It's uncommon for a large architecture firm to pick someone from outside the design industry as its leader, but that's exactly what Irvine, California-based firm KTGY did. It recently hired former Boston Consulting Group managing director and partner Will Bate as CEO.
The hire is not as surprising as it might appear at first glance. Bate succeeded Tricia Esser, another non-architect who led KTGY for two decades. An additional factor in Bate's favor is that KTGY works with countless commercial property developers, investors and brokers, and those are the types of professionals that Bate advised while at Boston Consulting Group.
That experience, Bate believes, will help him find ways to expand the business, starting with KTGY's client roster.
"It will provide a distinct perspective on how to grow and win business," Bate told CoStar News.
At his previous employer, Bate led the North American group responsible for helping commercial real estate companies find new sources of revenue and ways to cut expenses by more efficiently using physical space. In one assignment at Boston Consulting, he advised the owners of outdated office buildings in the post-pandemic era on how to repurpose or renovate properties to bolster occupancy rates.
KTGY generated about $95 million in revenue in 2025, according to trade publication Architectural Record. That ranked the company 43rd among all firms surveyed. The firm has seven offices across the United States, with Bate to be based in its East Coast office in Washington, D.C., where he was stationed while with Boston Consulting.
KTGY is unusual among large firms in that it has a substantial practice of designing single-family houses in addition to large office, retail, mixed-use and multifamily properties. The firm's portfolio includes work for the likes of Toll Brothers, Amli Residential, Related Cos. of California and HHHunt. Bate wants to dig deeper with work for those firms.
"For KTGY, the question is, how do we unlock growth with the business clients that we have today?" Bate said.
The architecture industry has seen a recent spate of mergers and acquisitions, with HOK's acquisition of Detroit-based Rossetti among the latest.
Architects have reported stagnant billings for months, according to the American Institute of Architects. Bate declined to speculate whether the economic malaise for architects is a cause of the increased M&A activity, but he believes it's a phase all industry sectors experience from time to time.
"There is always a point where scale becomes an issue for a sector," Bate said. "Another piece is that, in industry, change is good."
For the record
Brian Greer, senior director at Philadelphia-based executive search firm N2Growth, advised KTGY on Bate's hiring.