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Clean Power Cells
Gerald DeCuollo,
BS’77 (M)Alumni Profile
Glass Ceiling to Crown Heights
Rosemary Espanol,
BA’70 (M)
Rosemary Espanol, BA’70 (M)
NE OF AMERICA’S MOST accomplished entrepreneurs in interior design and facilities management, Rosemary Espanol, BA’70 (M), is an artistically minded business owner whose design-and-architecture firm has long been regarded as a pioneer in managing new construction and renovation projects across the northeastern United States.
As the founder and president of the Philadelphia-based IEI Group, which provides design, architectural and project management services to dozens of corporations, schools, government agencies and other organizations, Espanol gets “a huge amount of satisfaction from combining aesthetic values with sound business judgment.”
Describing the “thrilling challenges” that she and her staff often confront, Espanol points to her company’s recently completed “Crown Lights” rooftop LEDmessaging system atop the Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO) Market Street headquarters. “The Crown Lights installation was a real watershed for our firm,” said the hard-charging CEO, “because the PECO rooftop has been such an icon in Philadelphia over the years.” [PECO has been displaying messages on top of its headquarters building since July 4, 1976.] As architect and project manager, we oversaw the design, documentation, engineering analysis, construction and the implementation of the lights.
“Our new rooftop display called for installing more than 2 million light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on the top of the building. The result was a vividly enhanced messaging system that can be seen all across the city. And yet it requires 40 percent less energy than the old system.
“Designing and executing a huge project like that — and also making it sustainable in order to reduce energy consumption — is the sort of challenge we love most at IEI Group.”
Founded by Espanol in 1991, IEI is currently ranked among the top 200 U.S. design firms by Interior Design magazine. For Espanol, who also teaches design management at Philadelphia’s Moore College of Art & Design, the “most important role I play is finding and then working closely with the right mix of professional colleagues.
“I’ve been running companies for the past 28 years,” says the award-winning executive, recently named a “Woman of Distinction” by the Philadelphia Business Journal, “and I think recruiting talented people and helping them succeed is the key to any success I’ve enjoyed.”
A French major during her FDU years (where her maiden name was Rosemary Ruggiero), the Hicksville, Long Island, native was “deeply inspired” by a semester she spent in France as a junior.
“Thanks to FDU, I was fortunate to be able to study in Aix-en-Provence for several months,” she recalls. “This was where [French Post-Impressionist painter] Paul Cezanne spent so many years composing his famous landscapes and still lifes.
“I enjoyed many an afternoon wandering around in his original studio, just soaking up the atmosphere and the brilliant colors. To be young and living in Provence and studying French and art the way I did — that experience changed my life, and I really think it helped give me the vision and energy to build an interior design firm of my own.”
In Philadelphia, Espanol hosted a reception for FDU alumni last fall. “It was a great feeling to spend some time with my old FDU friends and colleagues,” she recalls, “and I was delighted to play hostess as a way of ‘giving back’ to my alma mater. I gained a great deal during my years at FDU, and this was a nice way to say thanks.”
The mother of two college-aged kids (husband Sam Limor is a certified public accountant), Espanol is quick to point out that breaking into the architecture-and-design business wasn’t easy 25 years ago. “When I started out, the entrepreneur culture was mostly male,” she says with quiet pride. “But I had no intention of letting that get in my way — and I soon learned that I’d simply just have to work harder and smarter to succeed.”
Espanol’s hard work and razor-keen business smarts paid off, and today she counts among her loyal clients such top-of-the-line enterprises as Aramark, MetLife, Exelon Corporation, Citizens Bank and local school districts. Last year she was especially pleased to add Main Line Health System to that list.
“Helping to improve public spaces for people by making them more beautiful — and also greener and more functional — is what I love most about this job,” says Espanol.
“Learning about art taught me a great deal about business. I use those lessons every day, while working on design projects that call for a keen sense of color, texture and symmetry. Putting the pieces together is a wonderful challenge, and that’s what entrepreneurship is all about!”
—T.N.
FDU Magazine is published twice yearly by the Office of Communications and Marketing, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1000 River Road, H-DH3-14, Teaneck, N.J. 07666.
FDU Magazine welcomes your comments. E-mail Rebecca Maxon, editor, at maxon@fdu.edu or make a blog entry at MyFDU.net.
J. Michael Adams, President; Richard Reiss, Senior Vice President for University Advancement; Angelo Carfagna, Assistant Vice President for University Advancement and Communication; Okang McBride, Director of Alumni Relations; Carol Kuzen Black, Director of Publications/Senior Editor; Rebecca Maxon, Editor and Web Designer; Nina Ovryn, Art Director
Contributors: Mary Ann Bautista, Roger Koppl, Andrew McKay, Ramatu Musa, Tom Nugent, Melissa Payton
Photo/Illustration Credits: John S. Dykes, Don Hamerman, istockphotos.com, Shelley Kusnetz, Weaver Lilley, Katharine Marks, Arthur Petrosemolo, Nick Romanenko, Danny Schwartz, Adena Stevens
For a print copy of FDU Magazine, featuring these and other stories, contact Rebecca Maxon, editor, at maxon@fdu.edu.
To update your address e-mail fine@fdu.edu or update your profile online at www.MyFDU.net.©Copyright 2010 Fairleigh Dickinson University. All rights reserved.