NewGround Expands Significantly in IT/Mission Critical Sector
St. Louis, MO (April 6, 2009)—NewGround, a leading international design and implementation firm, announced today a significant expansion of its IT/Mission Critical resources. This expansion will enable the company to better serve its growing client base with additional technical and executive talent. The IT/Mission Critical team joining NewGround will leverage technical planning and design skills with NewGround’s existing core strength in design and build, program management and consulting service offerings.
“Data technology will continue to expand exponentially over the next 10 years, and critical infrastructure will have to be expanded to support this growth” said Kevin Blair, President and CEO of NewGround. “Growing our technical capabilities across the various sectors in the IT/Mission Critical space ensures that NewGround is well positioned to take advantage of the many new growth opportunities ahead.”
NewGround’s expanded IT/Mission Critical team has a wealth of experience in the consulting, planning, design/build and program management of IT/Mission Critical facilities for companies such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Bank One, Northern Trust, First Chicago NBD, and other large corporate and public sector clients such as the Chicago Board of Trade and the GSA/IRS.
“We have assembled a team of leaders with a successful history of innovation and insight to build our IT/Mission Critical group, complementing our core company expertise,” said Blair.
Joining the NewGround team are:
Thomas Stratford
Tom Stratford joins NewGround as a nationally recognized planner in the IT/Mission Critical sector for over 25 years. He has served a large client base of both financial institutions, as well as corporate clients, nationwide. He specializes in the consulting, planning and design of data centers, operations centers, communications facilities, network centers, co-location operations, call centers and other IT/Mission Critical facilities. Tom is well regarded for program/criteria development, work process analysis, infrastructure planning and design, redundancy/reliability/maintainability planning, power planning and hardware planning.
Tom spent the majority of his career at Austin/AECOM, formerly McClier, where he was Vice President and Director of Information Technology. Additionally, Tom served as the lead member of the IT/Mission Critical team at the Facility Group. Throughout his career, he has worked with large corporate and institutional clients such as Wells Fargo, Digital Realty Trust, Comdisco, BankOne, TransUnion, etc. Tom holds an undergraduate degree from Marquette University and is a registered architect.
Alan Belohlavek
Alan Belohlavek joins NewGround as an architect and senior project manager. He has worked in the IT/Mission Critical industry for over 25 years, and for 12 of those years, Alan has worked in partnership with Tom Stratford. He specializes in space planning, workflow and material handling, technology infrastructure design, systems design including redundancy/reliability/maintainability, architectural/mechanical/electrical peer review, contract and lease negotiations, property management, interior architecture, furniture, fixtures and equipment selection, and project coordination/management.
Alan also spent over 10 years managing large scale IT/Mission Critical projects at Austin/AECOM, formerly McClier. He has also held the position of Corporate Architect with Sempra Energy/Southern California Gas Company and Saunders Development Corporation. Alan has a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from Southern Illinois University, is a registered architect, and a certified Facility Manager.
About NewGround
NewGround is a leading international design and implementation firm. For nearly a century, NewGround has been a premier provider of growth solutions, helping organizations advance by focusing on the design and delivery of customer and employee experiences. NewGround provides strategic solutions through the integration of their core offerings, which include: Brand, Consult, Design, Build, Retail and Culture.
The company’s headquarters are in St. Louis, MO, and corporate office in Chicago, IL; with principal offices in San Francisco, CA; Atlanta, GA; Portsmouth, NH and Toronto, Canada.
To learn more about NewGround, call 888.613.0001, or visit www.newground.com.