ACI's New Honorary Members

3/21/2025

ACI will bestow its highest honor – ACI Honorary Membership – on the following individuals at the ACI Concrete Convention, March 30 - April 2, 2025:

According to ACI’s Bylaws, “An Honorary Member shall be a person of eminence in the field of the Institute's interest or one who has performed extraordinary meritorious service to the Institute.”

ACI is grateful to all its Honorary Members for their extraordinary contributions. Their dedication, leadership, and service to the Institute provide the backbone for continuous advancement within ACI and throughout the greater concrete community.

Khaled Walid Awad

Khaled Walid Awad receives Honorary Membership “for his leadership as ACI President in 2017; his positive contribution and leadership in ACI international activities, especially in the Middle East; and his tireless promotion and support of ACI.”

Khaled Walid Awad, FACI, is Chairman and Founder of Advanced Construction Technology Services (ACTS), a material and geotechnical consulting firm based in Beirut, Lebanon, and operating in Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and several other countries of the Middle East.

Awad served as ACI President in 2017-2018 and is a member of the International Certification Committee; the Concrete International Award Committee; ACI Committees C630, Construction Inspector Certification, and 130, Sustainability of Concrete; and ACI Subcommittee C601-E, Concrete Construction Sustainability Assessor. He previously served as a member of the ACI Board of Direction. He received the ACI Henry L. Kennedy Award and the ACI Chapter Activities Award in 2007, as well as the ACI Certification Award in 2011.

He is the Founder of Grenea, an investment firm advancing and providing technical assistance to eco-developments around the world. Prior to establishing Grenea, he was the founding Director of Property Development at the Masdar Initiative in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Masdar is a multifaceted initiative advancing the development, commercialization, and deployment of renewable and alternative energy technologies and solutions. Awad oversaw the development of emissionfree Masdar City, the world’s first development aiming to become carbon neutral.

Awad worked in the real estate and construction industry in the Arabian Gulf for more than 30 years. He was Founder and CEO of various construction and real estate companies, dealing with the supply chain and information technology side of the industry, as well as the development of large-scale projects. He received his BE in civil engineering from the American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, and his MA in business administration from the Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. Awad is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and ASTM International, and a Fellow of The Institute of Concrete Technology (ICT).

James N. (Jim) Cornell II

James N. (Jim) Cornell II receives Honorary Membership “for his 30 years of service to 19 ACI committees with an emphasis on concrete construction from the contractor’s perspective; his contributions to ACI specification writing; and his leadership as Chair of multiple committees, including ACI Committee 301, Specifications for Concrete Construction. He continues to serve as a mentor to contractors and to design professionals preparing specifications.”

James N. (Jim) Cornell II, FACI, has been Manager of the consulting firm JN Cornell Associates, LLC, for over 6 years, consulting for clients such as owners, ready mixed concrete suppliers, and concrete contractors, as well as serving as a litigation expert witness. He has been engaged in design-build construction of structures and buildings for 45 years. His roles have included estimating, scheduling, project management, and field supervision.

Cornell has served ACI for over 30 years in technical and administrative committees. His true passion and service to ACI is in writing ACI specifications, which is reflected in his committee activities. He has provided leadership as past Chair of ACI Committees 134, Concrete Constructability; 301, Specifications for Concrete Construction; 305, Hot Weather Concreting; and ACI Task Group 347-TG1, Void Form Methods Task Group. In addition, he has been a member of the Construction Liaison Committee; ACI Committees E707, Specification Education; 308, Curing Concrete; 336, Footings, Mats, and Drilled Piers; 347, Formwork for Concrete; Joint ACI-ASCC Committee 117, Tolerances; and the TAC Construction Standards Subcommittee.

Cornell has served numerous times as a session speaker and session co-moderator. He also served on the ACI Board Task Group for Concrete Constructability and Board committees. He has served as a peer reviewer for specifications, technical papers, and MNL-66(20): ACI Detailing Manual.

His service was recognized by ACI with the 2023 Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award for “outstanding leadership of ACI Committee 301, Specifications for Concrete Construction, and ACI Committee 134, Concrete Constructability,” and the 2016 Roger H. Corbetta Concrete Constructor Award for “significant innovation in concrete construction.”

