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ON THE MOVE JDAVIS ANNOUNCES LEADERSHIP CHANGE JDavis , is a 75-person multi-disciplinary design firm providing architecture, planning, landscape architecture, and interior design services, headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, with a Northeast office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has named Larry Zucchino, FASLA as chairman of the board and Neil Gray, AIA, president and chief executive officer. Zucchino is moving from his role as CEO by handing over the management reins to Gray. Zucchino will become the chairman of the board for the firm in support of the company’s long-term strategic plan. “We have transformed our business over the past five years through the expansion into new market sectors and geographical diversity throughout the eastern seaboard,” says Zucchino. “A strategic shift in our senior leadership will place our firm in a position for continued growth with a focus on design service and a strong corporate culture.” Neil Gray, AIA, joined JDavis as a principal in 2001 when the firm began. As president

and CEO, Gray’s primary responsibility will be in business development and client management. Gray brings 24 years of experience to his role and has served as president for the last three years. Gray provides leadership on many office, multifamily, and commercial development projects. He is chair of the board of directors for the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, and is a member of Urban Land Institute and the National Association of Office and Industrial Properties. Gray states, “We intend to build upon the foundation established by Jeff Davis and Larry Zucchino by fostering a culture focused on client-centered service, design leadership, exceptional project delivery, and collaboration. Our leadership team has been planning for this succession for several years, so we are able to move forward with the goal to build value and pass it on, the core tenant of our strategic plan.” The leadership team includes partners: Larry Zucchino, FASLA; Neil Gray, AIA; Bill Egan, AIA; Bob Nussear, AIA; Matt Ansley, AIA;

Noah Morris, AIA; Laurent de Comarmond, AIA; Beret Dickson, AIA and Y.E. Smith, AIA. JDavis, a full-service architecture, planning, landscape architecture, and interior design firm, connects communities through design by creating places that bring people, neighborhoods, cities, and regions together. The firm’s mission is to build value and pass it on. JDavis believes in building value for its clients and communities; and that it has a responsibility to pass on knowledge and experience to those who come after. JDavis’s multi-disciplinary practice brings together professionals in architecture, landscape architecture, planning, interior design, and procurement management serving the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions. The firm’s areas of expertise include multifamily housing, urban design and planning, affordable housing, student housing, senior living, commercial office, mixed-use, retail, clubs and resorts, coastal, parks and master planning. JDavis has offices in Raleigh, North Carolina and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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we are creating awareness for our company through other avenues like social media to increase our exposure in the marketplace. TZL: A firm’s longevity is valuable. What are you doing to encourage your staff to stick around? SM: Employee retention is extremely important to our firm. Replacing employees is very expensive and is time-inten- sive. We are committed to creating enriching careers for our employees. We want our employees to be passionate about the work they do. We have made a concerted effort to create a social environment for our staff. We started as a family- owned business and we want to carry over that foundation with our staff today. We take pride in being named as a Best Firm To Work For by Zweig Group. TZL: Tell us about the last time you named a new princi- pal from outside the firm. SM: Several years ago, we met someone that we knew would make a huge contribution to our team. Because of his exper- tise and set of complementary skills, we felt he was a key player in our profession. We made him an offer and brought him on to our team with the commitment of making him a shareholder. He currently plays a major role in the com- pany’s leadership and has become a member of the firm’s board of directors. TZL: Are you currently pursuing the R&D tax credit? SM: We became aware of the R&D tax credits at Zweig’s Hot Firm Conference. We are currently reviewing possibilities of how the R&D tax credit could affect our tax position in fu- ture years as well as our historical taxes. We are currently pursuing it, investigating our options and hoping to imple- ment changes later this year.

TZL: Engineers love being engineers, but what are you doing to instill a business culture in your firm? SM: As a part of our project manager training program, we are training our project managers to take responsibility for everything from business development, client manage- ment, proposal writing, overall project schedules, invoic- es, and project collections, in addition to the technical re- sponsibility associated with the project. Overall the project managers have a responsibility to the firm to make sure that their projects are successful. “There are very few engineers who have both the technical skills and the business acumen to fully understand how the business works. My education has helped me distinguish myself among my peers and has opened my eyes to other important aspects of the business outside of the technical side of engineering.” TZL: The seller-doer model is very successful, but with growth you need to adapt to new models. What is your program? SM: In the last two years we’ve created a new marketing and business development department that goes beyond the seller doer model. We have committed to a rebranding campaign to highlight our 65 years of experience and the work that we currently do. We have seen a lot of success from the seller-doer model, but we want to make sure that

THE ZWEIG LETTER April 8, 2019, ISSUE 1291

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