack Overflow’s overall strategic direction and results. Prashanth is a proven technology executive with extensive experience leading and scaling high growth global organizations. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President & General Manager of Rackspace’s Cloud & Infrastructure Services portfolio of businesses, including the Managed Public Clouds, Private Clouds, Colocation and Managed Security businesses. Before that, Prashanth held a range of senior leadership roles at Rackspace including Senior Vice President & General Manager of Rackspace’s high growth, global business focused on the world's leading Public Clouds including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Alibaba Cloud, which became the fastest growing business in Rackspace’s history. Prior to joining Rackspace, Prashanth was a Vice President at Barclays Investment Bank, focused on providing Strategic and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) advice for clients in the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) industries. Prashanth was also a Manager at Capgemini Consulting where he managed Operations transformation engagements and consulting teams across the US. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an M.Eng in Engineering Management from Cornell University and a B.S. in Computer Engineering (summa cum laude) from the University of Maine. Prashanth is married and has two children.

Maia Albano Coladonato

Organization: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Maia Albano Coladonato has over 25 years of experience in the environmental field focusing on compliance and sustainability.  She currently is at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, CA managing the Air Quality Program and participating in Zero Waste and Sustainability initiatives. During her 20+ years in consulting Maia managed and participated in projects mainly relating to air/GHG emissions or waste minimization for EPA, CalEPA, Alameda and Los Angeles Counties, MD Dept. of the Environment, NASA, as well as for corporate clients, such as AT&T.  An advocate for reuse, repair and waste prevention, in 2013 she co-founded Repair Café Mountain View, which hosts events where volunteers repair items for community members.

A registered CA Professional Engineer, Maia has a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University and a M. Eng. in Environmental Pollution Control from The Pennsylvania State University.

Veronica Davis

Organization: Houston Public Works

Veronica O. Davis, PE has nearly 20 years of experience in engineering and transportation planning. She is the Director of Transportation & Drainage Operations, a service line within Houston Public Works. Veronica is an Entrepreneur and Civil Engineer, co-founding Nspiregreen, LLC., which manages Community, Multimodal Transportation, and Environmental planning and consulting. While at Nspiregreen, she led the Vision Zero Action Plans, which included surface transportation planning, policy development, and long range planning for Washington, DC and the City of Alexandria.

Veronica is one of the co-founders of Black Women Bike (BWB), an organization and movement that encourages African American women to use biking for health and wellness as well as an alternative form of transportation for commuting. Veronica was recognized as a Champion of Change and Transportation Innovator by the White House in 2012 for her professional accomplishments and community advocacy in the District of Columbia.

Veronica graduated with Bachelor of Science from University of Maryland College Park and a Master of Engineering and a Master of Regional and Urban Planning, Land Use and Environmental Planning from Cornell University. She completed graduate work towards a PhD in Civil Engineering from University of Maryland College Park. Veronica serves on the committees for Transportation Research Board, the board for America Walks, as well as technical advisory boards at the University of Maryland and Cornell University.

Leonard M. Joseph

Organization: Thornton Tomasetti

Leonard M. Joseph, PE SE is a Principal with Thornton Tomasetti, serving as a mentor and technical resource during 45 years with the firm. He has led structural designs for innovative major building projects around the world, from Oracle Park for the San Francisco Giants and the Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles to Chifley Tower in Sydney and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. 

Leonard is active in teaching through seminars, papers, articles and books for both technical and general audiences. He has a Bachelor of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University, and a Master of Science and Master of Business Administration from Stanford University.

Michael L. Lenkin

Organization: Lenkin Enterprises

Michael L. Lenkin, Owner of Lenkin Enterprises, Inc., a structural engineering and consulting firm, received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Cornell University in 1986 and his M.E. in Civil Engineering from Cornell University in 1987. He became licensed as a Professional Engineer in 1990, and is currently licensed as a Professional Engineer in 22 states plus the District of Columbia.  Mr. Lenkin has experience working on hundreds of projects, including many major private and government facilities, in the Mid-Atlantic region. 

In addition to his work experience, Mr. Lenkin is twice a past President of the National Capital Chapter of the American Concrete Institute (NCC-ACI), is past chairperson of the Structural Engineers Association of Metropolitan Washington (SEA-MW), and was a member of the Board of Directors for the District of Columbia Students Construction Trades Foundation (DCSCTF). Mr. Lenkin is currently on the University of Maryland Board of Visitors for the Department of Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering, the George Washington University Advisory Board for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the Advisory Council for the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Cornell University. Mr. Lenkin is currently a member of AISC, ASCE, ACI, NCC-ACI, and SEA-MW.

Greg Lingo

Organization: Rockwell Custom 

Greg Lingo is a 25+ year veteran in real estate development.   Prior to creating Rockwell Custom, Greg founded Cornell Homes in 2007. He grew the regional homebuilding business into the third largest homebuilder in the Philadelphia market. In addition to real estate, Greg Lingo founded Cornell Ventures as a platform to launch start-up businesses in entertainment (video games and film), title insurance, mortgage brokerage, restaurants and catering.

Greg has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University and a Master of Business Administration from Villanova University. Greg, his wife, and three daughters live in suburban Philadelphia.

James McCormick

Organization: D&A Development Partners

In 2019 James partnered with two architects to form D&A Development Partners.  As Director of Construction James applies his engineering and project management talents to execute beautiful, well designed commercial and residential projects.

Previously James worked as a project executive, project manager and estimator for Hunter Roberts Construction Group in NYC.  While there he oversaw the construction of the Graduate Hotelat Cornell Tech, the 50 West condominium tower, and the Viceroy Hotel.

James graduated from Cornell’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2005, with a Masters of Engineering degree in 2006.  He remains an active alumnus of the Cornell Fencing Team.

Pawel Woelke

Organization: Thornton Tomasetti

As a leader in Thornton Tomasetti’s Weidlinger Applied Science practice, Dr. Woelke heads the firm’s Industrial R&D efforts, which involve tackling some of the most challenging engineering problems related to fracture and failure of materials and structures subjected to extreme loading conditions. With a strong background in predictive failure analysis, finite element methods and expertise in materials, he is able to provide unique insights into any failure investigation.

Dr. Woelke participated and led multiple vulnerability studies of critical infrastructures in the New York Metropolitan area. He participated in design of the mitigation schemes protecting the structures against explosive, impact, incendiary, thermal and cutting threats. He also participated in planning, execution and investigation of results of multiple full-scale blast tests, conducted in support of the infrastructure protection programs. Dr. Woelke designed multiple new structures to resist explosions and other extreme loading scenarios. His experience includes vulnerability studies and protective design for bridges, tunnels, buildings, storage facilities, retaining walls as well as elements of non-load bearing building envelope.