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In December, ALSC Architects PS named long-time partner Indy Dehal as the firm’s new president and CEO, replacing Rustin Hall, who had held the firm’s top job since 2008.
Dehal, 47, first joined ALSC as an intern in 2000 after earning a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Washington State University. During his 23-year career with the company, Dehal has worked on health care, schools and historic restoration projects. Dehal is a member of the American Society of Architects in Spokane and is certified by the American Society of Healthcare Engineers. He is a registered architect in Washington, Idaho and Montana. In 2016, he became a partner of ALSC.
Born and raised in Northern California, DeHaar moved to Washington in 1994 to attend college and has stayed here ever since. In his free time, he enjoys leading church trips to destinations around the world, including Mexico, Belize, West Africa, and Central America. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Spokane County Library Foundation, the WSU Spokane Advisory Council, and is a mentor in the WSU School of Architecture Capstone Program.
The Wall Street Journal recently spoke with DeHaar about his career path and what he hopes to accomplish in the role.
What is it like to grow from an intern to a CEO?
My goal is always to be a partner. It’s a situation where you’re a little kid and you come in and say, I want to be the boss, and then you laugh and everyone laughs at you. But then I met a great mentor here who helped me. They showed me how to build relationships with clients, how to manage projects, all aspects of the job.
How did you prepare for the transition?
Rustin Hall is our former President and Chief Executive Officer. Over the past year, we’ve gone through the transition of handing this role over to me.
Rustin hasn’t retired yet. He remains here as a partner, managing projects and meeting with clients. I often talk to him about issues I’m dealing with or how to deal with the situation. While he was still here, I became President and CEO so that he could mentor me because I had no idea how to be President and CEO. Architecture schools don’t teach us how to be business leaders. This is on-the-job training where you can seek out and receive continuing education.
Rustin introduced me to this organization called C12, which is a group of CEOs and business leaders who meet monthly to learn about leadership. It’s a great way to discuss the issues we’re going through with fellow CEOs who share similar ideas and core values. I started doing this two years ago because I knew this transition was coming.
Is succession planning an integral part of the company?
We’re constantly mentoring someone, not just one person, but a group of people behind you. Hopefully one of them will be motivated to say, I want to be a partner here. This is something we talk about at our annual retreat. At ALSC, we call it an advance payment. We are always moving forward, never backward. We were two to three days ahead of schedule in February, and part of that was transition planning.
We just celebrated our 75th anniversary last year. We have great support from the community here, so we did 75 acts of gratitude through different service projects during the year.
We also host other types of events and things throughout the year, such as celebrating former headteachers retiring at our legacy events. We asked them what was most important in their careers so that some of our younger employees could understand and connect to our legacy. Our staff heard some great stories. It connects them to the past and helps them understand the importance of why we are here and the impact it will have on future generations.
What do you hope to accomplish as President and CEO?
We’re talking about this now. We have not yet set out a five-year target. We are dreaming now. I don’t have a vision to share, but I can say that we want to be known for the visionary work we do. We are problem solvers. We are working on very complex types of projects and we are known for our design capabilities. I want to build on this. If anything, we hope to expand beyond our local area. We got calls from people in Cleveland and other places asking us to do projects. We are honored that they called us. We didn’t go to them.
Many times we work with local architects in the area. They will be the architect of record…and we will work with them on a specific project. This is happening more and more frequently lately. Our goal is to become a well-known design entity in Spokane and beyond.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to follow a similar career path to yours?
Set a goal and go for it. I used to be challenged all the time. When I was young, Ken Murphy, a partner here, said to me: India, the only thing holding you back is yourself. If you want it, go for it. This is great advice to me.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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