SGA completes internal transition of ownership and expansion of leadership

Boston, MA On the heels of record-breaking growth and industry recognition, SGA has completed the internal transition of ownership and expansion of the leadership team at SGA.

Taking their firm into a new era, SGA will now be led by equal majority owners: president of architecture John Sullivan, AIA; president of interior design Gable Clarke, NCIDQ, LEED AP, certified generations trainer; and CEO Adam Spagnolo.

Former SGA president and founding partner Al Spagnolo, AIA, NCARB will move to the role of chairman and founding partners Bill Gisness, AIA, BSA, and Jeff Tompkins, IIDA, LEED AP, will transition from the firm. Michael Schroeder, CCM, will remain a minority partner. They thank founding partners Gisness and Tompkins for their years of service and vision for the firm. The firm, along with chairman Spagnolo, will continue to build upon the trusted and highly-regarded reputation they worked tirelessly to create.

SGA has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, more than doubling their staff in the Boston and New York offices to over 130 professionals. The firm has 15 million s/f of active projects as clients have relied on their unique ability to deliver flexible, tech-forward design and sustainable, facilities that foster collaboration and breed innovation. Continually at the forefront of their field, they have designed innovation campuses, emerging life sciences clusters, R&D accelerators, high-performance sustainable buildings, complex mixed-use developments, dynamic, brand-rich work environments, and campus life facilities for the nation’s leading developers, owners, academic institutions and users of real estate.

Al Spagnolo, said “Under the new leadership, we will continue the transformational work that has established us as one of the most trusted architecture and design firms. Our recent growth is a credit to the work of Gable, John, Adam, and the rest of our talented team. They are taking SGA to heights that Jeff, Bill, and I could not have dreamed of when we started the firm in 1991.”

CEO Adam Spagnolo will lead and oversee the business of the practice including overall fiscal responsibilities and firm-wide operations.

Adam will lean on his many years of organizational leadership in multiple industries including retail, architecture and design. For the past seven years, he has modernized SGA’s business practices, opened the firm’s New York City office and managed its exponential growth.

John Sullivan will serve as SGA’s President of Architecture. For 17 years he has led the firm’s many large-scale projects in the commercial, technology, life sciences, and academic markets and often plays a major role in master planning, conceptual design, and the public approvals
process. Sullivan will lead the firm’s robust architecture practice focusing on design leadership and client management.

President of Interior Design Gable Clarke has earned many prestigious honors and awards during her 20-plus year career, including 18 at SGA. She has been the driving force behind the expansion of the firm’s interior design practice and is an ambassador throughout the market. In addition to leading numerous interior design commissions and overseeing the Science and Technology discipline, Clarke will manage the firm’s human resources department.

In addition to our new roles as equal majority owners, we have named five new principals and seven directors. Matthew Fickett, AIA, CPCH, LEED®, Joe Mamayek, AIA, LEED® AP, Brooks Slocum, AIA, Brian Slozak, RA, and Eric Svahn, AIA, NCARB and have all been elevated to Principal. Scott Barnholt, AIA, Caroline Bergin, IIDA, NCIDQ, WELL® AP, David Enriquez, LEED® AP BD+C, Bill Fleming, Marc Gabriel, LEED® AP BD+C, NCARB, Jessica Randolph, AIA, NCARB, Walker Shanklin, AIA, and Amanda Vicari, NCIDQ have all been promoted to Director. Our firm will remain headquartered in Boston and Adam Spagnolo will work out of our New York office.