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ON THE MOVE LPA INC. NAMES FIRST NEW CEO IN 30 YEARS Integrated design firm LPA Inc. has named Wendy Rogers, FAIA as chief executive officer, succeeding Robert Kupper, who served as CEO of the company for 30 years. Rogers becomes only the second CEO in the national firm’s more than 50-year history. Rogers moves into her new role at a time of steady expansion for LPA, a fully-integrated practice with architecture, interior design, landscape, and engineering services. Kupper remains with the company in an advisory role and will continue to work with the management team daily. “It will be a privilege to build on Bob’s legacy,” said Rogers, who has spent the last two years as chief talent officer and the last 18 years as principal since joining the firm in 1987. “Bob has helped instill a collaborative work ethic, focused on problem-solving and creating sustainable places that enrich lives.” With more than 380 employees, LPA focuses on research-driven sustainable design, working across sectors, including education, civic, health care, and corporate projects. The firm opened an office in Dallas in April –

it’s sixth location nationwide and second in Texas. A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Rogers has been a vocal advocate for sustainable design, using research to support green design principles and strategies. Her initial priorities as CEO include increasing the role of LPA’s proprietary research unit, LPAred, and using LPA’s unique informed design approach to differentiate the design firm in the marketplace. “My goal is to preserve an environment that inspires and challenges the brightest talent to do their best work,” Rogers said. Rogers will work with LPA president Dan Heinfeld on leading the day-to-day operations of the company. Heinfeld has served as president of LPA since 1986. “Wendy has a strong sensibility that balances the business practice of the firm with the fundamental belief that design can change lives,” said Heinfeld. “These are exciting times at LPA and Wendy’s collaborative leadership approach will be a catalyst in making our firm better.” The CEO transition has been planned for several years, according to Kupper. “Wendy has shown her ability as a design professional

and as a leader,” Kupper said. “She is a collaborator.” Under Kupper’s leadership, LPA grew as a diverse design firm, developing a firmwide focus on sustainability and innovation. The company has grown and thrived during many development cycles. The influence of Kupper’s leadership “can be seen in every strand of this company’s DNA,” Rogers said. “Bob started his career as a project designer at LPA and he applied that same intelligent problem-solving discipline to running a firm. He has truly demonstrated what it is to lead a company sustainably.” LPA’s revenue has increased by 20 percent since 2015 with plans to continue expansion in additional regions in the future. Some of the firm’s current projects include Mazda Motor Corporation’s headquarters in Irvine, California; Silicon Valley’s technology-based STEM school, TIDE Academy; and the recently certified LEED Silver Monarch Center at Los Angeles Valley College. Founded in 1965, LPA has offices in Irvine, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Jose, California, along with San Antonio and Dallas.

CHRISTINA ZWEIG NIEHUES, from page 3

or trying to get a car tire dry cleaned. He started feeling a sense of relief and accomplishment when he was rejected. “If you let this fear control you, your work is going to get worse, your list of clients will shrink, you’ll be less creative, way less fun, and you’ll lose even more jobs!” Eventually he compiled a long list of humorous ways to get rejected. Comely commercialized this concept with a rejection challenge game and rejection therapy cards, which challenge participants to get rejected by pursuing dead-end efforts. Today, you can actually buy his game online for around $15. I am not asking you go out and buy this game, and I certainly don’t recommend submitting a ton of proposals you know will get rejected. But I am asking you to look at yourself and your firm and address the ways in which fear may be limiting your options. If you have a 50 percent win rate and want to increase your revenue, you’re going to have to send out more proposals. That’s going to result in more rejection. But you should learn from it, relish it – and then move on. Recognize what you can gain from the possibility of a little more rejection. Take a few risks. Who knows, you might win a lot more than you expected! CHRISTINA ZWEIG NIEHUES is Zweig Group’s director of marketing. Contact her at christinaz@zweiggroup.com.

For some reason, he started thinking about the Spetsnaz, an elite Russian military unit with a really intense training program designed to equip someone to handle almost any kind of scenario. He decided to use the rigorous approach of the Spetsnaz to conquer his own fear of rejection, and thus, the concept of “Rejection Therapy” was born. Comely decided he had to get rejected at least once a day by someone in order to desensitize himself to those feelings of fear and dread. What Comely was really doing was using the psychotherapy technique of flooding, or exposure therapy. Using this technique, a person is exposed to the thing they fear over and over again, eventually realizing that their fear isn’t hurting them. “If you get rejected a lot, you may start to feel like it’s not worth it to put much time or effort into pursuing the next new job. You might start to feel like your firm’s work is mid-rate, or that you aren’t as good as your competitor.” Comely started doing some pretty funny things in order to get rejected, such as offering to do a stranger’s laundry and making outrageous requests such as asking to speak over the intercom at Costco, demanding a “burger refill,”

THE ZWEIG LETTER October 2, 2017, ISSUE 1218

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