Sam Hassoun is the founder and president of Global Leadership Alliance, Inc. (GLA), specializing in the development and implementation of Collaborative Dispute Mitigation (CDM) systems for agencies, organizations, and construction projects. He started his engineering career with Bechtel, then joined the California Dept. of Transportation (Caltrans) in 1988. In the Office Chief of Partnering, he was responsible for developing and incorporating partnering principles and specifications into construction projects, and pioneered Caltrans as the first public agency to have on-line performance measures for partnering. Hassoun holds a certificate in Mediation and Conflict Resolution from UC Berkeley. One of his current projects is the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement.