
Welcome to AEC Leadership Today Podcast
The Podcast designed exclusively for engineering, architecture, and construction industry leaders who want to stay relevant and effective and help their firms grow and prosper
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Inside Private Equity and M&A in AEC
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Todd Musterait, Chief Growth Officer at Apex Companies. Todd knows our industry, growth, and mergers & acquisitions (M&A) – both public and privately funded. We dive into all this and specifically the role private equity-backed investment is having in AEC.
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Closing Your Current and Next-Gen Leadership Gaps
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Pamela Scott, Founder and Executive Coach at Mentor Loft. There’s no easy “hack” or downloadable app to get us to be our individual and collective best, but there are ways to achieve our greatest potential faster, and do so with a lot less pain and wasted effort. Talking through this how best to do this while closing our leadership gaps is our focus for today.
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Your Massive Action and Final Thoughts
Today’s episode focuses on massive action we can take to be both “radically generous and thoughtfully aggressive” in terms of serving those we’re called to serve and doing so in a way that also helps to position us in the marketplace, plus our final thoughts as we close out this first-ever AEC industry Podstorm.
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Leveraging Your S.T.A.G.E. for Greater Impact
Today’s episode focuses on how we can leverage our “S.T.A.G.E.” – our skills, talents, assets, gifts, and experiences – for greater success personally, professionally, and organizationally as part of a well-designed and executed corporate impact strategy.
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Onboarding and M&A: More Connected Than We Think
Today’s episode focuses on how better onboarding can help us achieve greater success one great new hire or team member at-a-time, and when it comes to realizing greater success and a return on investment with mergers and acquisitions.
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Engage and Don’t Limit Yourself to Just Great Experiences
Today’s episode focuses on why we need to officially move beyond the idea employee satisfaction and happiness and design transformative employee experiences in order to achieve true employee engagement and loyalty.
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Do More with EDI
Today’s episode focuses on why we need reprioritize and make greater progress on equity, diversity, and inclusion in order to better attract, engage, retain, and get the best out of our people and clients alike.
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Ideal Learning and Development Strategies
Today’s episode focuses on how learning and development can be more strategically designed and executed to improve community, connection, and collaboration within, throughout, and even beyond our organizations.
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Productization and Flexible Business Models
Today’s episode focuses on how our ability to create novel tools and evolve our business models can help to accelerate our growth, prosperity, and marketplace differentiation.
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Growth and Scale are Very Different – Here’s What We Need
Today’s episode focuses on how we can leverage value to increase profits and avoid many all-too-common operational frustrations and business growth limitations.
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Get on the Offense: Design Better Processes and Systems
Today’s episode focuses on the many ways improving our processes and systems can immediately improve our success today while positioning us for even greater success moving forward.
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Prevent Burnout and Do Great Things
Today’s episode focuses on what we need to know about preventing and reversing burnout and achieving long-term growth and success as a result.
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Your Managers are Your Biggest ROI
Today’s episode focuses on the pivotal role of managers and what we can do now to increase engagement and dramatically improve proficiency and results.
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Culture in a Blended and Place-Less Workplace
Today’s episode focuses on how we can establish and maintain a successful culture in a blended and place-less workplace.
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Seasons and The New Definition of Winning
Today’s episode focuses on how we can better engage our employees and align their goals, interests, and passions with those of our organization in order to improve our likelihood of success.
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Deliver Empathy or Lose Loyalty
Today’s episode focuses on what we should be doing now to engage and retain our greatest assets and build a stronger foundation for new era.
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Put Your Own Oxygen Mask on First
Today’s episode focuses on what leaders and leadership teams need to do in order to stay ahead and stay fresh.
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Long-Term Growth and Value – What We Need to Remember
Today’s episode focuses on what we need to know and remember about long-term growth and value – something so many of us want to achieve.
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Next-Level Leaders Resolve Disconnects
Today’s episode focuses on what leaders and leadership teams need to recognize and work through in order to operate at the highest levels.
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Much Better Marketing & Branding Required
Today’s episode focuses on how the role of marketing and branding has grown during COVID-19 and how it’s only going to continue to grow in importance as we move deeper into the digital age.
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Why Your Mission, Vision, and Values Matter (Part 2)
Today’s episode continues our discussion on mission, vision, and values with a focus on values.
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Why Your Mission, Vision, and Values Matter (Part 1)
Today’s episode focuses the power of having an attractive, engaging, and inspiring mission, vision, and set of core values, and walks us through how we can begin to find or fine-tune our own mission and vision.
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What’s a Podstorm… and How You Benefit
Welcome to the first-ever AEC Industry Podstorm! – 21 straight days of podcast episodes designed to get you and your team positioned for greater success in 2021 and beyond!
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Effective Marketing & Branding for Busy Firms and Leaders
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Bryon McCartney. Bryon is the Chief Creative Strategist at Archmark and we talk about effective marketing and branding today, how it’s changing, and what that means moving forward.
