SGA Announces Internal Ownership Transition and Expansion of Leadership Team

Adam Spagnolo named CEO, John Sullivan and Gable Clarke named co-Presidents, Al Spagnolo elevated to Chairman

SGA – an award-winning architecture, design and planning firm specializing in life sciences, corporate and academic design – announced today an internal transition of ownership and expansion of its leadership team. The firm will now be led by equal majority owners: President of Architecture John Sullivan, AIA; President of Interior Design Gable Clarke, NCIDQ, LEED® AP, Certified Generations Trainer; and CEO Adam Spagnolo. Former SGA President and Founding Partner Al Spagnolo, AIA, NCARB will move to the role of Chairman and Founding Partners Bill Gisness, AIA, BSA, and Jeff Tompkins, IIDA, LEED® AP, will transition from the firm. Michael Schroeder, CCM, will remain a minority partner.

SGA has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, more than doubling the staff in its Boston and New York offices to over 130 professionals. The firm has 15 million sq. ft. of active projects as clients have relied on SGA’s unique ability to deliver flexible, tech-forward design and sustainable, state-of-the-art facilities that foster collaboration and breed innovation. Continually at the forefront of its field, SGA has designed innovation campuses, emerging life sciences clusters, R&D accelerators, high-performance sustainable buildings, complex mixed-use developments, dynamic, brand-rich work environments, and campus life facilities for the nation’s leading developers, owners, academic institutions and users of real estate.

“Under the new leadership, SGA will continue the transformational work that has established us as one of the most trusted architecture and design firms,” stated Chairman Al Spagnolo. “Our recent growth is a credit to the work of Gable, John, Adam, and the rest of our talented team. They are taking SGA to heights that Jeff, Bill, and I could not have dreamed of when we started the firm in 1991.”

CEO Adam Spagnolo will lead and oversee the business of the practice including overall fiscal responsibilities and firm-wide operations. Adam will lean on his many years of organizational leadership in multiple industries including retail, architecture and design. For the past seven years he has modernized SGA’s business practices, opened the firm’s New York City office and managed its exponential growth.

John Sullivan will serve as SGA’s President of Architecture. For 17 years he has led the firm’s many large-scale projects in the commercial, technology, life-sciences, and academic markets and often plays a major role in master planning, conceptual design, and the public approvals process. Sullivan will lead the firm’s robust architecture practice focusing on design leadership and client management.

President of Interior Design Gable Clarke has earned many prestigious honors and awards during her 20-plus year career, including 18 at SGA. She has been the driving force behind the expansion of the firm’s interior design practice and is an ambassador throughout the market. In addition to leading numerous interior design commissions and overseeing the Science and Technology discipline, Clarke will manage the firm’s human resources department.

“John, Gable and I are honored to lead SGA and this exceptional company into a new era,” said Adam Spagnolo. “In the role of CEO, I am here to serve the leadership team and our practice to ensure they have all of the tools needed to continue delivering industry-leading, tech-forward projects. SGA’s position as an innovator and trusted advisor to clients is a testament to the leadership and expertise of our founding partners Al Spagnolo, Jeff Tompkins, and Bill Gisness  – we will continue to build upon the trusted and highly-regarded reputation they worked tirelessly to create.”

In addition to Sullivan, Clarke, and Adam Spagnolo becoming equal majority owners, SGA has named five new principals and seven directors. Matthew Fickett, AIA, CPCH, LEED®, Joe Mamayek, AIA, LEED® AP, Brooks Slocum, AIA, Brian Slozak, RA, and Eric Svahn, AIA, NCARB and have all been elevated to Principal. Scott Barnholt, AIA, Caroline Bergin, IIDA, NCIDQ, WELL® AP, David Enriquez, LEED® AP BD+C, Bill Fleming, Marc Gabriel, LEED® AP BD+C, NCARB, Jessica Randolph, AIA, NCARB, Walker Shanklin, AIA, and Amanda Vicari, NCIDQ have all been promoted to Director. The firm will remain headquartered in Boston and CEO Adam Spagnolo will work out of their New York office.