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ON THE MOVE O’CONNELL ROBERTSON WELCOMES CINDY VILLARREAL O’Connell Robertson announced that Cindy Villarreal, AIA, WELL AP, CDT, is joining the firm. Bringing more than 12 years of experience in higher education, science and tech, and healthcare design, Villarreal is located in Houston and will focus on regional expansion for O’Connell Robertson as she adds to the firm’s knowledge and expertise in these project types. Villarreal’s experience includes academic health such as nursing and dental school projects at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston State Universities. She has designed notable projects for Texas Children’s Hospital and the Debakey High School for Health Professions. Her portfolio of work includes skills, simulation, BSL-3 and general labs; research facilities; and a variety of classrooms and administration spaces. As the First RELi Accredited professional in Houston, Villarreal is committed to human- centric design to help people thrive in the built environment, while contributing to a more sustainable future for upcoming generations. RELi is a rating system and resilience standard that takes a holistic approach to resilient design. This system can be used by architects to assess and prepare for threats that buildings and communities can face during unplanned events. She is also a WELL Accredited Professional and LEED AP BD+C certified. “Cindy’s commitment to sustainable and resilient design provides an exciting new depth of knowledge and enthusiasm for designing for ideal occupant well-being,” said Amy

Jones, president. “This specialization is a great complement to O’Connell Robertson’s focus on healthcare and education facilities that impact how people live well, and learn, throughout Texas.” Villarreal is a native Houstonian, a lifelong learner, and a graduate of the University of Houston. She has written articles and presented on resilience and sustainable design at regional and national conferences, sharing and exchanging her knowledge with other industry professionals. Villarreal and her husband Stephen, also an architect, have a deep fascination for connecting information, problem solving, and experiencing history and cultures. O’Connell Robertson is a full-service architecture, engineering and interior design firm whose mission-driven approach creates education and healthcare environments that enrich the lives of the people they were designed to serve. With offices in Austin and San Antonio and more than six decades in business, the firm has established deep roots in Texas, which have helped it to establish valuable relationships with clients, organizations, consultants, and builders throughout the state. WARE MALCOMB PROMOTES DENNIS PHAN TO CONTROLLER Ware Malcomb , an award- winning international design firm, announced Dennis Phan has been promoted to Controller in the firm’s Irvine, California-based headquarters office. In this role, Phan manages the financial operations of the firm under the direction of CFO and executive vice president Tobin Sloane. Phan brings more than 14 years of

experience to his new position as controller. He joined Ware Malcomb in 2015 as a senior staff accountant and was promoted to assistant controller in 2018. During this time, he has added tremendous value in the leadership and management of the firm’s financials. “The talent and dedication that Dennis has demonstrated, combined with the incredible team he has developed, have been instrumental in effectively managing the financial complexities of the firm,” said Sloane. “We look forward to his continued leadership and will rely on him and his team to serve as the backbone of Ware Malcomb’s financials as the firm continues to grow and diversify.” Phan earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of California at Irvine, and a master’s degree in accountancy from California State University at Fullerton. Established in 1972, Ware Malcomb is an international design firm providing planning, architecture, interior design, branding, civil engineering and building measurement services to commercial real estate and corporate clients. With office locations throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, the firm specializes in the design of commercial office, corporate, industrial, science & technology, healthcare, retail, auto, public/educational facilities and renovation projects. Ware Malcomb is recognized as a Hot Firm and Best Firm To Work For by Zweig Group.

work in process cleaned out every month? Are you doing everything you can to relieve any overhead expenses? Are you doing what you have to do to collect money that’s owed to you? Are you doing what you should to have all the available credit you might need? These things are essential now more than ever. Be relentless! My conclusion here – you have a lot of responsibility and no matter how you feel personally about anything happening in the country or world as a whole, it’s your job to do your job. So hold your head up and do it!! MARK ZWEIG is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com. “The fact that we have these businesses that allow us to take care of our families and ourselves gives us the luxury of being able to worry about other people and the bigger picture of what is happening. We cannot forget that.”

MARK ZWEIG, from page 3

sick family member whom they can’t see, and worries about their other family members or friends. 3)Clients’ immediate and longer term needs that must be met. I was talking to a friend of mine this weekend who works in operations and IT for a company. He said if he had his druthers he would never talk to a client but rather just do his technical stuff and communicate with the people who work for him. But he also said he regularly ends up talking with their clients and always learns something from that. All of our businesses depend on clients and meeting their needs. That is the most fundamental thing we have to remember. But do we really know what those needs are right now? And what are we changing in our businesses and offerings that reflect an understanding of those client needs? It isn’t “business as usual” for most of our clients and we cannot act as if it’s so. We have to be sensitive to their priorities and concerns and act accordingly. We need to TALK to these people and not assume our people are doing what is necessary to determine and address those needs. It is our job to do so. 4)Financial condition of the business. Cash flow and solvency are number one. Are you doing your cash flow forecasting? Are you relentlessly getting all that unbilled

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THE ZWEIG LETTER JUNE 8, 2020, ISSUE 1348

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