TZL 1367 (web)

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ON THE MOVE WARE MALCOMB ANNOUNCES PROMOTION OF KATE LYLE TO STUDIO MANAGER SPECIALIZING IN INDUSTRIAL COLD AND FOOD SECTOR Ware Malcomb , an award-winning international design firm, announced Kate Lyle has been promoted to Studio Manager, Industrial Cold and Food in the Irvine, California-based headquarters office. In this role, Lyle leads the growth of the Industrial Cold & Food Studio and manages select projects. Lyle joined Ware Malcomb in 2019 as Senior Project Architect, specializing in complex project types including food processing, manufacturing, and cold storage. She is active in the Controlled Environments Building Association and excels in planning, interpreting, organizing and managing these specialized projects through all phases of development, including monitoring budgets and managing the project team. “Kate’s devotion to her work, financial astuteness, attention to detail, and skill with our clientele has quickly made her an integral part of the Ware Malcomb team,” said Greg Spon, Director, Architecture of Ware Malcomb’s Irvine office. “As the Industrial Cold and Food sector continues to grow across the country, we look forward to her continued contributions and success at Ware Malcomb.”

Ware Malcomb is an industry leader in Cold Building projects, a unique and highly specialized sector within the industrial real estate market that includes cold storage, food processing and production facilities, cold laboratories, and cold medical and pharmaceutical facilities. The complex requirements of Cold Building construction and renovation include refrigeration systems, material handling, fire suppression systems, and the latest food safety requirements from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Health Departments. The firm combines this knowledge with the latest developments in technology, trucking, rail, automation and third-party logistics to design aesthetically pleasing buildings that are highly functional. A licensed architect in the state of California, Lyle brings more than 15 years of architectural design expertise to the Ware Malcomb team. Her expertise includes project management, programming and conceptual design, design development, construction drawings, and construction administration. In addition to being a Cold Building specialist, Lyle’s experience includes a wide variety of project types such as

industrial, office, corporate, commercial, retail, governmental and education projects. Lyle holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. Established in 1972, Ware Malcomb is a contemporary and expanding full service design firm providing professional architecture, planning, interior design, civil engineering, branding and building measurement services to corporate, commercial/residential developer and public/institutional clients throughout the world. With office locations throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, the firm specializes in the design of commercial office, corporate, industrial, science and technology, healthcare, retail, auto, public/institutional facilities and renovation projects. Ware Malcomb is recognized as an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private company and a Hot Firm by Zweig Group. The firm is also ranked among the top 15 architecture/engineering firms in Engineering News-Record’s Top 500 Design Firms and the top 25 interior design firms in Interior Design magazine’s Top 100 Giants.

MARK ZWEIG, from page 9

the ownership of the firm doesn’t often lend itself to making the kinds of investments that are required to keep the firm growing. And yet it is far more common than an “investment approach” applied to the ownership of an A/E firm. We are all limited by our unique set of experiences. 4)They are naturally risk-averse. It’s OK and completely understandable. These people have been schooled in how to reduce risk. To expect them to take chances with their business (i.e., attempt to transform it into something it currently isn’t) is pretty unrealistic. On top of that, if you honestly consider the fact that what most firms do in the majority of their projects is based on applied technology versus new technology, this is a very conservative lot indeed. 5)They have gotten a lot of bad advice. The small accountants and attorneys, along with the single-person management and marketing consultants, that most firms in this business rely on for advice every day are limited by their own perspectives and orientations. They are geared to minimize tax obligations, reduce risk, and provide typical solutions to problems that they feel are proven. None of these preconceived notions about how to do things may be good for the entrepreneurial A/E firm owner who needs to do whatever it takes to make their business grow at a faster rate than the rest of the industry. In spite of these things, some entrepreneurial firm owners can and do emerge, and build valuable companies. Zweig Group’s annual Hot Firm List of the 100 fastest-growing companies in this business is proof of that. The success of some of these businesses really is phenomenal! MARK ZWEIG is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.

2)They don’t understand what the real economic opportunity of being an owner of an entrepreneurial A/E firm is. If I told you that I know a guy who paid about $60,000 for the stock he bought in the firm he worked for and when it was acquired by a publicly-traded firm 20 years later it was worth $16 million, would you believe me? It happened. Or would you believe it if I told you a second- generation partner (one of many) in a planning and landscape architecture firm 30 years after buying in was making millions of dollars a year? That, too, happened. My point is ownership of a rapidly-growing, entrepreneurial A/E firm in whole or in part is a valuable asset – far beyond whatever the balance sheet says about assets minus liabilities being “owner’s equity.” “The primary distinction between someone who is an entrepreneur and someone who is just a small business owner is the entrepreneur believes in and works toward creating value in their business which they can harvest upon exit.” 3)They have been conditioned by their experience. They may have started out in the firm they are in or another where the ownership is passed down from generation to generation with the assumption it has little value beyond the income you can extract from it annually. This “income club” approach to

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THE ZWEIG LETTER NOVEMBER 9, 2020, ISSUE 1367

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