Zach DeVeau
Aviation Planner, Kimley-Horn
AGE: 30
- Alma Mater: Florida State University
- What is your dream job? Anthony Bourdain style travel show host. Getting paid to travel and eat would be a great way to live!
- Who has impacted your career the most? Two people. Jon Sewell and Pam Keidel-Adams. Together, they have taught me everything I know.
- If I could go anywhere, it would be: I have never been to Asia, so I would love to see cities like Hong Kong and Tokyo.
- If I could have dinner with anyone living or dead: My favorite dining partner, my 1 year old son Barrett! Every meal with him is dinner and a show.
- Favorite airport restaurant/eatery: P.F. Chang's in Atlanta is a usually a good bet. If I don’t have time to sit down, Chic-fil-a is always good as well.
Zach DeVeau came out of a college with a degree in urban and regional planning when an internship with Kimley-Horn turned into a full-time position and launched his new professional career.
It was a generalized position, but some of DeVeau’s first projects entailed working with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Aviation and Spaceport Office working on various projects related to airports and land use. The projects created a new passion for aviation and took him down a career path DeVeau never sought out.
“It’s a broad and very interesting aviation system down here,” he said. “I’ve had the opportunity to meet with a lot of different folks and it’s a unique state to have the opportunity to start off in.”
As an aviation planner in Kimley-Horn’s Tallahassee, Florida office, DeVeau works with local and state agencies to develop airport master plans, business plans, statewide guidebooks, administrative codes and various other programs
He developed a strategic intercontinental air service incentive program for FDOT, to assess the potential structure of an incentive program and how it could provide funding to increase direct intercontinental passenger air and cargo service to Florida airports.
DeVeau also manages numerous on-call contracts for FDOT, including system planning and spaceport support. He facilitated a recent Florida Aviation System Plan (FASP) working group, where he created interactive breakout sessions to engage and challenge stakeholders to gather more beneficial information for the plan’s implementation.
He also provided master plan updates for airports in Florida and Arkansas and conducting aviation system plans for Washington and Arizona.
DeVeau is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and of the American Planning Association and a contributing member of the Transportation Research Board’s Aviation System Planning committee. He’s highly engaged in the planning of the triennial National Aviation System Planning Symposium.
