As CEO of HGA, Tim Carl, FAIA, has helped lead the firm forward through the historic and significant challenges of the last two years. Through this, HGA intensified its focus on culture and strategy and as a result, continued to welcome new design talent and expand our markets.
Tim is well-versed in HGA’s success. He began his career with the firm in 1998 as a Designer, focusing on arts, higher education, and corporate work for such clients as the American Swedish Institute, Macalester College, and General Mills. He eventually became part of the Board of Directors and oversaw the opening of several strategic offices on the East Coast and California. As CEO since 2015, he’s continued to inspire HGA’s interdisciplinary culture, giving team members reason to “celebrate the quality and beauty and advancement we made in our work over the years.”
In the following, Tim shares his commitment to HGA and our clients and his outlook for 2022.
What are you most hopeful about this coming year?
First, I’m hopeful that the grip of the pandemic continues to loosen across the country, allowing us to launch a new hybrid work environment and have some in-person meetings and gatherings in the coming months. I think all of us are looking forward to reuniting with colleagues as well as meet the many new employees in person—rather than on Zoom—who joined HGA in the last two years.
I’m also excited about how our relationships with our clients have evolved, particularly how we listen and learn from them and grow our expertise in response to their challenges. These relationships are visible in the work our teams are doing and in the impactful design stories being shared. It’s also prompting unique collaborations internally, which is improving our work—we’ve learned to collaborate better across boundaries and disciplines to advance design. I’m excited to see this evolution continue.
We recently opened an office in San Diego. How does this position us to better serve clients?
The new San Diego office is a combination of two opportunities coming together. We’ve been doing work in San Diego for several years and have gained the trust of our clients there. We are fortunate to serve some of the region’s most innovative organizations in healthcare, science & technology, the arts, and higher education—all which tie in well with our existing expertise and ability to recruit talent. We also have several team members who live in San Diego or want to move from our Los Angeles office to make San Diego their home, so it’s a win-win.
HGA’s strategic plan focuses on three pillars of research-based design, equity, and collaboration. How does this influence our culture of innovation?
Three years ago, we brought together a range of people across departments and offices to inform those pillars. At the time, we didn’t realize how much they intersect and reinforce each other. Since then, we’ve been creating a firmwide system that encourages innovation through research and collaboration. It’s enabling us to better understand our clients and work together across any boundary to address their challenges. Engaging diverse voices and personal experiences is integral to our research and collaboration, and we must continue to foster that diversity through an equitable, inclusive culture.
We just welcomed Terri Howard as our inaugural Director of Equity. What’s your vision for equity?
I think we’ve learned a couple things. One, the science confirms the value of diversity—in points of view, disciplines, expertise, and lived experiences. Quite frankly, our design industry is going to fail if we don’t attract wider talent. We have an opportunity to help lead the industry through our process of collaboration, research—and equity. We are particularly excited to have Terri on our team. Her energy, vision, and experience will help guide us to the next level of truly becoming a company that lives the meaning of equity.
Is there a single proud moment that stands out in 2021?
We’ve gained a deeper level of empathy in the relationships we’ve formed, both professionally and personally. What I’m most proud of in 2021 is staying on that path and creating a flexible environment that allows people to grow. The quality of our work is incredible, in large part because of what we’ve learned in 2020 and have continued to learn and implement in 2021. So, it’s not just one moment but a collection of moments. That is what I’m most proud of.
What inspires you when you come to work every morning?
The people I work with. I am constantly inspired by my colleagues at HGA—their knowledge, their creativity, and their remarkable spirit are what motivates me.
What words of encouragement do you have for our clients?
I want our clients to know we’re serious about our culture of listening. When we listen deeply, we discover things that the client may not know and that we may not know. We can challenge assumptions based on what we learn—not based on our opinions—and deliver the unexpected.