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An award-winning full-service architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture firm

Kerry Haber is the president of Bernardon. Bernardon provides architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture services with offices in West Chester, PA; Philadelphia, PA; and Wilmington, DE. The firm has worked on numerous multimillion-dollar projects in markets such as housing, retail, higher education, corporate warehousing, hospitality, and civics and cultural centers. Recognized for its sustainable practices, commitment to quality, and prodigious growth rate, Bernardon has won honors and awards from numerous trade groups, industry publications, and regional programs.

EDWIN WARFIELD: What do you see for the future of Bernardon?

KERRY HABER: Looking to the future for Bernardon, to some extent we have created a legacy. The firm is quite well known. I think we have a very good reputation for being fair and doing quality design work. I would hope that over the next several years we would be able to not only maintain that reputation but grow that reputation in terms of that.

As I said, we have a total of seven partners. There is a broad range of ages and we’re always looking to bring additional partners on. Every firm has that transition that they make between generations. My partner Art Bernardon did a very good job of preparing for that—putting the legacy to me and the other senior partners that we now have. We hope to continue that and get the next generation of people to buy in not only emotionally and professionally, but hopefully financially—to invest in our business.

In an architecture firm, you need a certain number of principals and shareholders to continue the life of the firm. Unfortunately, many architecture firms only last one generation. The founder is the go-to person and it can be very difficult to transition and to put that on.

Personally, I have an investment in the people who work for us. If we have 80 people who work for us, that means we have a couple hundred people who are dependent upon the success of the firm to continue with their lifestyle and the way they want to be. We have some employees who have been with us a long time. It’s over the next several years, as we transition to the next group of shareholders, I hope that that will continue, and that we’ll maybe bring new people in, grow from within—a combination that we’ve done—to continue that legacy that our Art Bernardon started back in 1973.

Q. Have you considered other exit strategies, such as creating an employee stock ownership plan?

A. We looked very carefully a few years ago at an ESOP. We engaged a specialist attorney and got pretty far along. We came to the conclusion that it wasn’t quite right for us. It can be a little complicated to do. It can be very appropriate when the founding partners are ready to retire because it spreads the investment out, so we’re looking at similar vehicles to do that.

As I mentioned, we’ve grown over the last few years and we’ve been very successful in many respects. The downside of that to a buyer is that the value of the firm has increased, and so we need to find a vehicle to make it possible and reasonable for somebody to buy in and become a shareholder, and the more you spread that out… We are looking at options to do that and we’re looking very, very seriously at that as we move forward, because we’re at a very interesting point in the life of the firm. As I’ve mentioned earlier, 80 people is a pretty big ticket for a professional services firm, and so we want to make the opportunity for success available to other folks in the firm who have the entrepreneurial drive to do that.

We’ll see what the future holds. The last five years have been fascinating in terms of the changes that we’ve gone through.

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Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

If you're interested in reaching CEOs, please contact edwin.warfield@citybuzz.co

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