Bechtel Executive Named President of Holmes & Narver

Veteran engineering executive Zoltan A. Stacho has been named president of Holmes & Narver Inc., filling a long-vacant position at the international design, engineering and construction firm.

The company said Wednesday that Stacho, 61, started his new duties this week after leaving Bechtel National Inc., a subsidiary of Bechtel Group Inc. in San Francisco.

Richard J. Bouchard, chief operating officer of Holmes & Narver’s parent company, had been interim president since December, when Forrest C. Six retired as president.

The appointment of Hungarian-born Stacho (pronounced STAH-hoe) returns a familiar face to the Orange-based company. He served as senior vice president and manager of Holmes & Narver operations from 1989 to 1990 before leaving for Bechtel.

Before his first job with Holmes & Narver, he spent 20 years with Kaiser Engineers Inc. in Oakland, where he rose through the ranks to become an executive vice president and a director. After arriving in the United States in 1957 from his native Budapest, Stacho had a series of jobs, including chief engineer for certain Army and Air Force operations in Germany in the mid-1960s.

The new Holmes & Narver president will oversee worldwide operations, including logistical and operations support for the National Science Foundation’s U.S. Antarctic program. With more than 3,000 employees worldwide, Holmes & Narver is one of the nation’s larger civil engineering and construction firms.

The company has worked for a variety of government, military, commercial and industrial clients. Its contracts have ranged from communications work for the then-new CBS radio network in 1938 to its recent management help in the nearly completed John Wayne Airport expansion program. New work includes upgrading the nation’s air-traffic control system and building a major section of the proposed San Joaquin Hills Tollway in South Orange County.