SDANY Chapter's Annual Principals’ Breakfast: Thrive in 2025…and Beyond

When: Thursday, November 21, 2024, Panel Discussion

Time:

8:30 a.m. (Breakfast and Networking) and

9:00 am - 10:00 a.m. (Program)

Hosted by SDA New York's Advisory Board

Where: AIA Center for Architecture, Tafel Hall, 536 LaGuardia Place, New York, NY 10012

SDA New York presents an annual panel discussion featuring leaders in the AEC profession. Thought provoking and well attended, this year’s program will tackle how design firms are bracing for a challenging future. Our participants will represent a wide range of thought leaders in our industry:

This year’s topic is “Thrive in 2025…and Beyond”. Our panel will tackle how design firms are bracing for a challenging future. The participants are:

Introduction:

• Marilyn Marullo, Consultant and former Chief Administrative Officer of Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners

Moderator:

• Simon Goodhead, Founder / Principal Consultant, Goodhead Strategies

Panelists:

• Michelle DiLello, Partner, Architecture + Design, of Blue Medium, a New York–based public relations company serving the visual arts, architecture, and design communities

• Julia Gamolina, Associate Principal at Ennead Architects and the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Madame Architect, a digital magazine

• Robert Herrmann, Principal, Offit | Kurman, and Chair of the firm’s NY Construction Law Practice

• Anna Liza Montenegro, Director of Marketing, Microsol Resources

Pricing:

• SDA NY Members: No Charge
• AIA/ACEC/SMPS Members: $10
• Non-SDA Members: $25

(Light breakfast will be served)

Bios:

Moderated by: Simon Goodhead, Founder / Principal Consultant, Goodhead Strategies

Simon Goodhead is a Principal Consultant at, and President of, Goodhead Strategies, a management and business consulting firm. Goodhead Strategies focuses on technical and design related professional service firms throughout the US. Simon has extensive knowledge and background in operational leadership, strategic planning, and mergers & acquisitions. Having led a regional engineering office through significant growth and enhanced profitability, Simon moved to internal strategic planning and strategy deployment, before ultimately leading an external consulting practice.

Simon is also a Principal Engineer with Goodhead Consulting Engineers, a national Fire Code Consulting practice, and is President/CEO of Flash Inspector (flashinspector.com) an AI powered video analytics platform.

Simon graduated from the University of Leeds with a BS in Fire Science and the University of Georgia with an MBA through the Executive Program. Simon consults internationally and lives in Atlanta GA.

Panelists: Michelle DiLello, Partner, Architecture + Design, of Blue Medium, a New York–based public relations company serving the visual arts, architecture, and design communities

Michelle DiLello is Partner, Architecture + Design, of Blue Medium, a New York–based public relations company serving the visual arts, architecture, and design communities. A talented and dedicated public relations professional, Michelle DiLello possesses more than two decades of experience in developing and implementing strategic communications programs in the U.S. and abroad. She has a proven track record for raising the profiles of internationally recognized and emerging architecture firms, designers, design brands, and cultural and academic institutions. Michelle applies her hands-on and results-oriented approach to assist clients to increase visibility, achieve prestigious thought leadership statuses, and generate business leads and revenues.

Julia Gamolina, Associate Principal at Ennead Architects and the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Madame Architect, a digital magazine

Julia Gamolina is an Associate Principal at Ennead Architects and the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Madame Architect, a digital magazine focused on the extraordinary women that shape our world. Trained as an architect herself and with over a decade of experience across all aspects of design, business development, and communications, Julia also teaches a graduate Professional Practice Course at Pratt Institute. Her writing has been featured in A Women's Thing, Fast Company, Metropolis Magazine, and the Architect's Newspaper. In 2024, Madame Architect received the AIANY Architecture in Media Award. In 2024 and 2023, Julia was listed in Wallpaper*'s Creative America, a list of the people defining the creative landscape of the US. She also received the Special Citation from AIANY in 2019. Julia earned her Bachelor of Architecture at Cornell University, graduating with the Charles Goodwin Sands Medal for exceptional thesis. She was born in Novosibirsk, later immigrated to Toronto, and is based in New York City, having also lived and worked in Austria, Italy, and Brazil.

Robert Herrmann, Principal, Offit | Kurman, and Chair of the firm’s NY Construction Law Practice

Robert F. Herrmann is the Chair of the firm's New York Construction Law Practice. He represents design professionals, and other construction-related firms, privately held businesses, and New York City housing cooperatives and condominiums. He acts as general counsel to a number of architects, landscape architects, interior designers, lighting designers, engineers, owners, developers, and contractors, advising them on general business matters and representing them in litigation, arbitration, and mediation.

Prior to joining Offit Kurman, Mr. Herrmann was, for thirty-four years, the managing partner of the New York City law firm of Menaker & Herrmann, where he advised a number of the most prominent architecture and design firms in the country.

Mr. Herrmann is a graduate of Yale College and Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He clerked for Judges Harold R. Medina and Sterry R. Waterman of the U.S. Court of Appeals and began his private practice career at Hughes Hubbard & Reed. He is a member of the Professional Practice Committee of the American Institute of Architects, New York Chapter. He is trained in mediation and is on the American Arbitration Association panel of construction mediators. He also serves as a mediator for the New York State Supreme Court, Commercial Division.

Mr. Herrmann is an Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation where he teaches Advanced Professional Practice to third-year Master students. He has also led numerous seminars for design professionals on a variety of topics.

Anna Liza Montenegro, Director of Marketing, Microsol Resources

Anna Liza Montenegro is a trained architect and an accomplished marketing professional in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, she possesses both strategic and execution of marketing initiatives, go-to-market plans, and execute product launches. At Microsol Resources, she develops the marketing strategy, brand management, digital marketing, and other demand generation activities for Microsol’s strategic partnerships with Autodesk, McNeel Rhino, Bluebeam, Chaos Group V-Ray and Enscape, and other technology partners. When not marketing, she loves spending time with her kids, traveling, and summers in Maine.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

AIA New York | Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, New York, United States