SMMA is delighted to announce that Lorraine Finnegan has succeeded Ara Krafian as the firm’s new CEO, President, and Chairman.

Ara will retire following 34 years at SMMA, including 18 years as CEO. Lorraine, an architect and project manager with over 20 years of leadership experience at SMMA, will succeed him. The transition marks a new era at SMMA as the firm celebrates its 70th anniversary, its fifth CEO, and its first woman chief executive.

“Our founders built SMMA on a foundation of respect, resilience, and self-determination—principles that have guided us for nearly 70 years,” said Krafian in a letter to clients. “Lorraine embodies these values wholeheartedly. As an executive leader within the firm for nearly 26 years, she has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to our future. Her leadership, integrity, and strategic vision make her the ideal person to lead SMMA into its next chapter.”

Ara will remain “fully engaged” in his role until his retirement on June 12 and will maintain an advisory relationship with SMMA in the years to come.

Lorraine’s appointment ushers in the fifth generation of leadership at SMMA, an employee-owned, multi-disciplinary design firm founded in 1955.

Krafian’s Legacy

Ara leaves SMMA with a legacy of transformative leadership and unwavering commitment to clients and colleagues over more than three decades. Hired as a structural engineer in 1991, Ara soon established himself as a confident and business-savvy project manager with a knack for cultivating client relationships. His tenure as CEO, beginning in 2007, saw him steer the firm through existential challenges including the Great Recession and the uncertainties of the Covid pandemic. With his stewardship, SMMA deepened its collaborative, multi-disciplinary design ethos, reaching new levels of project scope and sophistication while expanding into new markets such as federal government work.

“The opportunity to be around people that are much more talented than I would ever dream of being has allowed me to learn on the job every single day,” said Krafian.

“I hope to leave a legacy of kindness and caring for people. This role taught me that a lot of what comes across your desk as a CEO is actually not advanced business thinking—it’s issues involving people that require empathy and compassion. I learned over time that responding correctly is good for business, whether it’s for your own team or for your extended family of clients.”

Brian Lawlor, Senior Vice President and long-time leadership partner to Ara, shared his gratitude: “Ara wanted all of us to succeed at SMMA. He put a huge amount of himself into that goal, sacrificing an extraordinary amount of personal time and energy. If any of us needed to talk with him about our hopes, fears, or ambitions, he always had the time.”

In the mid-1990s, Ara served as project manager on several IBM semiconductor facilities in New England and New York. He was also project manager for the landmark Chelsea High School, SMMA’s first public high school project and a forerunner to dozens of schools and master planning initiatives in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. “Chelsea High School was a remarkable project that Ara led with distinction,” said Lawlor. “An urban high school, cutting edge in a social and educational way and an extraordinarily difficult technical project. Ara built relationships with all parties involved, and pulled it off.”

Ara maintained decades-long relationships with SMMA clients, notably Pfizer, Philips, The Guitierrez Company, and Dell EMC, where he led major projects in California, Massachusetts, New York, and North Carolina. Under Ara’s guidance, SMMA also strengthened ties with a host of life sciences companies including Takeda, GE Healthcare, Boston Scientific, and SmartLabs, while the firm made its mark on the Boston and Cambridge skyline with projects such as 321 Harrison Avenue and 100 Hood Park.

Finnegan’s Journey

Born and raised in the west of Ireland, Lorraine earned a BS in Architectural Technology from Herriot Watt University through the Regional Technical College in Limerick. After moving to the United States in 1995, Lorraine joined SMMA in 1998 on contract from another firm, becoming a full-time employee the following year. She quickly established herself as a respected leader in the firm’s burgeoning K-12 practice, first as a project architect and then a project manager, admired for her deep design knowledge and organizational skills. She received her Architecture degree in 2009 after attending the Boston Architectural College.

Lorraine excelled as project architect and construction administrator for early 2000’s public school projects in Massachusetts, notably High Plain Elementary/Wood Hill Middle School in Andover and New Middle School in Raynham. After moving into project management, she served in leadership roles for several major projects, including the newly opened Waltham High School, Somerville High School, and West Elementary/Shawsheen Preschool in Andover.

Lorraine was appointed to SMMA’s Board of Directors in 2022. She previously served as president of A4LE New England and was a committee member of BSA Women in Design and BSA Education Facilities groups.

“My aspiration for SMMA is that we continue to grow as an integrated design collective,” says Finnegan. “Our people see the value of the multi-disciplinary model for clients, and they appreciate the way our teams collaborate and what that can do for their personal and professional growth.”

“We really love what we do here—the projects, the collaboration, the creativity. No one person is responsible for a design, and I think that is really important. We're not a single name on the door. If you have drive and a passion for what you do, you will succeed at SMMA.”

“I would hope that having a female CEO and President is an inspiration to many. We’re a 70-year-old firm that today has many female leaders. The industry is changing, and I’m very excited to be part of that.”