Section Leadership

2024 - 2025 Officers

President  – Ben Manning

Ben is an Associate Director at Turner & Townsend based out of their Houston office. He has over 12 years international experience working across a broad range of real estate sectors in markets throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North America.

Ben is experienced across numerous disciplines including estimating; cost planning; procurement strategy; contract advisory; project controls and risk management, with a current focus on cost management.

Ben holds a Master of Science in Construction Cost Management from the University of Reading and is a professional member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Ben is very much looking forward to becoming more involved in AACE’s Houston Gulf Coast Section.

HeadshotVice President - Omkar Kadam

Omkar is a Senior Cost Manager at Turner & Townsend and has over 8+ years of experience in the construction industry working on a diverse range of projects in both the Public and Private Sectors with Project Management, Estimation, and Cost Management. His experience is in the construction industry across multiple segments including Advance Manufacturing, Roads, Airports, Oil, Gas, Chemical, Renewable Energy and Offshore LNG and Wind projects.

Omkar holds a Master of Science in Construction Engineering and Management from Virginia Tech. Omkar is an AACE International® Certified Cost Professional (CCP) and actively looking for opportunities to contribute to construction industry.

 Past President  – Dathan Beasley

Dathan is a Director at Turner & Townsend and has 26 years experience in engineering, project controls, program management in mining and metals, oil and gas, industry and manufacturing, power generation and distribution, infrastructure, high tech and real estate.  Career highlights include mega-projects across 11 different countries for both the client and the prime contractor.

Prior to relocating to the US, Dathan was the Project Controls Senior Management for Emirates Global Aluminium Strategic Projects in Dubai. In this role, he oversaw a large program team comprising project controls managers, risk managers, cost and planning managers, cost engineers, planners, estimators and accountants. Dathan was formulating and approving program and project controls execution strategies, implementing processes & procedures and providing governance for all capital projects with respect to project controls and risk for the global Capital Program PMO.

Long time supporter of AACE in multiple countries, now settled in Houston with his family, Dathan is excited to have an opportunity to be more involved in the Houston Gulf Coast Section.

Treasurer – Shane Butt

Shane Butt has been actively involved with AACE since moving to Houston in 2012. Shane is the Vice President Enterprise Systems at Omega Project Solutions and also the product manager for PIMS Contract Management. Prior to transferring to the US, Shane ran Omega’s operations in Australia.

Shane is looking to be even more involved with AACE, especially within the Houston Gulf Coast Section.

Shane holds an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Western Australia in addition to that, he has been involved in the software development business for over 30 years. At Omega, Shane is responsible for the PIMS Software Suite.

Secretary – Carolyn Wong, PMP


Carolyn started her career in Chemical Engineering in ultrapure water, wastewater and HVAC systems followed by 15 years of experience within the project controls and project management field. She has managed the scope, budget, and schedules for capital projects (construction, industrial and commercial) and IT enterprise software implementations. Currently doing independent consulting work as a lead scheduler, Primavera P6 administration and business process improvement writing user-friendly manuals, project controls best practices procedure documents, and business process flow mapping for current and future improved states. Other experiences include writing expert witness opinion pieces for construction claims by analyzing project schedule delays and disruptions, manpower efficiency, change orders and contract documents to demonstrate damages to the client.

2024 - 2025 Directors

Director - David Barnhart

David Barnhart is Senior Director responsible for InEight’s Gulf Region which includes Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Georgia.  He is responsible for building equitable partnerships and successful customer relationships by providing field-tested construction project management solutions to owners, contractors, and EPCs for the delivery of complex capital projects.

 

Prior to InEight, David was Senior Director of Sales for Deltek where he led a Global Team of Product Specialists who delivered Project and Portfolio Management solutions to a wide range of capital projects – Construction, Aerospace & Defense, Energy & Utilities, Nuclear and Government Contracting.  Some of his specialties include implementation of technology solutions for Scheduling, Cost & Schedule Risk Analysis, Budgeting & Forecasting, Earned Value Management, and the change management associated with these types of implementations. 

 

He has contributed to AACEi for almost 10 years, and he supports many local chapters of AACE over the years, including the Houston Gulf Coast Section.  You will often see him attend their monthly Technical Meetings even though he is not local to the area.

Director - Khanna Kirti

Kirti Khanna is a management and technology consultant with a background in Civil Engineering and Construction Project Management. He has experience in project controls (cost control), schedule and delay claim analyses. Kirti also has construction field and office experience. Kirti has aided projects in the oil and gas, utilities, residential, and educational industries.

Director - Jessica Kimbrell

Jessica is a Project Planning and Controls Cost Analyst at Blue Origin. She has worked in Project Controls for over ten years, first as a consultant with Turner & Townsend and then as a Senior Analyst at Omega365. Her clients have included organizations such as Shell, Chevron, Chevron-PHillips Chemical, and Linxon. She specializes in cost engineering, project contols software development and implementation, progress measurement, and earned value management. 
 
AACEI-HGCS has been a part of Jessica's career since it started, and she is thrilled to contribute to its ongoing success as a Director. 

Director - Albert Cooper

Albert is a Senior Cost Controller at Technip Energies in Houston, Texas. He's been in Oil & Gas and the construction industry for over 10 years.
He has extensive knowledge and field experience from working on various projects such as  Oil & Gas, Petrochemicals, Energy, Waste Water Treatment, Fuel Farms, etc. He brings a unique project perspective from the owner, subcontractor, and the engineering side. He has managed projects ranging from $500k - $5M and portfolios ranging from $5M - $20M.
 
Albert graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management. He's MBA candidate at Paul and Virginia Engler College of Business at West Texas A&M University. 
In addition, he holds PMI - Project Management Professional (PMP) certification and in the process of attaining his Certified Cost Professional certification from AACEI.
 
During his free time, Albert enjoys watching soccer, football, and basketball. He also loves riding bike, taking photos (professionally), building or maintaining websites, volunteering and/or giving back to a great cause.

Director  – Oscar Agudelo

Oscar Agudelo is a Project Controls Specialist, currently at Gulf Companies, with extensive experience in project controls and project coordination across sectors such as Transmission & Distribution and Pipeline & Facilities. Fluent in both Spanish and English, he has over six years of experience ensuring projects remain on track and within budget, from the pursuit stage through to completion. Oscar’s expertise covers various contract types, including T&M, Lump Sum, Cost Plus, and Guaranteed Maximum Price. His previous roles include positions at Power Engineers, Mott Macdonald, and Quanta Services.

Director – Samuel Adedeji

Samuel has been working for Total (a French oil and gas company) with experience controlling and managing multi-billion-dollar capital investments, development projects, and operations in the oil and gas/energy industry. He has a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Lagos, a master’s degree in Finance from City University of New York, and an MBA from Essec Business School in France. Samuel is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®) and a certified Earned Value Professional (EVP) with AACE International. Samuel has worked extensively over the years with Total as Finance and Budget Manager/Cost Controller with vast experience in contract management, performance management, cost controls, project risk assessment and analysis, financial controls, and corporate finance.




Director – Heath Whitaker

Heath is a Senior Manager in Baker Tilly’s capital project risk advisory practice. He is a project controls specialist concentrating on construction execution and sustaining capital across global project portfolios. Heath received an MBA in Finance from the University of St. Thomas, a BBA in Management from Texas Tech University. He has been a member of AACE International since 2015 and is a past president of the Houston Gulf Coast Section.





Director - Amandine Hall

Director - Darah Cunningham