Cornell graduated from Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, in 1977 with a degree in civil engineering. He is a licensed professional engineer in Texas and is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP).

Jerry A. Holland

Jerry A. Holland receives Honorary Membership “for his outstanding and career-long dedication to advancing the state of the art and knowledge of slabs-on-ground, suspended slabs, and pavement design and construction through mentoring, training, education, and technology transfer activities, and for his active service on related ACI committees.”

Jerry A. Holland, FACI, is a Partner, VicePresident, and Director of Design Services for Structural Services Inc. (SSI) in the Atlanta, GA, USA office. He was formerly with Lockwood Greene Engineers, Atlanta, GA. Holland has over 55 years of worldwide experience in design and construction, along with troubleshooting and forensics investigations for concrete materials, floors, pavements, topping slabs, and other structures and related geotechnical problems. He specializes in concrete mixture designs, floor slabs-on-ground (including superflat and other specialty floors) and suspended slabs, fiber reinforcement, post-tensioning, shrinkage-compensating concrete, paving, and liquid-containing structures. He has had commercial, industrial, institutional, and military projects in every state in the United States and in 51 other countries, on every continent except Antarctica.

Holland’s honors and awards include: Fellow of ACI since 1993; 1998 ACI Wason Medal for Most Meritorious Paper; Concrete Construction magazine’s 2007 Most Influential People in the Concrete Industry; 2008-2009 ACI Educational Activities Committee Speaker of the Year; 2009 “Sam” Golden Trowel Award for the “outstanding accomplishments in and contributions to the art and science of high quality horizontal concrete construction”; 2014 ACI Joe W. Kelley Award for work improving the worldwide concrete industry; and nine projects that have won first place in the ACI Georgia Chapter Awards Competition, including several world records.

Holland has published numerous papers in national and international publications, discussing topics such as slab and pavement designs, including curling and shrinkage; reinforced slabs; shrinkage-compensating slabs; posttensioned slabs; fiber slabs; superflat slabs; warehouse slabs; light-reflective f loors; covered slabs; sustainable floors; slab jointing, including spacing, doweling, and aggregate interlock; floor finishing; slab geotechnical considerations; and construction methods/materials used in countries other than the United States.

In 1992, Holland set up the curriculum for the ACI Slab-on-Ground Design and Construction seminars and was the coordinator and an instructor for those and other ACI seminar programs for over 25 years. He also is an ACI examiner for the Concrete Flatwork Associate and Advanced Finishers certification program. He has presented seminars and assisted in the construction of high-performance demonstration slabs all over the world. Additionally, he has been a speaker at World of Concrete on topics related to slab design, curling, shrinkage, reinforcement, concrete mixture materials and design, associated geotechnical issues, troubleshooting, and remediation.

Another area of his expertise is in the science and art of value engineering. He has presented seminars on this topic in several countries and has participated in over 50 value engineering studies, several of which were outside the United States.

Holland is a past Chair and member of ACI Committee 360, Design of Slabs on Ground, and is a member of ACI Committees C640, Craftsman Certification; 223, Shrinkage-Compensating Concrete; 302, Construction of Concrete Floors; 325, Concrete Pavements; 330, Concrete Parking Lots and Site Paving; 350, Environmental Engineering Concrete Structures; and 522, Pervious Concrete.

Max L. Porter

Max L. Porter receives Honorary Membership “for his lifelong commitment to educating students in concrete design, his long-standing contributions to masonry design and construction, and his tireless commitment to ACI committee work.”

Max L. Porter was inducted as an Iowa State University (ISU) CCEE Distinguished Alumni in 2022 for “International impact in structural engineering, notable contributions to education, research, professional societies.”

Porter has been a “Cyclone” Engineer since receiving his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1965; he went on to receive both his master’s and PhD in civil engineering from ISU, Ames, IA, USA. Porter, now retired, was a professor at ISU for 51 years while progressing from Teaching Assistant to University Professor Emeritus. He taught 36 courses on campus and many off campus in his career, giving students real-world research experience by employing nearly 500 students in over 100 research projects. Porter earned over 67 career awards and honors during his successful career.

