Navigating Firm Crossroads: Startup, Client Relationships, and Ownership Transition

Moderator

Howard Blecher, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP

Principal, Blecher Building + Urban Design

Chair, AIASF Small Firms Knowledge Community

Howard Blecher, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, is principal of Blecher Building + Urban Design, a San Francisco architecture practice focused on complex project delivery for residential, commercial, and community projects. He chairs the AIA San Francisco Small Firms Knowledge Community and is a member of AIASF's Public Policy and Advocacy Knowledge Community. He develops professional programs and moderates discussions on practice, permitting, project delivery, and emerging issues affecting small firms. His work combines design, regulatory strategy, agency coordination, and practical implementation. As moderator, he brings a small-firm practitioner's perspective to the opportunities, risks, and professional responsibilities involved in running a small architecture practice.

Panelists

Verita Molyneaux

Molyneaux Law

Molyneaux Law represents a variety of clients involved in the design and construction industry, with a primary focus on providing small- and mid-sized architecture firms with practical counsel. Verita Molyneaux counsels clients on contract negotiations, corporate law, employment practices, dispute resolution, and general risk management. As a litigator, she brings a defense perspective to implementing practical business strategies. Because these strategies are developed in partnership with counsel, the result is streamlined processes, improved employee morale, time and cost savings, and effective mitigation of the risks inherent in this industry.

Syvia L. Magid
Partner
Fox Rothschild LLP
Syvia is Co-Chair of the Firm’s Architecture, Engineering & Design Professional Firms Practice Group, where she focuses on the legal needs of architects, engineers, and other design professionals. She advises clients through the corporate life cycle, addressing formation issues in the start-up phase, providing corporate counseling, and developing and implementing an exit strategy. She guides firms through ownership transition, whether internally to the next generation of owners and leaders, or externally through a merger with, or acquisition by, a larger organization. She also drafts and reviews agreements for design professional services.

Mark Cameron, Hon. AIA

Principal Consultant

Cameron MacAllister Group

Mark Cameron established Cameron MacAllister Group in 1986 to provide marketing advice and strategies to design firms. Prior to that, he was Director of Marketing for NBBJ and The Architects Collaborative and Managing Director for Anderson DeBartolo Pan’s San Francisco office.

His expertise includes strategic planning, leadership development, and ownership transition, including mergers and acquisitions.

He has lectured on strategic planning and marketing at the University of California Berkeley School of Architecture, the University of Washington School of Business Administration, the American Institute of Architects national convention and local chapter events, and the Society for Marketing Professional Services national convention and local chapter events.

He was a member of the AIA/San Francisco Board of Directors between 2021 and 2025.

In 2016, the AIA conferred Honorary Membership upon him in recognition of his pioneering contribution to the profession. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Milligan College, a master’s degree from Harvard University (The Divinity School), and also studied at Boston Architectural College.

Diane Fernald, CEPA
Founder & CEO, Futurecast CFO

Diane Fernald is founder and CEO of Futurecast CFO, a San Francisco firm providing fractional CFO services to small and mid-sized businesses. As a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA), she helps owners build firms that are worth more and easier to transition, whether to partners, employees, or an outside buyer. She works with law, construction, healthcare services, and other project-based firms on the strategy and financial foundations that support scale, reduce risk, and drive value: pricing, project margins, and cash flow. Starting that work years before a buyout or succession increases value and widens owners’ options at transition.

Diane began her career at Ernst & Young, then spent two decades in senior corporate finance positions at publicly traded companies, including multiple division CFO roles, before founding Futurecast nearly a decade ago. Raised working in her family’s retail business, she understands owner-led and family-operated firms. She holds an MBA from Santa Clara University and is a member of the Exit Planning Institute, the CFO Leadership Council, Financial Executives International, and the American Institute of CPAs.