Architecture + Information (A+I) Names First Ever CEO Kate Thatcher

Kate Thatcher, AIA has been named Chief Executive Officer of Architecture + Information (A+I)—a leading strategy-driven integrated architecture and design agency. Thatcher will assume the new role within the organization and head a rapidly and thoughtfully expanding executive team supported by co-founders Brad Zizmor and Dag Folger, who will continue to focus on deepening client partnerships.

I’m incredibly honored and humbled to assume the role as the first-ever CEO of A+I,” Thatcher shared. “To lead a company that I have called home since the start of my career is a rare privilege, especially within the architecture and design fields. I share Brad and Dag’s commitment to ensuring that all of our employees continue to feel this level of support in their careers. In this unprecedented time when today’s companies need a strategic partner to solve ever-more complex issues that go well beyond the spatial, I’m excited to take the helm of a true strategy-led design agency that’s well-suited to meet the challenges of the moment head-on.”

As part of the agency’s continued evolution, Zizmor and Folger will now center their work on deepening relationships with clients to lead the next generation of ground-breaking work. In service of accelerating innovation for clients and shaping the organization to deliver on its promise of transformational integrated design, Zizmor and Folger have established the new CEO role. With a strong understanding of the A+I team, the needs of the agency’s clients, and how the agency can respond to the challenges ahead for the workplace and cities, Thatcher is a natural fit for this position.

At a moment of historic inflection and change in the world, the industries and businesses we’ve been serving for 25 years are rapidly transforming, and they are asking us to help them navigate those changes,” Zizmor reflected. “This is the perfect moment for A+I to transform alongside them.”

Folger added, “When Kate joined A+I, our company was 10 people. I think it’s no coincidence that we grew in size, scale, and complexity, and the scope of our projects expanded, in tandem with her tenure. This role confirms what Brad and I have wanted all along – to support talent from within our organization and allow someone like Kate to lead A+I into the next 25 years.

A+I partners with some of the world’s most prominent organizations, developers and brands. With an investigative lens rooted in architecture, A+I applies critical thinking to solve increasingly complex problems and build more meaningful, more complete, and more integrated design solutions for organizations on the cusp of transformation; reimagining the future of workplace to propel their business and their people forward.

Recent work includes the new Equinox Headquarters in New York City; a strategic and international engagement with Peloton to design and construct their flagship studios in New York City and London, U.K., and their New York City headquarters; and a multi-year partnership with Hines to create the next generation of amenity forward workplaces.

Thatcher began her career at A+I in 2004. Leaving in 2007 to pursue her Masters in Architecture at Yale University, she returned to the agency in 2011. Since then, she’s led design teams creating headquarters for world-class companies like Equinox, and Horizon Media, as well as the adaptive re-use of 430 W 15th Street in New York and work for non-profit organizations including the Urban Justice Center.

Thatcher is poised to assume the role of CEO at what is considered to be a significant moment in history for the real estate industry and the multitude of business sectors and workplaces that reside within commercial buildings. As advocates for the collective experiences that urban centers provide, Thatcher and A+I aim to advance strategic design solutions that work to solve the challenges presented to occupiers in a post COVID-19 world. True to A+I’s strategy-led approach, when the COVID-19 pandemic began disrupting businesses in March of 2020, A+I launched a research project of strategic dialogue with clients and collaborators across industries such as tech, media, finance, design, and real estate to build, in real time, a collective understanding of what the future of work would look like in the near and long term.

As Thatcher notes, “Companies positioned to strongly emerge from this crisis are all using this moment to make strategic shifts in their business, rather than implement quick tactical upgrades.”

For more visit Architecture Plus Information.