We are delighted, as part of our career planning programme, to celebrate and recognise the achievements and progression of individuals within the Leonard Design team. Director John Morgan said:
“We are incredibly proud of the culture to train and grow the team within Leonard Design. This round or promotions are so well deserved in recognition of the teams effort and through our proactive Career Planning & mentoring programme and it is great to see the team going from strength to strength each year. Well done everyone!”
Please join us in congratulating the following team members.
Dimitar Zhelev promoted to Computational Designer
Dimitar joined Leonard Design Architects in 2018, and from the outset, he dove into parametric design. His expertise in computational design has since grown, evident in his involvement in various projects. He has applied his scripting and coding skills to numerous projects, where even minor design aspects were scripted, to larger projects where complex design elements were realized through computational methods. His work spans through all phases, from concept to construction.
As a member of the Revit BIM Team and LDA Code, Dimitar actively supports colleagues with tools like Revit, Dynamo, Rhino, and Grasshopper, and develops Dynamo scripts to streamline Revit tasks. In LDA Code, he explores various AI software like Stable Diffusion and ChatGPT for potential integration into their practices, writes the monthly Newsletters, and takes on different scripting tasks.
In addition to his professional contributions, Dimitar had dedicated three years to mentoring NTU students and is focused on expanding the LDA Code team, its capabilities, and its work.
Estelle Wheatley promoted to People and Culture Lead/PA
Estelle has been an integral part of the staff support network at Leonard Design since February 2014. She began her career at Leonard Design as support to the staff at the London office, and as John Morgan’s PA. In 2018 she qualified as a Human Resources specialist having completed the CIPD Personnel Management course. Since then, Estelle been shaping the team’s journey with updates to the company handbook, policies and employment law, staff employment and induction training, as well keeping the team healthy in mind and body by doing Pilates, stretch classes and sport challenges.
As a Mental Health First Aider, Estelle has taken on much more of a role in mentoring, engaging, listening and staff development, and supporting employees so that they can do their best work.
Estelle is looking forward to her new role as People and Culture Lead/PA, expanding on mental health awareness, staff culture and will continue to be John’s right hand aid with her PA role too.
Jack McColm promoted to Middleweight Visualizer
Jack has been a key contributor on all things visual at Leonard Design for nearly two years, dedicating a significant amount of time to projects such as Waltham Cross and providing invaluable support and guidance to the Cambridge team. Additionally, he has played an important role in the LDA Code group by actively assisting in the development of monthly brochures and providing AI tutorials to the entire team. Jack has also been a key figure in enhancing visual quality and workflow within the visual team. We are delighted to promote Jack to Middleweight Visualizer.
Michael Dahlhausen promoted to Senior Project Architect
Michael joined Leonard Design in 2015. During his 8 years at Leonard Design, he has been involved in several large-scale projects. More recently, he was lead architect for the Sound Stages on a film studio and BIM coordinator for the project. In addition to his project work Michael is a member of the BIM Revit Team.
Somya Mediratta promoted to Associate
Somya has been an integral part of Leonard design for over 8 years, when she joined the team as an Architectural Assistant in 2015. Somya’s transition from an Architectural Assistant to a key player in managing teams and delivering large-scale projects demonstrates her versatility and capability. She has been part of the team on significant projects highlighting her impact on the firm’s success.
Somya has been pushing her boundaries over the last few years to become more client facing in her projects as well as taking a lead role in managing the teams and delivering projects. Somya has recently expanded her role to include business development, especially in exploring opportunities with potential clients in India. This reflects her strategic thinking and the trust Leonard Design places in her to represent the company on an international level.
Moreover, her efforts in fostering a positive and collaborative culture within Leonard Design, from guiding and supporting team members to providing training on workflows, underline her commitment to the growth and success of the entire team. Promoting Somya to an Associate is a well-deserved recognition of her accomplishments and the value she brings to Leonard Design. It’s clear that she not only meets the expectations of her role but goes above and beyond, making her an integral part of the company’s success.
Susie Hayes promoted to Quality and Compliance Lead/PA
Susie has been in a business support role for Leonard Design for over 12 years, covering a variety of business activities from office management, PA and staff support, project administration, standards and ISO through to IT.
In the last year she has been working with the teams to introduce Leonard Life (FLO10) and Rapport3, two business platforms that will support staff, projects, quality, risk and compliance in line with the business plan and our ISO standards. Her new role is a natural progression from this in looking at company audits, quality assurance and risk with project summary and tracker as well as continued support in project tender bids. Susie has also been an active member of Leonard Green this year, looking at ways to embed Leonard Designs positive social and environmental influences into project bids and tender responses.
She attended a carbon management workshop at Nottingham Trent University, so that Leonard Design can look at its own carbon footprint and at ways for environmental improvement. Susie aims to focus sometime this year looking at the B-Corp accreditation in conjunction with maintaining and improving our ISO Integrated Management System (IMS). Susie new role includes continued Director PA support, improvement for tender bids as well as quality and compliance in all aspects of the business.
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