Robert Gordon Card (born February 1953) is an American businessman, engineer, and former government employee who served as the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of SNC-Lavalin, Canada's largest engineering and construction firm.

Early life and education

Card was born to Brad, an engineer and farmer, and Dorothy Card in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. He grew up in

Yakima, Washington Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States, and the state's 11th most populous city. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The ...

and received a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. He then earned a master of science degree in environmental engineering from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. He completed the Harvard Business School Program for management development.

Career

CH2M Hill

Card's career began in the summer of 1975 as an intern at

CH2M Hill CH2M, earlier CH2M Hill, was an engineering company that provided consulting, design, construction, and operations services for corporations and governments. The company was organized in Corvallis, Oregon, and headquartered at 9191 South Jamai ...

, where he became a Group CEO, board member and the largest shareholder of the

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

-based global engineering firm. At CH2M Hill, he was the sponsoring executive and deputy project director for the delivery partner for the

London 2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

United States Department of Energy

From 2001 to 2004, Card served as the Under Secretary of Energy for Energy and Environment in the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

, where he was responsible for the Department's energy, environment and science portfolios with an annual budget of $14 billion and 65,000 federal and contractor employees. This tenure saw what was at the time record funding for renewable and carbon-free energy and research, accelerated progress in the environmental remediation of the Department's legacy sites and the completion of the original Human Genome Project, setting the stage for the next wave of major science projects.

SNC-Lavalin

From October 2012 to October 2015, Card served as the CEO of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

-based SNC-Lavalin to lead a recovery effort after the firm identified and reported ethics issues from the previous decade. He managed over 40,000 employees and $8 billion in annual revenues, and initiated a revamp of the firm's governance, ethics and compliance program and transformed initiatives in health and safety, environment, sustainability and other aspects of corporate social responsibility. He also developed a strategy to maintain the firm's position at the top of the rapidly consolidating engineering and construction sector by selling interests in the firm's substantial infrastructure, power and mining assets to create global Tier-1 engineering and construction capability in oil and gas, mining, power and infrastructure. Card was the CEO of joint venture Kaiser-Hill in the decommissioning of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant. He was ranked among Canada's 100 highest paid CEOs in 2015. Card was appointed a member of the board of

Amec Foster Wheeler Amec Foster Wheeler plc was a British multinational consultancy, engineering and project management company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. In October 2017, it was acquired by Wood Group. It was focused on the Oil, Gas & Chemicals, ...

in 2017.

Personal life

Card's wife, Nancy, is an engineer who earned her

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Card, Robert G. 1953 births Living people Businesspeople from California People from Yakima, Washington University of Washington College of Engineering alumni Stanford University School of Engineering alumni Yakima Valley College alumni