Dale Sands is the Global Director of Metro and Climate Adaptation Services, a position held since October 2015. Previously Mr. Sands was the Managing Director of the Environment Business Line in Europe, The Middle East and Africa (2012-2014). Mr. Sands served Global Practices Director for seven years (2007-2014) whereby he established and directed a global knowledge network, which became a ‘best practice’ for AECOM. Mr. Sands has worked for AECOM, and predecessors, for 19 years, and has both lived and worked internationally with experience in more than 65 countries. Mr. Sands served as Vice Chairman of the United Nations’ Private Sector Advisory Group for the International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction from 2013 to 2015, and was a Board member from 2011 to 2013. While Vice Chair, the UNISDR Private Sector membership grew to 100 companies from 42 countries.

As Metro and Climate Adaptation Director, Mr. Sands provides leadership to the rapidly expanding service area of Climate Adaptation and Resilience, leveraging his international experience as well as enterprise wide knowledge of engineering services to the public and private sector As one example of thought leadership, Mr. Sands team, working with IBM developed the first Disaster Resilience Scorecard based upon the UN’s Ten Essential for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2014; the Scorecard is an innovative tool to assess preparedness of cities to respond to, and recovery from, natural disasters. The Disaster Resilience Scorecard received international acclaim, was recognized as a best practice by the UNISDR and received the Notre Dame Climate Adaptation Index 2015 Prize.

In his capacity of Global Practices Director, Mr. Sands oversaw the firm’s technical experts in Air Quality, Environmental Health & Safety Management Consulting, Impact Assessment & Permitting, Remediation Services, EHS Management Information Systems, Climate Adaptation Services, Water & Natural Resources and Waste Services. Mr. Sands is an invited speaker to international climate conferences and environmental conferences, serving as key note and plenary speaker. Mr. Sands has over 40 years of consulting experience in environmental matters, with more than 40 technical publications and/or presentations.

In addition to his professional activities, Mr. Sands is an elected official as Village Trustee, and is active in many civic and non-profit organizations, holding Board level positions.

Prior to joining AECOM Mr. Sands has held senior management positions with leading global organizations such as ABB Ltd (Zurich, Switzerland), CH2M Hill (Denver, CO), Environmental Resources Management (London, England) and McKesson Corporation (San Francisco, CA). Mr. Sands earned a B.S. in Chemistry (Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI), a M.S. in Environmental Science (The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI) and a M.B.A. (California State University East Bay, Hayward, CA).