Willy Accame

Industry Advisor, National Center for Atmospheric Research

Willy serves as Industry Advisor at the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s (NCAR) Capacity Center for Climate and Weather Extremes (C3WE).  He led the Climate-i for Construction Workgroup and served as the Chair of the Advisory Panel for C3WE.  Willy serves on the leadership team for ASTM Work Group 62996 on Building Resiliency Assessment and is leading the hazard assessment subgroup.  He formerly served as the Industry Liaison for climate adaptation at the University of Maryland’s Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) and chaired an Industry Advisory Panel conducting a Climate Applications Testbed, a joint pilot project between ESSIC, NOAA, and private industry.  Willy represented private industry at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center and Climate Program Office strategic planning meetings, contributed to The Royal Society’s Human Resilience to Climate Change and Disasters study, and participated in the launch of the Climate Data Initiative at the White House under the Obama administration.  His work has helped advance climate resilience by bridging communication between private industry and climate scientists in the United States and Europe.   

Willy spent 15 years as the Director of Risk Management at Panattoni Development Company managing risk across 16 countries and advising on the acquisition and redevelopment of properties with environmental challenges.  At Panattoni, he oversaw the redevelopment of over 40 million square feet of industrial properties with a value over $4.5 billion.  Prior to joining Panattoni, Willy spent 15 years as Vice President and General Manager at WSP, where he managed the Denver office, and 10 years as Division Manager at Greenhorne & O’Mara where in 1985 he co-founded the firm’s environmental practice.  At Greenhorne & O’Mara, Willy directed the state-wide mapping of non-tidal wetlands across New Jersey and helped develop the technique subsequently adopted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1994 to map non-tidal wetlands across the entire U.S. (National Wetlands Inventory).  Willy also served 13 years as a director and head of the audit committee at Quanta, a multi-national specialty lines insurance company.  Willy holds advanced degrees in Geochemistry and Remote Sensing from Purdue University, received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Maryland, and is a Professional Geologist.