Any chief who steps into the position of CEO at a longtime firm competes with the legacy of their predecessors. Solely a few of us are fortunate sufficient to have had a mentor come earlier than them, one who was as vested of their successor’s success as they had been in their very own. Jerry Lee, now a retired architect and government director of our MG2 Basis, was my CEO predecessor at MG2 and my mentor.
Jerry has all the time understood development as one thing far deeper than monetary success. From the earliest days of his profession, he discovered that resilience and function come from how we present up for others. “A part of being beneficiant,” he as soon as stated in a graduation speech at Washington State College, “is mainly being useful.”
Helpfulness—it’s so primary, however so profoundly vital. He discovered the worth of serving to from his mother and father. “My mother and pop had a grocery retailer in Seattle, and it was in a tough space—all the companies round their retailer had been tagged or had their home windows damaged, besides ours,” he recalled to me just lately. “And there was a very good cause for that. When somebody got here in hungry, my dad all the time gave them one thing to eat. That was part of my upbringing, to be a part of a neighborhood, not only a enterprise in a neighborhood.”
This grounding in humility and helpfulness informs each alternative he makes, whether or not main MG2 or giving again to the neighborhood. “Our mindset was by no means concerning the backside line,” he says. For Jerry, success is measured by connection, affect, and the relationships we construct alongside the way in which. He sees generosity not as an obligation, however as a supply of mutual development: “While you give, you get again extra in return.”
CREATE MOMENTUM BY HELPING
Jerry’s propensity to attach with individuals isn’t just pure—it’s catalytic. Whether or not mentoring younger architects, elevating funds for most cancers analysis, or spearheading neighborhood initiatives, he creates momentum just by exhibiting up and welcoming others to do the identical.
On one long-discussed undertaking in Seattle’s Chinatown/Worldwide District, he demonstrated this intuition in motion: “A bunch approached us and requested if MG2 might assist with the Chinatown Gate. That they had been engaged on it for 50 years. Fifty years! Effectively, I stated, ‘why don’t we simply do it?’” He helped, elevating funding from scratch, contributing professional bono work, and bringing a decades-long imaginative and prescient to life. This drive is rooted within the perception that management requires generosity, persistence, and dedication. Jerry’s philosophy extends past enterprise: It guides how he engages with the broader neighborhood. From the annual Rotisserie Rooster Supply, our charitable drive that serves tons of of chickens and fixings to individuals in want over the vacations, to that now historic Chinatown Gate, his initiative reveals how small, deliberate acts can multiply into lasting affect.
THE FOUNDATION OF GROWTH
The impetus behind his dedication is deeply private. Jerry has seen firsthand how loss and hardship form character. He could be the primary to let you know that at first, he was a hard-driving CEO, which was mirrored within the agency’s work tradition. “I used to be very centered. It was nerve-racking.” However that modified after his late spouse was identified with most cancers. “I used to be in a position to put myself in different individuals’s sneakers. That had so much to do with it. I used to be much more understanding after she handed away,” he says.
The work was by no means about recognition or accolades—it was about creating connection, fostering resilience, and leaving communities stronger than he discovered them. Each resolution, each undertaking, each second of engagement is an opportunity to construct one thing greater than himself. In his personal phrases, the observe of generosity, dedication, and braveness isn’t non-compulsory—it’s the muse of development, each in enterprise and in life.
Taken collectively, Jerry’s story underscores a constant throughline: Management, at its greatest, is relational fairly than transactional. From classes discovered behind a grocery counter to constructing a global structure agency and sustaining many years of civic engagement, his affect has come not from scale alone, however from intention—listening fastidiously, investing in individuals, and appearing decisively when one thing significant wanted to be performed. Whether or not rising MG2 by empowering others or strengthening communities by way of quiet generosity, Jerry demonstrates that enduring success is constructed one connection at a time, guided by humility, belief, and a perception that what we give—our time, consideration, and care—finally shapes the legacy we go away behind.
Mitch Smith AIA, LEED AP is the CEO and chairman of MG2, an affiliate of Colliers Engineering & Design.