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Growing Culture and Success at Scale
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Barry Barber, Executive Vice President of Kimley-Horn. When it comes to growth, there are often concerns about maintaining profitability and a firm’s “culture”. Is it possible to maintain both as a company grows? The short answer is yes.
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Gender Equity in AEC: Winning the Mid-Career Moments
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Mia Scharphie, owner of Build Yourself Workshop, which aims to advance gender equity by helping women in AEC overcome systemic and personal obstacles to help advance their careers and overall success.
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A More Modern Approach to Work and Management
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Rens Hayes, Principal and Co-Founder of H+O Structural Engineering. Since before the founding of his firm, Rens has pushed for a more modern, standardized, and value-driven approach that’s more creative and less constrained than conventional models.
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HR as a True Business Partner
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Liz Uzzo, Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, and Partner at H2M architects + engineers. Liz embodies the fact that HR done well is so much more than just essential overhead – it’s true strategic support that not only helps you succeed with leadership succession and major firm growth, it can also help you succeed during times of crisis, even when you’re at the epicenter of it all.
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Welcome to Season 2 of the AEC Leadership Today Podcast!
Welcome to Season 2 of the AEC Leadership Today Podcast, a podcast for architecture, engineering, and construction industry leaders who want to stay relevant and effective and help their firms grow and prosper. In today’s episode, I’ll walk you through what’s in store for the upcoming season and how we expect to serve you moving forward.
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Advancing AEC Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in 2020
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features our first return guest, Rico Quirindongo, a principal architect at DLR Group. Our conversation picks up right where we left off focusing on what leaders can do to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion, especially now.
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The Virtual Practice Model for Architects and Engineers – It’s Already Here!
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Peter Macrae. Peter is the principal and founder of Macrae ARCHitecture, a digitally-based, virtual national architectural practice established nearly a decade ago. We discuss this model, its impact on AEC, and the need to embrace the future in order to be successful moving forward.
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How to Maximize the Value of Your Firm
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Tracey Eaves. Tracey is a highly experienced and insightful business valuation consultant with Zweig Group, and our focus is on the actions we must take to maximize the value and the overall success of our firm.
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Entrepreneurship, Niching Down, and Empowering Others… with a Purpose
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Brian Sullivan, principal and CEO of Sullivan Engineering based in the Northeast. Our focus is on business and people and on how to lead a values-based organization.
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Change Management Essentials for Normal Times and Now
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Tammy Jordan, founder and principal of the Leader Consulting Group. We walk through the fundamentals of change management, the risks to both leaders and organizations when change is managed poorly, why change management can be so difficult, and how we can succeed with different types and aspects of change – especially now.
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Starting the Conversation to Advance Mental Health and Wellness at Work
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Mike Glen. Mike is a former professional engineer who became a vice-president at the Lindner Center of HOPE. Mike is an educator and advocate for greater mental health awareness at work, helping leaders start the conversation to both better serve their people and their business.
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Impactful by Design: Mission-Based Success in AEC
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Dr. Kit Miyamoto, global CEO of Miyamoto International and president of Miyamoto Global Disaster Relief. Our focus is on how to design business success through an impactful mission and a bona fide social agenda.
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Productizing Your Services for Success in AEC
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Gregg Yanchenko, a practicing architect and co-founder of both HELENE·KARL Architects and the AEC Tech platform, BidDocs ONLINE. We dive deep into what it looks like and what it takes to successfully innovate and productize a service in AEC.
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An Inside View of Strategic Planning and Leadership Development
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features John Doehring. John is the founder and managing principal of J. Doehring & Co. Our focus is on strategic planning, managing change, and developing our next generation of leaders.
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The Business Case and Starting Place for Better CX
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Ryan Suydam. Ryan is the Chief Experience Officer and co-founder of Client Savvy. Our focus is on client experience (i.e., “CX”) and how becoming better deliverers can help us drive better business outcomes.
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Building a Better Future Through Modern Leadership
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Mitch Fortner. Mitch is the President of KSA Engineers serving Texas and the surrounding areas, and he shares how we can advance our collective success by building people who build the future.
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The Power of Behavioral Assessments for Growth and Development
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Reid Tolley. Reid is president of Talent Matters, LLC and a Certified Master Coach. Reid has lived and worked around the world for well-known organizations as an HR practitioner, and has developed a practice bringing behavioral assessments to AEC firms and leaders.
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How to Design an Effective Firm-Wide Training & Development Program
Today's episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Carol Martsolf, vice president and director of training for Urban Engineers. She has been leading the charge for Urban Engineers' training and development program for over a decade. If you’re a leader looking to develop an effective training and development program for your firm, this episode is for you.
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Better Onboarding for Greater Success
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Kristen Gallagher. Kristen is the founder and CEO of Edify and a learning design expert. Her work with onboarding is designed to increase talent retention, reduce time to productivity, and improve both knowledge sharing and business results whether we are growing organically or through mergers and acquisition.
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Building a Successful Recruiting Pipeline
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Lindsay Pearsall. Lindsay is the director of human resources at Aspect Consulting based in the pacific northwest. Lindsay has been on all sides of recruiting and she speaks around the country teaching others how they can be more successful.
