The old saying is that “it’s lonely at the top.”
Now that she’s made it, Tania Van Herle isn’t finding that to be true.
Of course, that might be because Van Herle, the co-CEO of HED, a national architectural firm with nine offices spread across the United States, isn’t the only one at the top.
Last March, Van Herle and Enrique Suarez were appointed to co-CEO positions. Van Herle got the boost from her position as the company’s chief operations officer, a job she kept even with the promotion.
Now with Van Herle working from her office in Los Angeles and Suarez from his station in Chicago, the arrangement gives the pair “greater ability to reach all of our offices and connect with our people in person.
“They say that the role of the CEO is lonely,” said Van Herle, who is a founding chair of the Women in Architecture Committee of AIA-LA. “I haven’t experienced that because I’ve got a partner and … a trusted confidant who I can talk to and work through issues.”
Before settling on the unique leadership arrangement, HED officials researched the idea, talking with other CEOs in their industry to understand how it would work, what the pluses and minuses might be.
“Seemingly there are a lot of really wonderful benefits,” said Herle said. “We can cover a lot more territory. We have different skill sets to bring to the table, which broadens our capabilities, and that’s really wonderful.”
Van Herle, who earned multiple degrees in both civil engineering and architecture at UCLA, talked about HED’s structure and a variety of other business issues during the most recent episode of “CEO Thought Leadership Series on LinkedIn Live,” the discussion series hosted by the National Association for Business Resources.
Produced in conjunction with the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For and Corp! Magazine, the series is hosted by NABR CEO Jennifer Kluge and features business leaders from around the country.
Jennifer Kluge: Give us a brief overview of HED and some of the projects that you work on. Were any of them monumental or a significant achievement for your firm?
Tania Van Herle: We’re a 400-person architecture and engineering practice. We have nine offices across the country, and our work crosses over ten market sectors, so we cover a lot of ground.
There’s a small selection of projects that we have completed as an organization that might stand out to folks: the chemistry and biotech building at Mira Costa Community College, the Greater Lansing McLaren hospital replacement, which was a partnership with the design architect Gresham Smith. We have data centers that we’ve done across the country for many of the large tech companies.
We just completed a student commons in the high school in San Rafael, Calif. All of these projects are just a highlight of the kind of different skills, different locations where we do work.
Kluge: How is the co-CEO situation working out?
Van Herle: We have different skill sets to bring to the table, which broadens our capabilities, and that’s really wonderful. An important aspect of our work in general is collaboration and teamwork. And so Enrique and I felt that if we could do this together, we’re actually role modeling what we want from our teams.
But when we took on the role, I do want to be clear that Enrique and I both maintained our day jobs, if you will. He remained as corporate marketing officer, and I continued on as the COO. So we’re sharing the CEO while we’re both doing those perspective roles … We have a responsibility matrix all available to our staff.
Kluge: You’ve been with the firm for 25 years. Let’s talk about strategic vision and looking forward. What’s your vision for the future?
Van Herle: I have been with the firm for some time and I’ve seen it grow over the years, which has made it so exciting for me. Our firm is 116 years old, so we’re not the new kid on the block. Not everybody knows that and that comes out of the heritage of the Detroit marketplace.
But we also feel that we’re right now at a very pivotal point in the company’s history, within the current state of the world and in a place where we really need to redefine ourselves. We just completed our three-year strategic plan … and the focus is really about being recognized as a leader in integrated practice.
We have a lot of disruptors occurring in the AEC industry, and we need to make sure that we can solidify and position ourselves in a space that will set us apart. We need to build the resiliency and solidify … the relevancy of the firm as we move forward. So really positioning ourselves so that we are those true leaders.
Kluge: Is it because of artificial intelligence that you’re making these pivots?
Van Herle: Artificial intelligence is certainly one of them. Generative design. Artificial intelligence may not be evident to everybody — I know most people are familiar with ChatGPT and what it can do — but there are programs out there like Midjourney and Dall-E where you can actually go in and say, design a XYZ type of building X stories this style, and it can spit out imagery that’s in seconds.
That’s just phenomenal. Our intellectual property comes into question. And so it really shakes the foundation of everything that we do. Just technology in general is advancing so quickly.
And so figuring out how you keep pace with that and literally getting to the place where a computer can basically begin to have the intelligence to do the code analysis and layout building. And there’s still parts that the human brain and the human judgment has to come into place.
Kluge: Everything seems to be changing. Which brings me to a discussion on monumental moments. We’ve all had them. What have been some of your monumental moments and what did you learn from them?
Van Herle: I mostly am a positive person, and I try to look at all things both good and bad, as having learning moments. For me personally and professionally, it was probably when I went through my fellowships for the American Institute of Architects, which I received in 2022. There are only 3% of all architects in the country that have been honored with this.
So the not so good part for me is it took three attempts to get my fellowship, which is not abnormal but doesn’t feel great. And so during that period of time, it took a tremendous amount of soul-searching and resilience to just not give up and throw in the towel and say, why am I doing this? I think sticking with it and just saying, “I can do this” really was the hard part, but it ended up being the good part.
Kluge: The world is a little different now … since the pandemic, a lot has changed. What’s your most current strategic need or a pressing challenge?
Van Herle: I think the notion of continuous change and it’s not going away is probably the biggest thing in that that talks to the disruptors that we have going on: AI, modular construction, the changes that are happening in our profession. One thing that we’ve come across is staff burnout, which is taking a different form from the burnout of the past.
I’ve had conversations with our younger staff members and they’re telling me, ‘We’re having mental meltdowns.’ It’s not about the staff burnout. I guess my generation was more like, ‘I’m working 80 hours a week and I’m really burnt out.’ We’re trying to figure it out and trying to understand and meet our people in the middle, if you will, to help them with this.
The ability to find qualified architects and engineers is narrowing — there’s not as many of them graduating — and then try to also make sure you have a diverse group of people. That’s even harder.
Kluge: If I were an employee at HED, what can I expect? What is the experience that you want for me? What does the culture feel like if we walk through the doors at the company?
Van Herle: So one of the things we have is a ‘Jedi Council’ and they developed our commitment statement towards Jedi and their tagline is “Be With Us.” We want people to be able to come and join and really bring themselves to work their whole self. We want it to be in an inclusive and healthy workplace, where they’re inspired to do the very best work that they can drive sustainable, resilient design, which is very important to a lot of our architects and engineers and be recognized for their positive impact on the built environment.
