Christopher Polglase

Chris Polglase has over 35 years of professional experience in archaeological excavations, historical research, and applied cultural heritage studies. He directs Gray & Pape, Inc.’s Cultural Heritage Practice and has wide-ranging regulatory and research experience, having managed projects and conducted investigations throughout Europe, the Mediterranean and Caucasus, the Continental United States, the Arctic, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa. He is recognized as an expert on cultural heritage management programs, most specifically related to extractive and infrastructure project impacts on cultural heritage. He has provided senior consultancy support from due diligence and project planning and approvals through the implementation of ESIA commitments and the development of cultural heritage management plans (CHMP) for the construction and operations phases of many projects. He has decades of experience related to the diverse aspects of cultural heritage survey, stakeholder engagement, assessments of heritage values, capacity building, as well as specialized subjects such as archaeology and heritage management.
Mr. Polglase currently is Co-Chair of the Cultural Heritage Section of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA). He is co-author of a Smithsonian Institution publication on cultural heritage and the AGT Pipelines in the Caucasus and a chapter in a UNESCO publication from a conference on World Heritage and sustainable development in Africa. From 2018 to 2021 he was part of a working group convened by ICCROM and IUCN to update guidance on World Heritage and impact assessment as part of the World Heritage Leadership Programme. He has presented on cultural heritage topics to professional audiences in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, Azerbaijan, Chile, Canada, Italy, Tanzania, South Africa, Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Australia.