Jerry Buckwalter

Gerald (Jerry) E. Buckwalter has more than 40 years of varied executive leadership in general management, business development, strategy and innovation, program operations and policy development. He has worked in infrastructure, electronics, information technology, commercial security, and technology services markets, spanning military, government, international and commercial domains.

Mr. Buckwalter is the International Director of Innovation for the Atlas Initiative for Resilient Infrastructure and a partner in the ARES Institute, an equity finance organization that funds resilient, environmentally sensitive, and sustainable infrastructure. He also has his own consulting firm, Strategy Essentials, where he specializes in business, market, and technology strategic planning.

Previously, he was the Chief Innovation Officer of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and before that, the Chief Operating and Strategy Officer. In those roles, Jerry created and directed a forward-leaning strategic assessment and visualization project called Future World Vision where ASCE is creating a virtual and interactive computer model to assess potential built environments 50 years into the future.

Prior to joining ASCE, Mr. Buckwalter was a Northrop Grumman Corporate Director of Strategy. His responsibilities included reshaping the company’s business portfolio, mergers and acquisitions, long-term strategies, innovation initiatives and professional development. Jerry worked for many years coordinating company-wide homeland security business in border and transportation security, emergency preparedness and response, critical infrastructure protection, and intelligence gathering.

Mr. Buckwalter has also served in several other advisory and management roles such as:

Member for the National Infrastructure Advisory Council reporting to the White House from 2008 to 2012 for Presidents George W. Bush and Barrack Obama, leading two studies, “Defining Infrastructure Resilience” and “Improving Infrastructure Information Sharing”
Board member of the Center for Public Policy Innovation since 2012
Member of the ASCE Industry Leaders Council from 2006 to 2024
Chairman of the London-based International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure from 2019 to 2021
Created the first global Innovation Contest for ASCE
Recipient of the ASCE William H. Wisely American Civil Engineer Award in 2018
Selected as an Engineering News-Record Top 25 Newsmaker in 2019 for imagining tomorrow’s infrastructure
Member of the Alliance for a Climate Resilient Earth, an initiative of the Stimson Center
Advisor for partnership strategies for ASCE and the Stimson Center
Advisor to the Engineering Change Lab USA from 2019 to the present
Advisor to the Canadian University Consortium Program “Engineering Sustainability and Governance in Climate-Resilient Infrastructure for a Mindful Build”
Board member of the National Homeland Defense Foundation from 2009 to 2012
Contributing author for the 2008 DoD report, “Defense Imperatives for the New Administration”
Participant in the 2007 Defense Science Board study “Defending Against Domestic Catastrophe during War”
Author of several reports, such as “Rebuilding America’s Infrastructure”, “Cellular Telecom Infrastructure in Afghanistan: Implications for National Stability” and “Cyber and Physical Security for Critical Infrastructure”
Executive committee member of Virginia’s Institute for Defense and Homeland Security from 2007 to 2010
Executive in residence at the University of Chicago for market strategy education from 2010 to 2019
Advisory board member for the University of Maryland University College Graduate School of Technology from 2006 to 2007
Chairman of the Board of a non-profit foundation providing support services to adults with challenges

Mr. Buckwalter earned a degree in Physics from Monmouth University and has completed extensive coursework at The King’s College, George Washington University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.