CFO of the Year Awards - Small Private Companies
Architect guides firm in good times and bad
Nicholas Vlattas, Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas & Co.

by Robert Powell
Virginia Business
July 2007

Nicholas E. Vlattas is an architect, not an accountant. He became chief financial officer of Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas & Co. to allow the other principals of the Norfolk-based architecture firm to focus on design.

He learned how to be a CFO and COO by talking to accountants, lawyers and consultants, and he proved to be a very good student. “I can honestly tell you that Nick Vlattas’ skills as a CFO are among the very best that I’ve encountered in my career,” writes Suzanne Franklin, a senior vice president in commercial banking with SunTrust Bank, in a letter of recommendation for his nomination for CFO of the year.

Vlattas has played a key role in the firm’s growth from a local practice with revenue of $3.3 million in 1992 to a firm with three offices, an international reputation and $15.7 million in revenue last year. Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas was named Firm of the Year in 2004 by the Virginia Society AIA (American Institute of Architects).

Vlattas also has been a stalwart in hard times. Before the merger of two firms that became Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas more than 20 years ago, his company’s headquarters burned. Vlattas worked tirelessly to negotiate an insurance settlement, meet payroll and recover work that had been lost. In depressed markets in 1990 and after 9/11, he was able to cut expenses but save jobs.

In addition, Vlattas has helped nurture the firm’s talent. He developed its Summer Design Scholars program, which attracts architecture students from throughout the United States and abroad. Vlattas also encouraged development of the Academy, an in-house continuing education program, and was the prime mover in the firm’s employee stock ownership plan, ESOP, which allows employees to become owners.

“A good leader is one who instinctively appreciates opportunity and who can find the upside of adversity,” writes Stephan F. “Hobie” Andrews, a lawyer with the firm Vandeventer Black LLP, in another letter of recommendation.

Nick wrote the book.”