How will the EOT guide CMG’s future?
An EOT is an innovative form of ownership and governance that is relatively new in the United States; in fact, CMG is the first landscape architecture practice in the country to become an EOT. It’s a long-term structure in which a Perpetual Purpose Trust holds a controlling stake of shares on behalf of the company’s employees and its purpose. It is designed to preserve independence, build culture and community, and ensure that the company’s success directly benefits the people who make it happen. As defined by our ownership transition team and endorsed by employees, the purpose of the CMG Stewardship Trust is to:
- Preserve the Mission: To increase social and ecological wellbeing through artful design. We are committed to upholding our mission as a living company, recognizing that our leadership, processes, and goals will naturally evolve in response to both internal and external change.
- Benefit Employees: Ensure the Company is governed in a manner that will benefit the current and future employees. Including prioritization of:
- Employee profit sharing by ensuring that the profits of the company are distributed for the benefit of the Employees.
- Provision of compensation and benefits that support employee health, and well-being.
- Provision of opportunities and resources that support professional development and growth.
- Cultivation of a workplace culture and community that fosters a sense of belonging and mutual care and responsibility for each other and the Company.
- Ensure Long-Term Financial Stability: Plan for the long-term health, financial and organizational sustainability of the company.
What does this mean for our clients + partners?
Our leadership, management, and project teams remain the same. The EOT provides long-term stability, allowing us to focus on what’s important to you; continuing to provide creative, empathetic, and responsive ideas, and the design excellence and project delivery that you expect.
What does this evolving future look like?
CMG has always operated through a collaborative and consensus-based leadership culture, the EOT formalizes and expands this ethos. It creates space for emerging leaders, entrepreneurial energy, and enables participation at the highest levels of decision-making, empowering employees to actively shape the firm’s direction and incentivize its success.
We’d like to share a few perspectives that highlight what’s in the hearts and minds of our team, as we continue to design for evolution.
“Becoming an Employee Ownership Trust brings a long-held value into the present: the opportunity to work alongside one another as co-owners, to share responsibility, and to shape our future collectively. It feels less like a new idea than a return to something enduring – leadership grounded in trust, fellowship, and shared purpose.” – Alex Pirks, Designer
“The formation of an Employee Ownership Trust may be novel for a landscape architecture firm, but for CMG, it feels like a natural evolution of our collective purpose as a mission-based practice, and representative of the future we believe in. This transition gives us all a deeper stake in the practice we’re building together and reinforces my belief that our best work comes from shared ownership and shared purpose.” – Wesley Cogan, Associate
“The conversion to an EOT cements our commitment to excellence top-to-bottom, not just as a formality, but as an explicit corporate structure. Our ability to deliver projects already exists from Principal to Designer – we’re recognizing and institutionalizing that relationship for the betterment of our projects, clients, designs and communities.” – Andrew Prindle, Senior Associate
“The founding partners’ decision to pursue this unique route to ownership is a reflection on the long-standing mission of the firm as a collective practice and community. I look forward to fostering the future of our company as an owner alongside my colleagues.” – Will Benge, Senior Associate
“Becoming an employee-owned trust is an inward reflection of the very values we champion through our work: equity, inclusivity, and generosity. Just as we do with our projects, CMG itself has been thoughtfully and boldly designed, with intention and purpose.” – Patricia Fonseca Flores, Principal
“Becoming employee-owned is more than a structural shift—it is a statement of trust, shared purpose, and belief that our greatest strength has always been our people.” – Doug Jones, Associate Principal
“I see the EOT an opportunity to participate in the construction of a more perfect (if still flawed and improvable) model of practicing together, a model that I see as fundamentally democratic and collectivist in its ethos and structure.” – Davi Parente Shoen, Associate
“By placing ownership in the hands of many, we aim to model a community that is rooted in shared responsibility, long-term care, and investment in its people.” – Brittany Giunchigliani, Designer
“I look forward to seeing all of us grow into the fullness of collective ownership and the professional leadership that arises out of mutual care, trust, and collective ambition for our mission, our collaborators, our communities and our projects.” – Julia Price, Studio Director
“I am one of many voices at CMG, and to find harmony and resonance we must practice speaking together—listening closely to one another and to ourselves to understand what this work asks of us. The EOT offers a structure that helps each of us find confidence in our own prosody—the melody of everyday speech—reminding us that our natural variations in tone and expression are what give life to a collective voice. I believe deeply in CMG as a Living Company and in our community as the firm’s greatest asset, and it is a privilege to be part of this moment as we step into a new form of ownership that carries this spirit forward.” – Rayna deNiord, Principal
The CMG team celebrating 25 years of our practice at the 2025 CMG Party!
