Craig Schwitter Appointed Senior Partner and Chair of Global Board of Buro Happold

NEW YORK CITY — The award-winning, 2,000-person global engineering and consulting practice Buro Happold has announced the appointment of New York-based Craig Schwitter as Senior Partner and Chair of the Global Board, as of May 1st. Schwitter was elected by the firm’s more than 70 partners, and previously held the Chair of Buro Happold’s USA region.

The announcement came as Buro Happold also elevated 17 senior firm members to the rank of partner and named James Bruce as Buro Happold’s new Chief Executive Officer and Global Managing Partner, with a strong message that the business will strengthen its global presence and, in doing so, create a better, more sustainable world. Among the firm’s new U.S. leaders are two prominent women practitioners known as leaders in innovative structural engineering and sustainable, high-performance built environments.

With a renewed focus on client needs to address challenges of post-pandemic urban development as well as climate change, Schwitter’s role will remain focused on developing Buro Happold’s global client reach as the firm continues to expand beyond its historic U.K. roots. “I am honored to help lead our partnership into the next phase of our practice evolution, as we stand side by side with clients facing some of the most pressing needs in the built environment, today and tomorrow,” says Schwitter.
Schwitter — who is also founder of the first North American Buro Happold office, which opened in New York City more than 20 years ago — has led the firm’s expansion throughout the United States. He is known as a champion of integrated engineering, and he has worked with such varied clients as the City of New York’s High Line, Singapore’s Changi Airport, Harvard University and Bedrock Development in Detroit.  During that time, he has also contributed to buildings and other works around the world and across sectors, from developments in the cultural, civic and higher-education sectors to transportation, stadia, and master planning initiatives. (See more on Craig Schwitter here www.burohappold.com/people/craig-schwitter/ at Buro Happold’s website.)
Schwitter was educated at Johns Hopkins University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Recognized as a pioneering thought leader, Schwitter currently serves on the board of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and he speaks frequently at national conferences and industry events. He also lectures widely at colleges and universities throughout the country, and he has held teaching roles at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Cornell University, and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
Buro Happold is one of the world’s leading engineering consultancies and has helped create many of the most recognized and innovative places across the globe including, London’s Olympic Park and Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the World Towers in Mumbai, New York’s High Line and Jewel Changi Airport, home to the tallest indoor waterfall on the planet. Buro Happold is active in 26 locations worldwide, aiming to double from 2,000 to 4,000 employees in the next six years, creating a better balance and resilience across regions, making Buro Happold a truly global organization.