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

Thatcher’s appointment reflects A+I’s evolution as an integrated architecture and design agency; and positions A+I to best serve the most innovative and fastest growing companies

Kate Thatcher, AIA has been named Chief Executive Officer of Architecture + Information (A+I)—the leading strategy-driven integrated architecture and design agency. A natural leader and outspoken advocate for gender equity in the architecture and design industries, Thatcher will assume this 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 growth, A+I co-founders, Brad Zizmor and Dag 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’s services and capabilities have grown from its inception as a small boutique architecture practice to a sophisticated and integrated design agency of over 70 individuals today. 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; a multi-year partnership with Hines to create the next generation of amenity forward workplaces, and prominent projects with Vornado Realty Trust, who have engaged A+I on the redevelopment and repositioning of 1 Penn Plaza.

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 over thirty 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.

“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,” says Thatcher.

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Similarly, A+I is partnering with several of the largest real estate companies to address how landlords can strategically rethink the positioning, leasing, and operating of their commercial assets to respond to the emerging demands of a shifting market.

Thatcher noted, “shrewd industry leaders are sharpening their focus on tenant needs and evolving their model to embrace an increasing, and likely permanent, demand for flexibility. We’re helping our landlord partners to build offerings that meet the complete needs of the modern workforce, creating distinctive, best-in-class experiences that will pay dividends in the form of superior occupier loyalty and introduce new revenue streams. In many ways, this new model of ‘workplace as a service’ is a win-win for landlords and tenants alike.”

A+I will continue to advocate for change and push the industry of architecture and design forward in meaningful ways. To further advance the forward progress of the architecture and design industry, as Principal, Thatcher also led A+I’s gender pay equity initiative. In an industry where on average women make 15% less than their male counterparts and at least two-thirds of the its highest earners are men, Thatcher has ensured A+I practices full gender pay parity, and has implemented policies and programs to support the development and advancement of women. Further, one of Thatcher’s first initiatives as CEO is the launch of +IMPACT -- a platform for A+I’s employees to leverage their talents and expertise on opportunities at the intersection of design and social impact.  

Thatcher’s tenure as CEO is effective immediately. She will be appointing additional members to her executive team in the coming months that embody the continued strategy-driven transformation of A+I to meet the challenges of the time.

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About A+I

A+I stands for “Architecture Plus Information.” 

Founded by Brad Zizmor and Dag Folger upon graduating from Columbia University in 1996, A+I today employs more than 70 professionals that build strategies and create spaces that embody their client’s ambition, reimagining the future of workplace for some of the world’s fastest growing brands. 

The New York-based agency uses information and creativity to better the changing world we inhabit. With an investigative lens, A+I applies critical thinking, rooted in architecture, to solve increasingly complex problems and build more meaningful, more complete, and more integrated design solutions. By applying their craft in new ways, A+I helps courageous organizations on the cusp of transformation see themselves more clearly, embrace change and propel their business and their people forward by showing up in the physical world with purpose.