Andre Staffelbach, Dallas’ interior design of hall-of-famer, and his CEO wife, Jo Staffelbach Heinz, have decided to run with the big dogs.
On Tuesday evening, the sole owners of Staffelbach Design Group quietly merged their 70-person firm into Minneapolis-based DLR Group, the nation’s 23rd-largest integrated architectural and design firm, which is owned by an employee stock ownership program (ESOP).
The deal was announced at an all-hands meeting at the firm's Uptown offices Wednesday morning.
The Staffelbachs say they didn’t cash out, have no intentions of retiring and are in it for the long haul. They see this merger as a marriage of culture and vision for the future of their employees, who now can become owners.
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” she says in the couple's penthouse on Turtle Creek. “We had our independence, but we also had our limitations. This opens big doors. We’re pumped. That’s exciting because we all get a new lease on life.”