John Fuller embodies DLR Group’s employee ownership and values driven culture. He is a proven leader that believes in creating opportunity for all employees to grow, lead and benefit from the firm’s employee ownership structure, regardless of their role, because he did. And did he ever. Hired in 1996 to work in the DLR Group mailroom, by 2019 John Fuller was elected by the employee owners to the DLR Group Board of Directors. His steady rise through the firm is a testament to the culture created by his mentors. John now prides himself by paying it forward.Needing beer money, John joined Dana Larson Roubal and Associates (DLR Group) in Omaha, NE in 1986. Upon obtaining his business degree from the University of Nebraska – Omaha, he helped lead the marketing practice in the firm’s Omaha office. 1994, John co-founded DLR Group’s Overland Park, Kansas office and was instrumental in the growth of the firm’s K-12 practice in the Midwest. He is the firm’s only non-architect to start, lead and organically grow a DLR Group office. The Overland Park office, now one of the largest in the firm, was named the Best Place to Work in Kansas City in 2010 and was named American Institute of Architect’s Firm of the Year in 2012. He co-created the firms business development process for winning work which has resulted in over $3 billion of sales.In 2019, he was the first employee in the firm’s 55-year history to be named a Managing Principal, who is not an architect or engineer. John, along with the three other Managing Principals, lead the operations for DLR Group’s 1,300 architects, engineers, and design professionals via its 30 global locations.John has worked with well over 500 clients during his career. He focuses his client energy on planning and consensus building campaigns to assist in the generation of funding. John is a Leadership Overland Park graduate and was twice elected to the Blue Valley USD 229 Board of Education where he served as President for three years overseeing an operating budget of $340 Million. John remains a passionate public-school board, inclusion, diversity, and special education advocate. He speaks nationally on special education and building community consensus. He currently serves on the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. He passionately helps raise pediatric cancer research money for Braden’s Hope. John is married to an amazing woman and has three adult children who have blessed him with six grandkids (who call him Papa). He also loves donuts, Huskers and KC Chiefs.