Robert Regalado has joined Hill International, Inc. as Vice President Business Development – Southeast. In this role, Robert will spearhead Hill’s business development efforts across the Southeastern U.S., driving sustainable growth for our company, our clients, and the communities they serve.

“As a management consultancy firm in infrastructure, we’re part of an elaborate puzzle,” Robert says. “Of course, winning new work is important for our business, but our true goal is our clients’ success. So, my aim as a business developer isn’t signing more contracts, but building trusted relationships with owners, collaborating with their leaders and operational teams, generating a comprehensive understanding of organizational and stakeholder needs, evaluating and balancing priorities, integrating and enhancing processes and procedures, planning programs and projects for operational readiness, and ensuring complex work is executed in line with all client objectives. Sustainable growth for Hill will flow from that.”

Robert’s outlook comes from a nearly 40-year career of wide immersion in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. He has served in a variety of engineering, business development, and leadership roles, helping clients overcome obstacles at every level of project delivery to realize high-quality infrastructure. After kicking off his career as a civil engineer in water/wastewater, Robert quickly earned a management position. This, he explains, allowed him to engage with many different aspects of the industry, from project identification to planning, budgeting, design, regulatory permitting, construction management, operational support, and more. As he grew into business development, client management, and executive leadership, Robert harnessed this background to develop his wholistic business development approach.

“I’m still an Engineer, and helping our project teams solve problems is a fulfilling part of the job,” Robert adds. “Providing direct team oversight also helps establish credibility, assure quality, and maintain alignment with client expectations. Additionally, with active management, business development leaders can facilitate constant communication between the executive and project levels across consultant and owner teams. This helps prevent surprises.”

In addition to his wholistic business development approach, Robert also maintains a sharp regional focus. He has worked in Florida throughout his entire career, developing key relationships and deep familiarity with the Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Department, Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources Management, Miami-Dade Aviation Department, PortMiami, Miami-Dade County Department of Solid Waste Management, and many other regional agencies, local governments, and public utilities. Having worked with such organizations at every level, from design consultant through executive partner, Robert has insights into the culture, processes, and procedures that drive public infrastructure in Florida, as well as the market trends that matter to his clients.

He sees no shortage of opportunities on the horizon, either. In the Miami area, for example, Robert says aviation, roads and bridges, rail and transit, ports, schools, correctional facilities, infrastructure hardening, and water/wastewater are all sectors with potential for growth in the coming years. “For most public owners in Miami, it’ll be about balancing new construction priorities with required upkeep and state-of-good-repair projects, funding projects, and executing them sustainably,” he explains.

At Hill, Robert looks forward to collaborating across regional and sector teams to identify pursuits throughout Florida where our company can add the most value for owners. “Hill has excellent resources covering the full range of management consultancy, from the portfolio level to specialized construction-phase support,” he adds, citing Hill’s bench of subject matter experts, our relationships with stakeholders throughout Florida’s AEC industry, a “pure” project management focus that frees Hill of potential design or contracting conflicts of interest, and our team’s alternative delivery expertise as particularly valuable for clients in the state.

“Alternative delivery provides attractive solutions to many of the challenges facing public agencies working to deliver new infrastructure or maintain existing assets,” Robert goes on. “Public-private partnerships can be an attractive solution for resolving funding gaps, while design-build can deliver schedule savings on projects with well-defined scopes and existing specifications—projects like highway expansions, multistory buildings, or large infrastructure projects. No matter what their projects involve, our clients will be able to rely on Hill’s alternative delivery SMEs to select and implement the right delivery approach.”

However, delivery methods, a “pure” project management focus, stakeholder relationships, and even subject matter expertise are only a few pieces of the puzzle. “Even small infrastructure projects have a massive number of inputs, interfaces, and challenges to consider,” Robert says. “To name just a few, overlapping schedules, competing funding priorities, procurement and permitting challenges, politically backed scopes with associated stakeholder expectations can all complicate planning and delivery.

“To return to the puzzle conceit, you can’t buy infrastructure with all the pieces in place. You usually can’t even buy it with all the pieces in the same box! But by focusing on relationships first and offering wholistic life cycle support—identifying needs, prioritizing projects, identifying required expertise, building capacity, executing efficient procurements, managing project delivery, preparing for handover to operations—we can help owners figure out what the big picture looks like, collect the right pieces, and make sure project teams put the puzzle together in a timely, cost-effective manner.”

“Robert’s exceptional leadership and rich background will help him strengthen Hill’s relationships with public agencies and advance infrastructure development throughout the region,” adds First Vice President, Southeast Region Eladio Castrodad. “We’re glad to have him aboard.”

To speak with Robert about your organization’s infrastructure needs, reach out to him at [email protected]. Learn more about Hill International, Inc. at www.hillintl.com.