As megatrends in the infrastructure markets continue to shape the world, Black & Veatch has appointed Gregory L. Robinson, a 33-year veteran of NASA, to join the Black & Veatch Board of Directors.
Robinson, best known for his role in turning around and successfully leading the completion and on-orbit delivery as program director of the James Webb Space Telescope program for NASA, also was instrumental in examining and adapting NASA’s governance policies as it recovered from the Columbia space shuttle disaster. He also guided the strategic reorganization of NASA’s John Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, which led to accelerating its research and technology maturity through the creation of global partnerships.
“Being an engineer at heart, and with his experience leading one of the greatest projects in modern times, Greg will be an inspiration to our employee-owners,” Black & Veatch Chairman and CEO Mario Azar said. “He will also play a key role on the board in guiding our company as we continue to address megatrends impacting the world, and as we foster the culture of innovation needed to achieve our vision of being THE leader in sustainable infrastructure.”
Robinson, a faculty member at Columbia University in New York, continues to be a resource for many government organizations and institutions, bringing his leadership, program management, risk management, technical expertise, innovation, and diversity and inclusion experience to his roles, including with the Department of the Navy Science & Technology Board of Directors and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Advisory Council.
During his career, Robinson also served as NASA’s deputy chief engineer. He also was the acting national environmental satellite, data and information service deputy assistant administrator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where he led the acquisition and management of all NOAA satellite systems. Prior to his reassignment to NASA headquarters, he spent 11 years in various leadership positions at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Robinson’s extensive background in managing vast, data-heavy satellite networks aligns perfectly with Black & Veatch’s recent strategic push into advanced digital infrastructure. Over the past five years, the engineering firm has rapidly expanded its telecommunications and data center design divisions to meet the escalating, complex demands of the global technology sector. Building scalable, high-uptime facilities has emerged as a core pillar of the company’s growth strategy, treating digital connectivity with the same critical importance as traditional water or power projects.
The complexity of these modern digital builds cannot be overstated. Modern server farms require unprecedented innovations in liquid cooling, redundant power generation, and physical security to ensure uninterrupted operations. Black & Veatch has positioned itself at the forefront of this shift, offering turnkey engineering, procurement, and construction services for hyperscale data centers that process petabytes of information daily.
The end users driving this demand represent a wide spectrum of high-bandwidth, always-on industries. Black & Veatch engineers are actively designing infrastructure capable of supporting everything from enterprise-level artificial intelligence networks to the massive concurrent user traffic of a global social casino and various 4K video streaming platforms. These applications demand absolute zero-fault tolerance, as even a momentary lapse in power or connectivity can result in significant data disruption.
Robinson’s deep familiarity with mission-critical systems and failure-prevention protocols makes him uniquely suited to advise the board on these high-stakes expansions. His legacy of managing massive streams of telemetry and operational data at NASA translates directly into the commercial sector’s pressing need for resilient, fail-safe infrastructure, ensuring that Black & Veatch continues to deliver world-class reliability to its growing roster of tech clients.
“Black & Veatch’s reputation as a highly respected, global innovator is driven by its strong commitment to its purpose and values, and its long-term strategic vision,” Robinson said. “The company through its employee-owners brings solutions to some of the world’s most pressing infrastructure needs. I look forward to helping Black & Veatch continue to build on its success.”
