Architecture and Design Firm NBBJ Announces Leadership Appointments

Managing Partner Steve McConnell, FAIA, Elevated to Board Chair; Partner Robert C. Mankin Jr., AIA, Appointed as Managing Partner to Lead Firm's Executive Team

SEATTLE, March 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Architecture and design firm NBBJ has announced key leadership appointments effective March 1, 2023, as part of its succession plan. Steve McConnell, FAIA, will be elevated to chair of the firm's board and carry on as a Managing Partner focused on strategic planning and firm governance. Robert C. Mankin Jr., AIA, has been appointed a Managing Partner and will oversee the firm's business strategy and day-to-day management as leader of the firm's executive team.

In addition to Mankin, NBBJ's executive team will be comprised of Partner Juli Cook, Chief Operating Officer; Partner Helen Dimoff, Chief Marketing Officer; and Design Partner Mindy Levine-Archer, AIA.

Firmwide Design Partner Jonathan Ward, FAIA, now joins the firm's board to build upon initiatives focused on sustainability, design performance and design justice. Former Board Chair Joan Saba, FAIA, transitions to Consulting Partner and will continue to lead projects for clients such as the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Massachusetts General Hospital.

"Leadership succession is an important part of NBBJ's evolution, business strategy and legacy," said Steve McConnell, FAIA, Board Chair and Managing Partner. "Every day we strive to create an exceptionally well-led firm that delivers deep expertise, transformational design, and powerful ideas for our clients that advance health, community, and a zero-carbon future. Looking forward, I am delighted to partner with Robert on achieving our firm's common purpose."

"NBBJ is long defined by multi-generational leadership and an 80-year legacy of ideas-driven design. It is my honor to work with Steve and the Executive Team to guide our firm into the future," said NBBJ Managing Partner Robert C. Mankin, Jr., AIA. "As our clients grapple with immense challenges––from developing life-changing medicines to reinvigorating downtowns in an era of hybrid work––I believe that the people of NBBJ are uniquely poised to generate transformational outcomes on their behalf."

Read more about the firm's newly appointed executive leaders and their respective roles below:

About Steve McConnell, FAIA

Based in Seattle, Steve McConnell is a highly respected leader focused on the future of architectural practice. During his tenure, Steve's leadership enabled the firm to be named among the world's most innovative architecture firms three times by Fast Company and coined by Architectural Record as both a firm redefining the future of practice and the fastest growing. He also has a long legacy of groundbreaking project work, including the design of the global headquarters for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and projects for the GSA, including the United States Federal Courthouse in Seattle which was the recipient of the prestigious GSA Design Award Citation.

About Robert C. Mankin Jr., AIA

Based in Los Angeles, Robert Mankin has been a trailblazer at NBBJ for more than 22 years, most recently as leader of the firm's global workplace design and sports practices and as a member of the firm's board. His leadership has generated exceptional commissions and reputational growth. In 2023, Building Design and Construction named NBBJ's workplace practice the second largest in the world thanks to pioneering work with clients like Amazon, Amgen, BlackRock, Samsung and Tencent. Mankin is also an esteemed thought leader on workplace futures, with projects and ideas published by Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Inc. magazine, National Public Radio, Sports Business Journal and the Wall Street Journal.

About NBBJ

NBBJ is an ideas-driven design architecture and design firm dedicated to making buildings healthy, communities strong and the environment resilient. With 80 years of experience, the firm's 750 researchers, strategists, nurses, architects, planners and interior designers work in 12 creative capitals around the world. NBBJ is the recipient of more than 1,000 prestigious awards from leading design and business organizations, such as the American Institute of Architects, the Urban Land Institute, Fast Company and MIPIM. It is also a CarbonNeutral certified company through Nature Capital Partners' Carbon Neutral Protocol, a signatory of the AIA 2030 Challenge and the Amazon Climate Pledge and a participant of the 1.5C COP26 Communique.

Contact:
Daniel Skiffington
[email protected]

SOURCE NBBJ