Joseph Burns, a managing principal in Thornton Tomasetti’s Chicago office, and Kyle Krall, a senior principal in the firm’s London office, have been selected to represent the international engineering firm on U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker’s trade mission to the Middle East from March 8-14.
The trade mission is specifically focused on export opportunities for U.S. businesses in the infrastructure sector, and maintaining the United State’s commitment to a sustained economic partnership in the Gulf region.
Thornton Tomasetti has served as the structural engineer for a number of projects in the Middle East, including several in the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the Qatar National Convention Center and an airport maintenance hangar and cargo warehouse at New Doha International Airport in Doha, Qatar; and Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Burns has more than 30 years of experience designing structures and investigating and renovating existing buildings. He specializes in the design of complex structural systems, including earthquake engineering and dynamic analysis.
As one of the founders of Thornton Tomasetti’s Abu Dhabi and Dubai offices, Krall oversees the firm’s work in the Middle East and leads its Building Performance practice in the region. He has more than 27 years of structural engineering experience and has worked on the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain, UAE and the Sowwah Square peer review and site observation in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
