Bechtel´s Leonard Berestov Elected To Ukrainian Academy

A 1955 graduate of the Kiev Institute of Technology, Berestov began his construction career by working for four different Ukrainian construction and engineering firms. He joined Bechtel in 1981, working initially on a series of U.S. nuclear power plant projects and later on a water treatment plant assignment in Virginia. In 1991, Berestov was named Bechtel's project manager for the MCI-Moscow Global Communications and Business Center project in Russia, and in 1994 he was assigned to a chemical demilitarization assignment, also in Moscow. He assumed his current duties in Bechtel's Kiev, Ukraine office in 1996.

Berestov is now a U.S. citizen. In addition to English, he is fluent in both Russian and Ukrainian.

Currently, Bechtel's workload in Ukraine is significant. The company heads up a consortium that is working to stabilize a shelter that covers the damaged Unit 4 reactor building of the Chornobyl nuclear power station in that country. Bechtel also has a contract with the U.S Defense Threat Reduction Agency to dismantle more than 150 former Soviet SS-19 and SS-24 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) silos and launch control centers at a number of locations throughout Ukraine.

Bechtel International Systems, Inc., which operates the Kiev office, is the international unit of Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI), the government contracting arm of Bechtel Group, Inc. BNI specializes in providing premier management and technical services to a broad cross section of government customers, including the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Defense, in the areas of the nuclear fuel cycle, defense, space, national security, and the environment.

Currently, BNI and its subsidiaries have more than 9,000 personnel working on more than 75 projects in 36 states and 11 countries that generate more than $2 billion in revenue annually. During 1998, Bechtel Group and its nearly 30,000 employees worldwide had revenues of $12.6 billion.