David van Raalten is a graduate from Wageningen University, The Netherlands, in integrated water resources management. Currently he is the Director for the "Hoogwaterbeschermingsprogramma" in the Netherlands, as well as Program Leader Climate Adaptation. He is also ‘thought leader Climate Adaptation’ on behalf of the engineering and consultancy branche organization NLIngenieurs.
In the 22 years that David has worked with Arcadis, he works both internationally as well as in The Netherlands itself. He started in India, as a water management specialist, got more involved in project management, and consequently moved into management positions. From 2002 onwards he was Regional Manager for Central & Eastern Europe, and in 2006 became Director for the Department for River & Coast for Arcadis Netherlands. As such he has worked in a wide variety of countries, giving him a good perspective on the different challenges from several perspectives: being more technical, cultural or organizational.
From 2015 onwards his role focused on expanding the water management business in Continental Europe.