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PAE, one of the West Coast鈥檚 largest independent engineering firms, has named Christian Agulles its president and CEO.

Agulles will take the reins from Paul Schwer, who is stepping down as president after 18 years. Schwer plans to remain active at the firm, according to a press release. He led PAE as it contributed to hundreds of highly sustainable buildings, including the Bullitt Center, Rocky Mountain Institute鈥檚 Innovation Center, and the PAE Living Building. He also helped PAE grow from a 39-person firm in 2004 to a 350-person Certified B-Corp business today.

Agulles will focus on positioning PAE in a new era of addressing decarbonization through engineering and design, the press release stated. He has 30 years of experience as a mechanical engineer designing projects such as affordable housing buildings, mixed-use high-rises, sports arenas, and U.S. embassies.

鈥淎s I take on this new role, I will lead PAE to create space for curiosity and invention and to leverage the passion, creativity, and ideas of our talented staff,鈥� Agulles stated. 鈥淥ur vision is to help solve the planet鈥檚 energy and water challenges. Through our services and our advocacy we will continually ask ourselves, 鈥楢re we doing enough?鈥� and 鈥榃hat more can we do?鈥欌��

Over the next decade, the firm plans to continue to design and develop more Living Buildings 鈥� structures with circular building systems that produce no waste. Living Buildings are designed to meet advanced sustainability metrics set by the International Living Future Institute.

The PAE Living Building, the firm鈥檚 headquarters, was completed in 2021. The five-story, 58,000-square-foot mixed-use building in Portland鈥檚 Old Town is poised to become the world鈥檚 largest commercial urban Living Building.

The firm has completed Living Buildings in Georgia, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. New ones are in the works in California, Utah, North Carolina and Virginia.

鈥淭he PAE Living Building and buildings like it demonstrate how the built environment can achieve the deep and immediate carbon emission reductions required to mitigate the most severe impacts of climate change,鈥� Schwer stated. 鈥淚t shows the world what a regenerative future can look like while providing the road map for how to get there. I am excited to mentor the next generation and focus on select, highly innovative, and regenerative projects in the coming years.鈥