Populous: New Roles Expand Global Capacity

Leading design and architecture practice Populous has announced the appointment of two new global roles that significantly expand and strengthen its operational capacity and leadership presence across regions worldwide.

Gavin Houldin has joined the practice as Global Chief Operating Officer, focusing on strengthening global operations by standardizing systems and processes, leading integration efforts for acquisitions, and optimizing business and project performance. He will report to Bruce Miller, Populous CEO and Chair.

Image: Populous

Gavin has joined Populous from Arcadis, where he served as Senior Vice President and Operations Director for their global Places business in North America, leading a team of over 600 in the Americas and an additional 250 in global excellence centres across India, the Philippines, and Romania. Prior to that he held senior leadership positions at AECOM in both Africa and the United States. He brings deep expertise in global operations, M&A integration, and driving performance across large, multidisciplinary teams.

Bruce Miller, CEO and Chair of Populous, comments: “With his extensive experience in architecture, engineering, and project-based professional services, Gavin brings a collaborative, people-centric leadership style and a focus on design excellence and client service. His proven track record in scaling businesses through organic growth and M&A integration, coupled with strong commercial acumen and strategic thinking, make him ideally suited to help drive Populous into our next phase of growth and innovation.”

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, Teryn Hightower has also joined Populous as Head of Global M&A Integration, responsible for creating and leading a disciplined global integration strategy for Populous acquisitions. 

Teryn joins Populous from Accenture, where she spent more than seven years leading post-merger integration within Corporate Development, focused on aligning strategy, operations, systems and teams, to deliver against long-term business objectives.

Populous announced the acquisition of aviation design firm Fentress Architects in June 2025 to create Fentress Studios, significantly broadening the scope and scale of services that Populous offers clients across the globe.

Both roles are based in the United States, but will be fully global in scope, working across the firm’s regional headquarters in Kansas City, London and Brisbane and the 34 Populous studios around the world. (stadiaworld, 02.02.2026)