Archived: Transportation Committee Meeting

Robert Sinkler is the Executive Coordinating Director for the Corn Belt Ports, the inland ports within the Corn Belt’s Lock and Dam System. Bob founded Riverside Global, a non-traditional water solutions company. Riverside provides integrated, sustainable improvements to our existing man-made and natural water infrastructure. Recently, Bob was the Vice President for Government Programs in the environmental biotech leader, Allonnia. Prior to that, he was a Vice President of Operations at INTREXON, providing technology solutions to leading companies for the deployment of biologically based products that addressed some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Before that, Bob was the Water Resources Infrastructure Director for The Nature Conservancy’s North America Freshwater Program. In this position, he and his team focused on implementing interagency integrated water resources management in large watersheds—particularly with the nation’s largest river systems—and delivering water infrastructure projects. Prior to joining the Conservancy, Bob served as principal strategic advisor to the Commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), where he assisted the Commander in setting the strategic direction for USACE, the world’s largest public engineering, design, and construction management agency. He also served as Chief of Army Environmental Programs in the Pentagon where he developed and managed $1.5 billion in annual environmental programs that enabled the Army to maintain compliance with environmental laws worldwide and execute environmental clean-up and remediation actions. From 2009 to 2011, Bob commanded a USACE task force responsible for designing and constructing the segment of the $14.4 billion Hurricane Storm Surge System for the greater New Orleans area in the places hardest hit in 2005 by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (primarily Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes). Bob also commanded the Rock Island District (USACE) where he led the planning for, operations and maintenance of, and construction to support more than $30 billion of Federal navigation, flood risk reduction, hydropower, environmental and recreational infrastructure in parts of the five Upper Mississippi River Basin states. He led the on the ground execution of the Corps’ response to the devastating Midwest floods in 2008.