SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Callison announced today that John Jastrem has been appointed as chairman and CEO of Callison. Former CEO James P. Rothwell, AIA, is stepping down. Callison’s Chairman of the Board, Robert J. Tindall, AIA, and Executive Vice President Steven E. Epple, AIA, are leaving the firm.
Rothwell, a 27-year veteran of Callison, will stay on returning to his previous role as principal in the firm running the company’s long-standing commercial design practice.
Jastrem, 55, has served on Callison’s Holdings Board (Callison Architecture Holding, LLC, and Subsidiaries) since 2006 and as its executive chairman since August 2010. Private equity firm Blue Point Capital invested in Callison in August 2006 and formed the Callison Holdings Board as an operating partner to support expansion of services and resources to clients and to facilitate international initiatives.
New Chairman and CEO John Jastrem said, “The Callison board and the entire firm want to recognize the significant accomplishments Bob Tindall and Steve Epple have made to Callison for more than 30 years. They built the company from a small, one-office firm to an international design practice employing the top talent from around the world. I admire their dedication and what they consistently accomplished at both Callison and for the design industry at large and look forward to continuing our personal relationship.”
These leadership changes at Callison come at a time when the firm and the markets in which it operates are rebounding from the global economic climate that caused a contraction for both the firm and its clients.
Callison’s recent joint venture with HAYA Architects, one of the leading architecture and design firms in Beijing, is one example of how Callison is capitalizing on the changing industry. The new joint venture enables the firm to offer full architectural and retail design services supporting the demands of the fastest-growing economy in the world—serving both local and global clients.
“What we are facing on behalf of Callison and our clients is how to perpetuate Callison’s founding principles of design and service with both a global and local perspective across all our markets in a much more complex operating environment and economy. I intend to bring all these facets together to make an already top-ranked firm even stronger and better equipped as an international design powerhouse with relevance for both local and global clients,” said Jastrem.
About Callison
Callison is an international architecture and design firm specializing in retail, mixed-use, residential, healthcare, corporate, mission-critical, financial and hospitality in markets worldwide. With offices in Seattle, Beijing, Dallas, Dubai, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Scottsdale and Shanghai, Callison is one of the largest design firms based in the United States with 800 professional staff. Callison creates places that amplify market share for Fortune 500 companies and international leaders with a design approach that drives business goals. For more information, please visit Facebook, Twitter or our website. Subscribe to our RSS feed by copying and pasting http://feeds2.feedburner.com/callison into your RSS reader.
About John Jastrem
Jastrem joined Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI) in 2006 as chief executive officer of Exhibitgroup/Giltspur, a division of Viad. He was promoted to chief executive officer and president of Viad Corp's marketing and events group and GES Exposition Services. Combining GES Exposition Services, ExhibitGroup/Gilspur and Becker Group into one global company rebranded as Global Experience Specialists Inc., Jastrem retired from Viad in 2010. Previously, Jastrem was an executive for eight years with Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE:OMC), where he started in 1998 as chairman and CEO of Rapp Collins Worldwide-Dallas—the global leader in direct response marketing and database management. He then served as president of the marketing arm of a leading experiential marketing company formed by combining four Omnicom subsidiaries. He concluded his tenure as an executive of DAS Corporate, a division of Omnicom, overseeing 182 companies generating $6.5 billion in annual revenue. Previously he held various executive positions with TEAM Consultants, Knapp Communications Corporation and Wickes Companies Inc. Jastrem currently serves on the boards of Medquist Inc. (NASDAQ-listed “MEDQ”), Hancock Technology Partners, as well as several advisory boards. Jastrem has been an active member of Young Presidents’ Organization and World Presidents’ Organization (YPO & WPO) since 1994.
About Blue Point Capital
Blue Point, with offices in Charlotte, Cleveland, Seattle and Shanghai, is one of the largest and most active resident middle market private equity firms in each of its target markets and focuses principally on investments in manufacturing, distribution and service businesses that primarily address commercial and industrial markets. Blue Point’s presence in the economies of both the United States and China positions the firm to create value by helping its investee firms to globalize. Blue Point has extensive experience in identifying, evaluating and successfully completing a variety of private equity investment transactions, including recapitalizations, management buyouts, corporate divestitures and industry consolidations. The principals of Blue Point have completed more than 100 investments with a total transaction value of more than $2 billion.
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