1. Gary A. Kecskés
Detailed Narrative Biography & Career Chronology
Gary A. Kecskés was born and raised in Southeastern Michigan. Following a K-12 public
school education, Mr. Kecskés had the privilege of attending a private university. He was
educated in design as an architect at Lawrence Technological University. While pursuing
his university education, he also worked in a small suburban architectural practice.
However, since graduation his career path has taken him in non-traditional and diverse
directions, acquiring strategy-driven management and leadership skills as he has
experienced progressive growth throughout his work life.
Mr. Kecskés’ professional experience spans more than three decades of service in higher
education, three years working in a small architecture firm, and three years as the City of
Sarasota's first Urban Designer. He has held several senior university administrator and
leadership positions, including serving as the Executive Director of the University of
Michigan's Center for Corporate and Professional Development. He is a seasoned adjunct
professor having taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Coursework that
he has taught includes: Visual Literacy, Design Fundamentals, Cooperative Engineering,
Advanced Presentation Media, and Technical Communications, including Document Design
and the graduate level, Advanced Publication Design. He has been an invited lecturer and
studio design critic for numerous courses at several colleges and universities in Michigan
and Florida.
Holding three degrees in architecture and design, Gary Kecskés earned the Bachelor of
Science in Architecture; the professional (5-year) professional degree, Bachelor of
Architecture, awarded cum laude; and the Master of Architecture, awarded with distinction.
He has also earned certification in the Management of Lifelong Education through the
Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.

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Mr. Kecskés' graduate work and thesis focused on professional practice in community and
urban design, including new town development and New Urbanism. He is the recipient of
several scholar awards including: The Jonathan King National Medal for Excellence in
Architectural and Environmental Research (2001) and the Minoru Yamasaki Award (1978),
named in honor of the designer of New York's fallen World Trade Center.
Successfully managing change, improving work processes and systems, and fostering an
entrepreneurial outlook within the enterprises that he has led highlight Gary A. Kecskés'
career. Leadership, insight, creativity, and perseverance best summarize his focus. He is an
organized, creative, results-driven individual who posses excellent communication, solid
leadership, practical management, insightful visioning, and targeted strategic planning
skills.
In all of his endeavors, Mr. Kecskés is goal oriented and value conscious. He brings more
than 25-years of honed leadership and management skills to the workplace. Mr. Kecskés is
well practiced in consultative relationship building and cultivates new and maintains
existing professional relationships, often creating strategic partnerships that have
benefited the organizations for which he has worked. He has a solid track record of having
developed numerous, meaningful, and successful strategic business alliances. Each
partnership was entered into only after careful analysis and due diligence was practiced to
ensure "win-win" results for each of the partners. Partnerships were initiated on a
contractual basis and constructed in a manner unique to each program and partner with
business responsibilities and desired outcomes leveraged to the unique advantage of each
specific engagement.
Mr. Kecskés has formulated and strengthened both existing and new client relationships
through consultative discussions and engagements with corporate executives and has
worked in partnership with clients to develop programming that drives organizational
effectiveness and global competitiveness by helping to solve existing business issues while
at the same time striving to prepare for the challenges of tomorrow.

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Spanning a broad range of operations, Mr. Kecskés' work has included the directorship of
several professional development programs and conference centers; overseeing academic
operations management; fiscal management and budgeting (to $5 million); scheduling
(building, course and faculty); facility and leasing management, and building operations;
classroom and faculty contract management; counseling and advising; program
management; curriculum planning, design, and development; strategic planning; marketing
and outreach; and fund raising (development activities). Entrepreneurship and human
resource management have been two of the greatest challenges that he has mastered over
the course of his career.
While working in academia, Mr. Kecskés also oversaw the production of a nationally
recognized cultural outreach program, known as ArchiLECTURE, which later became the
basis for two cable television programs for which Mr. Kecskés was the executive producer.
For more than 12 years he also managed a university exhibition gallery, serving as its
curator. In that role, he was responsible for planning, marketing, and mounting resident ,as
well as traveling, art and design exhibitions, and creating related educational programs.
Along with his staff and carefully selected content experts, Mr. Kecskés has overseen the
design, development, marketing, delivery, and evaluation of hundreds of workshops,
seminars, and conferences. He has managed three conference centers and provided
Internet and television delivery of programming both synchronously and asynchronously
to 13 states and in three countries. Mr. Kecskés has managed the efforts of multiple
program committees, the conference production budgets of all programs produced under
his direction (including contracts and expenses for speaker honoraria, travel and
transportation, printing [proceedings, marketing, etc.], audio visual equipment, signage,
hotel, food and beverage, shipping, etc.).
In joining the Downtown Redevelopment Division of the City of Sarasota's Planning
Department as Senior Urban Designer, Mr. Kecskés administered and maintained the
Sarasota Downtown Master Plan. He was the principal advisor for the New Urbanism-
based code to the Planning Director, City Manager, the City Commission, Mayor, and the

