Dr. Gul Afghan Saleh

Dr. Gul Afghan Saleh is a civil engineer, a licensed Professional Engineer (PE), a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), and a Certified Construction Manager (CCM) holding a Ph.D. in Urban Planning and Design. With over 35 years of professional experience, he has managed, designed, and consulted on major infrastructure projects across Afghanistan and the United States. At our Society of Afghan Engineers (SAE), we recognize his extensive career, which spans from his early infrastructure work in the 1990s and 2000s in Afghanistan to his ongoing engineering leadership in Virginia today.

Professional Background in Afghanistan and Abroad

Dr. Saleh has worked and studied in ten countries, including Afghanistan, the United States, Pakistan, Japan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, India, South Africa, and Germany. In Afghanistan, he served the government as a project manager, design engineer, and construction engineer for ten years. He also worked for five years with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and spent another five years working for the Pamir Reconstruction Bureau, an Afghan non-governmental organization.

Between 2003 and 2014, Dr. Saleh worked as a Direct Hire employee for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Afghanistan. During this eleven-year tenure, he served as a Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) and Senior Program Manager, overseeing large, complex programs in the energy and water sectors with funding levels ranging from $50 million to $300 million. His responsibilities included providing oversight for a $1 billion USAID infrastructure program, which featured the reconstruction of over 300 miles of a heavily land-mined highway between Kabul and Kandahar, alongside the construction and rehabilitation of hundreds of schools and health clinics.

Career and Contributions in the United States

After relocating to the United States with his family in 2014, Dr. Saleh continued his engineering work. He has served as a Business Development Advisor for Sheladia Associates, Inc., and as a Senior Engineering Tech and Special Inspector with Intertek-PSI. He also collaborated with the Spanish firm ACCIONA Engineering as a PMP to develop a Country Environment Profile for Afghanistan.

In the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, Dr. Saleh has worked as a Construction Engineering Lead with ATCS and as a Construction Management Representative (CMR) with Gannett Fleming, Inc., where he provided construction management for a National Park Service project to restore the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal historic dry-stone wall. He has provided advisory services and general technical oversight for the Transform I-66 outside the Beltway Public-Private Partnership in Virginia. Additionally, he serves as Chief Inspector for Virginia American Water in Alexandria through Gannett Fleming TranSystems and is the founder of Gul Engineering PLLC.

Affiliations, Awards, and Service to the Society of Afghan Engineers

Within our organization, Dr. Saleh is an active leader, having served as Manager of the Executive Committee from 2014 to 2017, and as Executive Director (Secretary) and Board Member from 2018 to 2024. We also benefit from his ongoing contributions as a member of the SAE eNewsletter Editorial Board.

Beyond SAE, he is a Founding and Board Member of the Afghanistan Engineers’ Association (AEA). He has been a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for many years, serving as the President of the ASCE’s Bull Run Branch and as a Board Member of its Virginia Section. His affiliations also include the Project Management Institute (PMI), the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA), and the USAID Alumni Association. Dr. Saleh joined the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Hiroshima Fellowship for Afghanistan as a Fellow in 2007, later becoming a UN-certified trainer and mentor supporting professionals in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

In October 2024, Dr. Saleh was honored with the USAID Alumni Association (UAA) Award, recognizing his courageous service as a Senior Engineering Foreign Service National to USAID Afghanistan and his volunteer work assisting 50 evacuated Afghan Foreign Service Nationals with their job searches in the United States.

Personal Life

Dr. Saleh currently resides in Northern Virginia with his wife, Lailuma, and their seven children, who have completed or are in the process of completing their higher education. In his free time, he enjoys reading, walking, listening to music, home gardening, dining with friends, and spending time with his children.