A Letter From Our President: Leadership Announcements

When Sara Rossmann and I founded Rossmann Architecture Inc. (RAI) in December of 2012, we had a vision of what we wanted to build but no idea how the next decade would unfold. After spending the first few years of my career working for large traditional firms, I was driven to build a firm that approached the business from a different angle built on client experience and razor focused on fiscal and functional optimization.

From day one, Sara was a partner in the creation and execution of our shared vision. As soon as our two girls (now eight and 11) were old enough to attend school, Sara set out to build an unparalleled corporate culture founded on the belief that one’s work should enrich their lives, both inside and outside of the office. It’s to her credit that we were recently named one of the National Capital Region’s “Best Places to Work” by the Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Board of Trade. Her role in our day-to-day operations has grown tremendously, and I couldn’t be prouder to announce her as our chief executive officer. As CEO Sara brings tremendous expertise and an incredibly human approach, now leading one of the National Capital Region’s largest firms with a staff of 41.

Our rapid growth has been both incredibly challenging and rewarding. We were exceptionally lucky to bring on Shane Balcom as managing director, whose relentless attention to streamlining operations and building scalable processes has enabled RAI to grow the way it has. In reality, Shane has been operating in the capacity of COO for a long time, and today we’re proud to announce his official promotion to chief operating officer.

Sara and Shane’s efforts enable me to focus on what I do best as principal architect and strategist for the business, so I will be adopting the title of chief strategy officer.

Our two current directors (Andrew Alajouri and Stephen Froom who lead our operations and revenue departments respectively) will be joined by Erick Soulière, Pierre Proulx and Richard Bitar who each take on the role of director of projects. Each of these directors come with a wealth of experience and their promotion will allow our clients to best benefit from their unique skill sets.

I would like to thank all these leaders as well as each member of the RAI team for their contribution to the achievement of mine and Sara’s vision for the firm. I look forward to what we will accomplish as a team in the coming weeks, months and years, continuing to create a standard of excellence in service as well as fiscal and functional optimization for our clients across Québec and Ontario.