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The Evolution of Employee Engagement and HR
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Bob Kelleher. Bob is an author, speaker, and president and founder of the Employee Engagement Group. Bob is an internationally known pioneer and expert in employee engagement and a long-time AEC industry insider.
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How to Successfully Start, Grow, and Lead a Firm Today
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Yung Koprowski. Yung is the Principal and Founder of Y2K Engineering. Yung is a successful modern leader and role model, operating with poise and wisdom well beyond her years. She has a deep personal drive and passion that both attracts and engages.
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Impacting Lives and Communities Through Caring and Connection
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Avery Bang. Avery is the President and CEO of Bridges to Prosperity, an organization that literally connects isolated communities to essential healthcare, education, and commerce. Her and her team’s work both saves lives and creates opportunities and positive change for people today and for generations to come. And this is not an overstatement!
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The Intersection of Gratitude and Excitement
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features an overview of where we have been thus far on the podcast. It features a reflection of all the guests we’ve had over the first dozen episodes and previews some of the guests and topics we have planned moving forward.
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Achieving and Succeeding with Employee Engagement
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Nikki Lewallen. Nikki is a champion for employee engagement and the development of a people-first culture. Nikki is an accomplished leader, business development pro, speaker, and philanthropist. In addition to being a leadership mentoring and performance coach partner, Nikki is the host of a popular employee engagement podcast and CEO of Rainmakers, and she is here to talk all about how to become a people-first leader and organization.
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Thinking Differently About Leadership, Engagement and Communication
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Randy Wilburn. Randy is the Chief Encourager, as well as a Consultant, Trainer, Speaker, and Podcaster with Encourage Build Grow.
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Cyber Security Threats and Protections
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features J. Dale Crow. Dale is a Senior Vice President at Risk Strategies, and he is passionate about risk management for AEC and professional services firms.
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Setting a Standard in Disaster Relief Engineering
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features David Bowman. David is an accomplished professional engineer and leader at Neel-Schaffer. He has held various roles serving communities throughout Mississippi and adjacent States on environmental, water, and wastewater projects over the course of his career. He also played a lead role in designing the clean-up and restoration effort in several communities following Hurricane Katrina.
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"Walking the Talk" and Elevating the Industry
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Chad Clinehens. Chad is the president and CEO of Zweig Group, a leading research, publishing, and consulting firm for the AEC industry. His mission now that he is in this position is to elevate the AEC industry.
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Advancing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Rico Quirindongo. Rico is a principal architect at DLR Group and Civic Design Leader for their Northwestern Region. Rico believes that through proactive design, vision, and multi-agency collaboration, opportunities for social change can be realized through our work as professionals.
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The ROI of Coaching
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features John Ramstead. John is a certified leadership coach who works with top leaders and organizations to implement effective coaching for the benefit of their employees and their organizations as a whole.
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Developing Engineers and Managers
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Anthony Fasano. Anthony is an author, a speaker, and the host of three highly downloaded engineering podcasts. He is the founder of The Engineering Management Institute and an engineering career coach.
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Behaviors that Build Winning Cultures
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Patrick Veroneau. Patrick is the founder of the Emery Leadership Group, where he works with organizations to develop behaviors that help leaders and employees foster lasting relationships.
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Engaging, Growing, and Retaining Your Female Engineers
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Stephanie Slocum, the founder of Engineers Rising LLC and an author who previously worked as a structural engineer for fifteen years. She is also the creator of the Fearless program where she manages virtual group mentoring and career development for female engineers.
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Strategic Planning that Works
Today’s episode of the AEC Leadership Today podcast features Doug Reed, management consultant, former AE principal, and author. Doug is the president of FosterGrowth and specializes in strategic planning and strategy execution.
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Welcome to the AEC Leadership Today Podcast
Welcome to AEC Leadership Today, a podcast for architecture, engineering, and construction industry leaders who want to stay relevant and effective in the modern workplace. In today’s episode, listen to our host Peter Atherton introduce himself and the podcast.
About the Podcast
This show takes on the most pressing issues facing the AEC industry in the 21st century from EX to CX, strategic planning to succession planning, and everything in-between associated with the business of AEC, industry trends, HR and recruiting, marketing and branding, and personal and professional growth and development.
Watch this space and join the conversation with host Peter C. Atherton, PE, and other AEC industry insiders, practitioners, and subject-matter-experts!

About the Host
Peter C. Atherton, P.E. is an AEC industry insider having spent more than 20 years as a successful professional civil engineer, principal, major owner, and member of the board of directors for high-achieving firms. Pete is now the President and Founder of ActionsProve, LLC, author of Reversing Burnout. How to Immediately Engage Top Talent and Grow! A Blueprint for Professionals and Business Owners, and the creator of the I.M.P.A.C.T. process. Pete works with AEC firms and leaders to grow and advance their success through modern and new era focused strategic planning and implementation, executive coaching, leadership and management development, performance-based employee engagement, and corporate impact design.