Darlene K. Gee, PE, was named national pursuit champion for HNTB Corporation. In this new role, she remains based in the firm's Oakland office, offering continued counsel for HNTB's clients in the San Francisco Bay Area while growing the firm's national footprint as part of the national sales team.
"Over the past six years, Darlene has clearly demonstrated tremendous leadership and skill in transforming our Northern California practice," said Art Hadnett, HNTB West Division president. "In her new role, we are confident and excited that Darlene will continue to have a tremendous impact on our top line growth, both in Northern California as a local community leader and nationally on our most significant opportunities."
Gee joined HNTB in 2012 as Northern California office leader and vice president. She will continue in that role through the remainder of 2018 while the firm conducts an internal and external search for her successor.
"One of Darlene's great accomplishments is that she built a wonderful team that established great trust with clients and lives HNTB's strong culture. It positions us exactly where we want to be in our community," said Michael Inabinet, PE, HNTB Western U.S. president. "She developed a great bench to succeed her, but the firm's tremendous growth establishes a need to continue to welcome the industry's top talent who are interested in joining our Bay Area team."
Gee has been instrumental to building HNTB's Northern California presence. She worked directly with key clients including Bay Area Rapid Transit; Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority; California High Speed Rail Authority; San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency; The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District; California Department of Transportation; Metropolitan Transportation Commission/Bay Area Toll Authority; Alameda County Transportation Commission; San Francisco International Airport; Oakland International Airport; and SamTrans/Peninsula Joint Powers Board.
As the face of HNTB in the community, Gee has nearly four decades of experience in consulting engineering for public- and private-sector organizations in the Bay Area. She has had executive level responsibility for over $6 billion of new and rehabilitated transportation projects in the region.
Gee is a past president of the San Francisco Chapter of Women's Transportation Seminar, a past national director for the WTS Foundation, a former advisory board member of the MTC, a past president of the Golden Gate Branch of American Society of Civil Engineers, and a former member of ASCE's National Committee on Women and Diversity in Civil Engineering.
In 2016, she was honored by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association with the Ethel S. Birchland Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2017, she was honored by WTS as the Bay Area Woman of the Year.
She earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.
