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Mahmut Ekenel Joins NEU as Validation Director

Mahmut Ekenel, PhD, PE, FACI, has been hired as Validation Director for NEU: An ACI Center of Excellence for Carbon Neutral Concrete to support, promote, and refine NEU’s validation and verification programs. Ekenel will also be assisting ACI Certification and NEX: An ACI Center of Excellence for Nonmetallic Building Materials.


Ekenel brings extensive experience in developing acceptance criteria for the evaluation of building materials in accordance with the model building codes, building code development, and a working knowledge of International Standards Organization (ISO) standards and quality control inspections. Ekenel received his PhD from the Missouri University of Science and Technology and became a Fellow of ACI in 2020. Prior to joining the ACI Staff, Ekenel served as Senior Staff Engineer for the International Code Council Evaluation Service (ICC-ES) and was employed by ICC-ES for 17-plus years. He is a licensed civil engineer in the State of California and a licensed professional engineer (PE) in the States of Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.


“We’re thrilled to have Mahmut Ekenel on the ACI Staff,” stated John W. Nehasil, ACI Senior Managing Director, Certification and Chapters. “His knowledge and skills significantly enhance ACI’s ability to expand conformity assessment and related code advocacy activities, and further complement ACI’s robust personnel certification program development capabilities. We’re better equipped to assist in advancing the missions of ACI’s Centers of Excellence and supporting ACI Certification.”


“Mahmut Ekenel will be invaluable to NEU as our Validation program has just begun the process of accepting applications,” stated Dean A. Frank, P.E., Executive Director, NEU. “We're looking forward to his leadership in moving the program forward, and his closely aligned experience allows him to immediately make an impact.”


For more information on ACI Certification, NEU: An ACI Center of Excellence for Carbon Neutral Concrete, or NEx: An ACI Center of Excellence for Nonmetallic Building Materials, please visit ACICertification.org, neuconcrete.org, or nonmetallic.org, respectively.

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