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Succession is grand, not rapid Bjorn A. Green, president and CEO of TowerPinkster in western Michigan, undergoes structured, two-year transition before mentor hands him baton. P R O F I L E
By RICHARD MASSEY Managing Editor
To cement his ascension, both symbolically and in practice, Mikon moved to the Grand Rapids office while Green remained at the flagship Kalamazoo headquarters. For Mikon, who was CEO for a decade before hand- ing the baton to Green, the decision to promote his protégé was not too difficult to make. “He succeeded with every opportunity we gave him,” Mikon said. “His qualities and experienc- es for the position of president are multiple. But mostly it’s about his ability to always see the big picture affecting an opportunity or challenge, his ability to make a decision when one is needed, and the respect he has garnered from the staff.” TowerPinkster is an old firm, established in 1953 with a staff of six. Entrenched in the western Mich- igan metro markets of Grand Rapids and Kalama- zoo – only 50 miles apart and home to a combined 1.6 million people – the firm has plenty of local, premium clients to bolster its portfolio, including Western Michigan University, Grand Valley State University, and Spectrum Health. Both locally and nationally, the mood is positive for the A/E/P industry, something that’s not lost on Green. “The market is good and busy,” he says. “Succession planning while things are good is always easier.” As the CEO in training for two years, Green took a good manager’s look at the industry and the chal- lenges it faces. Like many other CEOs, he sees a lot of work and not enough people to do it. That the Great Recession gutted the architecture indus- try is well documented, both in the media and by the American Institute of Architects, which, in its 2012 Firm Survey , reported a 40-percent decline in gross architecture revenues from 2008 to 2011. On top of that, many of the architects who lost their jobs during the recession have struggled to re-enter the workforce, even though construction, and the A/E/P that enables it, is now booming. See SUCCESSION, page 12 “The market is good and busy. Succession planning while things are good is always easier.”
I t took two years, but the succession planning at TowerPinkster in western Michigan is complete. Bjorn A. Green, a planner and designer who cut his teeth in Chicago, in January replaced Arnie Mikon as president and CEO of the 82-person firm that specializes in the design of educational and health- care facilities. “His qualities and experiences for the position of president are multiple. But mostly it’s about his ability to always see the big picture affecting an opportunity or challenge, his ability to make a decision when one is needed, and the respect he has garnered from the staff.” While the actual succession, which began in ear- ly 2014, centered on Green and his tutelage under Mikon, the big picture was about each and every person in the firm, in addition to all the clients it serves. “We all need to work in the same direction,” Green says. “I give a lot of the credit to Arnie for having the thought process to begin planning a couple of years ago.” Mikon will remain with the firm throughout 2016, more as a mentor for the younger associates, and for the stability of the firm’s ongoing projects. Or, as Green says, to avoid the “cold stop and start for clients. Relationships are not easy to build.” Before moving into his current position, Green was put through his paces at TowerPinkster – leader- ship over healthcare, then commercial, then mar- keting, and finally, a seat on the board of directors. “There appears to be a shift in focus by many firms, which started in 2008, from an honest wage for a valued service to a low fee, high- volume model and philosophy.”
Bjorn A. Green, President and CEO, TowerPinkster
THE ZWEIG LETTER February 22, 2016, ISSUE 1140
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