Morning Keynote Speaker – Jim Drinkard

Jim Drinkard

Assistant General Manager of Planning & Development at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport

Jim Drinkard has served as assistant general manager of the Atlanta airport since June, 2009. He has more than 35 years of airpot planning and engineering experience. Drinkard began his career as a design engineer working on the original midfield design for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 1977, as a member of the Atlanta Airport Engineers joint venture.

Prior to joining the City of Atlanta, Jim worked for HNTB Corporation for 31 years, retiring from HNTB as a Vice President in 2009. While at HNTB, he served as project manager for several major projects at Orlando International Airport, including the North Crossfield taxiway bridge and South Terminal complex infrastructure development. He also served as project manager for major airfield and landside development projects at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Houston Intercontinental Airport, Raleigh-Durham International Airport, Charleston International Airport, Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport, Huntsville, International Airport, Savannah International Airport, and Philadelphia International Airport.

He returned to Hartsfield-Jackson in 2000 as a planning manager for the Hartsfield Planning Collaborative (HPC), a five-firm venture of which HNTB was a member. During a portion of his assignment with the HPC, Drinkard was seconded to the Department of Aviation to serve as co-director of Planning, with primary focus on the $6 billion Capital Improvement Program.

Drinkard has been actively involved in the Airports Council International – North America Operations and Technical Committee, previously served on the board of the Consulting Engineers Council of Georgia, and has remained a member of the American Society for Civil Engineers throughout his professional career.  In 2011, Drinkard achived the status of Internatioal Airport Professional (IAP), an accreditation awarded by the Airports Council International and the International Civil Aviation Organization.  In 2012, Drinkard was recognized as “Engineer of the Year in Government” by the Georgia Engineering Alliance.

Drinkard is a native Atlantan, grew up in Woodstock, Georgia, and holds a Bachelors of Civil Engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.