Jacobs CEO Bob Pragada calls for more resilient critical infrastructure at Semafor World Economy Summit

Jacobs Chair & CEO Bob Pragada joined other global leaders and CEOs on stage at Semafor’s World Economy Summit in Washington, D.C. in April 2026. 

Appearing on the Economics of Infrastructure panel alongside Baker Hughes CEO Lorenzo Simonelli and Semafor Climate and Energy Editor Tim McDonnell, Bob discussed global instability and risk, the AI data center supply chain and the urgent need to invest in more redundancy and resiliency for critical water and energy infrastructure.

“Today, moving forward, it’s those threats that we probably didn’t think about as much as we did back 20-30 years ago around redundancy and resiliency, as well as cyber protection . . . that applies to facilities all over the world,” he shared.  

During an exchange about climate threats and aging infrastructure, Bob raised a central question that he says Jacobs works with clients to address: “how do we take investment and invest in elements that we, our children and grandchildren are going to need for generations?”