Outside of ISU, Porter is an accomplished structural engineering consultant, working with over 30 firms. He has worked internationally with the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) in a U.S.-Japan research program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Porter has a total of 1612 publications, reports, reviews, and presentations. He has also given his time to several organizations with 128 officer and committee positions in his career. Porter is a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Past President of SEI, Past President of The Masonry Society (TMS), and past Board member of ASCE. He has been active in the ASCE Codes and Standards Committees and has chaired seven of those major ones. Currently, he is Chair of ASCE Committee 74, Fiber Composites and Polymers Standards (FCAPS), which published the ASCE/SEI 74-23 standard after 10 years.

In his own words, he has been busy flunking retirement. For the past 10 years (since retirement from ISU), he has been performing structural engineering accreditation assessments for the International Accreditation Services (IAS)— affiliated with the International Code Council (ICC). He recently completed a term as President of the ISU Retirees Association.

He is a member of ACI Committees 440, Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Reinforcement, and 544, Fiber Reinforced Concrete; Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 408, Bond and Development of Steel Reinforcement; and ACI Subcommittees 440-F, FRP-Repair-Strengthening; 440-H, FRP-Reinforced Concrete; 440-J, FRP Stay-in-Place Forms; 440-K, FRP-Material Characteristics; 440-L, FRP-Durability; and 440-M, FRP-Repair of Masonry Structures.

Bruce A. Suprenant

Bruce A. Suprenant receives Honorary Membership “for lending his vast engineering and construction expertise to innumerable ACI documents, Concrete International magazine, ACI journal articles, and other concrete industry publications, and for his voice of reason and practicality in promoting concrete constructability and collaboration among designers, contractors, industry organizations, and project stakeholders within and outside the Institute.”

Bruce A. Suprenant’s industry experience includes working as a Structural Engineer with Sverdrup & Parcel in St. Louis, MO, USA; a Structural Project Manager with Lapin, Ellis and Dabler in St. Louis; an Analytical Structural Engineer with the Portland Cement Association (PCA) in Skokie, IL, USA; Vice President Engineering and Technical Services at Baker Concrete Construction; Vice President of Structural Services Inc.; President of Concrete Engineering Specialists; and Technical Director of the American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC). He was also Technical Director and a Principal at CTC-Geotek, a Denver, CO, USA, materials testing and engineering firm. Suprenant was Editorial Director and Vice President of R&D at The Aberdeen Group. For 15 years, he taught structures, construction, and materials at Montana State University, the University of Wyoming, the University of South Florida, and the University of Colorado Boulder. Suprenant has served as an expert witness in the litigation and arbitration of concrete structures, construction, and materials.

Suprenant is Vice Chair of Joint ACI-ASCC Committee 117, Tolerances; a member of ACI Committee 302, Construction of Concrete Floors; and a past member of the ACI Technical Activities Committee (TAC); the TAC Construction Standards Subcommittee; ACI Committees C640, Craftsman Certification, and 134, Concrete Constructability; and ACI Subcommittee 318-A, General, Concrete, and Construction.

He was the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Forensic Engineering and Civil Engineering Practice, and Engineering Editor of Concrete Construction, Masonry Magazine, and Concrete Repair Digest. He was also Chair of the American Society of Civil Engineers Materials Engineering Division.

He received the 2010 ACI Roger H. Corbetta Concrete Constructor Award, the 2011 ACI Construction Award as co-author of “Effect of Post-Tensioning on Tolerances,” the 2013 ACI Certification Award, the 2020 ACI Construction Award as co-author of “Constructability of Embedded Steel Plates in Cast-in-Place Concrete,” the 2021 Arthur R. Anderson Medal, the 2022 ACI Concrete International Award as co-author of “Establishing Thickness Tolerances for "Parking Lot Slabs,” and the 2023 ACI Concrete International Award as co-author of “Reinforcement Congestion in Cast-in-Place Concrete.” He has authored or co-authored more than 50 technical papers in ACI publications.

Suprenant received his BS in construction from Bradley University, Peoria, IL, in 1974; his MS in structural engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, in 1975; and his PhD in civil engineering from Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA, in 1983. He is a licensed professional engineer in California and Florida. He is certified as a Construction Contract Administrator and a Construction Specifier by the Construction Specification Institute (CSI).

View all ACI Honorary Members.

Learn more about ACI’s Honors and Awards.