Rich Millet

Rich Millet is a vice president and project manager, specializing in geotechnical and levee projects from our western United States water and civil works team. Rich is a seasoned water resources and dam engineering leader with six decades of experience guiding major infrastructure projects across the United States. Early in his career, he played a central role in dam, surface water and reservoir development along the East Coast before becoming one of the principal design engineers for Metropolitan Water District’s Diamond Valley Reservoir. This is a landmark $2-billion off-stream storage project that transformed an empty valley into a fully operational reservoir in under five years and established critical water supply redundancy for Southern California. Rich later led the California Department of Water Resources’ Urban and Non-Urban Levee Evaluation Program, a nine-year forensic assessment of roughly 1,300 miles of levees throughout Central Valley, California. The effort produced a comprehensive risk categorization system and helped spur nearly $4 billion in subsequent levee improvements, significantly reducing statewide flood risk to population and infrastructure. Over his long tenure with AECOM and its legacy firms, Rich has also held senior leadership roles, including principal, Bay Area office manager, Denver office manager, Board of Directors member, and Chief Practice Officer before transitioning into his current role as a senior consultant. Today he mentors and advises staff across multiple active water and dam related projects, providing senior technical review, guidance and support. This February, he celebrated an extraordinary milestone: 60 years with AECOM.