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community-at-large. In this position he served as an advocate for New Urbanism and
interpreted the code to assist in proper implementation of the Design Standards. The
position included responsibility for the design and development review of all major
architectural and redevelopment projects in the downtown, the authorship of
comprehensive written design analyses, and the presentation of complex issues to the City
Commission and community-at-large in layman's parlance.
While with the City of Sarasota, Gary Kecskés was the project manager for Sarasota's City-
Wide Wayfinding System Project. Along with other planning staff, he also provided support
to the Community Redevelopment Agency's Advisory Board. Mr. Kecskés served as the
Administrator of the City's Public Art Program and as secretary to the Public Art Committee
board members.
Mr. Kecskés' design background has involved work in numerous genre including graphic,
publication, architectural, interiors, furniture, environmental graphics, and wayfinding
system project design. He has provided office space planning and furnishings management
including casegood and open office furniture specifications. Mr. Kecskés has also
conducted research and delivered consulting services to numerous clients both within the
contexts of the organizations of which he has been a part and as an independent consultant.
When the nation’s economic downturn severely impacted the local economy, Mr. Kecskés’
position as urban designer was eliminated at Sarasota City Hall, along with 88 other
positions. He then joined the management team of a local science museum as Director of
Special Projects. Mr. Kecskés' first assignment was to conduct an extensive, organization-
wide Existing Conditions Inventory, which he utilized as the primary means of
understanding the museum’s many challenges. After completing 25+ hours of one-on-one
interviews, he authored a comprehensive 138-page report and analysis that included more
than 130 recommendations. A 28-page Executive Summary was created for the Board of
Directors. These documents were followed by a major Safety Audit and authorship of the
museum’s 2009 Strategic Plan, entitled, Moving from Success to Significance.

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As the economy continued to decline, Mr. Kecskés began to focus his efforts on the research
of alternative funding sources for the museum including private foundations, public grant
programs, and corporate sponsorships. This led to his initiation into grant writing. Within
the first eight months of joining the museum’s staff, Mr. Kecskés was appointed to the
directorship of the museum’s Education Program, where he had been asked to strategically
realign the department to help meet the demands of the 21st century.
During Florida's continued steep downturn in the real estate and financial sectors, Mr.
Kecskés moved to Connecticut where he was appointed Dean of Community Outreach for a
mid-sized college tangential to Connecticut's Gold Coast. In this role he oversaw the
professional development, continuing education, and customized corporate training center
of the College. In addition, he also managed the Public and Media Relations Department,
including the College's News Bureau, marketing, advertising, and the publications function
of the College, including the management oversight of the College's website and social
media networking. This position was also responsible for legislative affairs.
Since 2012, Mr. Kecskés returned to the Midwest and is currently employed as Assistant
Vice President of Workforce Solutions and Community Learning at Waubonsee Community
College. The three deans of Workforce Development, Adult Education, and Community
Education, along with approximately 70 others, report to him to produce virtually all of the
noncredit programming offered by the College on four campuses throughout far west
suburban Chicago.
In summary, Mr. Kecskés is an accomplished designer, dedicated manager, visionary leader,
and progressive educator, with a collaborative and entrepreneurial leadership style. He is
a reserved and experienced administrator who is supportive of, and ensures alignment
with, the mission, goals, and objectives for each enterprise that he has served. Mr. Kecskés
offers a unique blend as a creative academic theorist combined with that of a real-word,
reality-driven pragmatist. Along with appropriate multifaceted and multidisciplinary
visioning and leadership skills, he utilizes excellent verbal, written, presentation, and
negotiation skills.

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Perhaps the best manner in which to summarize Mr. Kecskés' character and attributes are
through the words of others who have described him as: disciplined, ethical, dedicated,
earnest, loyal, motivated, sensible, an invaluable asset, respectful, very positive and upbeat,
an extremely effective communicator, team player, collegial, collaborative, highly
competent, creative, and as a consummate professional.
Gary A. Kecskés' professional biography is published in the Millennium Edition of The
International Registry of Who's Who of Professionals. Additional professional background is
also available in Gary's Linked-In Profile.
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