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Jackie Wheat
Jackie Wheat is an innovator who shapes the world by unleashing the hidden potential in people. Design is her driver. Workplace is her medium.
As the Managing Director of Design + Brand Services at PDR, she amplifies the abilities of her cohort of designers, architects, and consultants. PDR’s well-developed individuals and thriving teams are products of her empathetic design leadership. Challenging, multi-year projects and small bespoke spaces alike benefit from Jackie’s subtle approach. Jackie believes that people come first, and keeping this in mind, she hones talent and builds teams that can scale challenges with confidence.
As the executive designer of the ExxonMobil Houston Campus, Jackie set the course for transformation. For the fourteen-building, 14,000-person campus, she built a design approach that merged business requirements with human experience needs, ultimately setting the stage for new technologies not yet offered on the open market. As a result, what began as a real estate effort became a capital project. It was a pivot point for the energy giant that would lead to ExxonMobile’s workplace of the future.
Education
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design,
Minor in Architecture
University of Houston
Interests
Favorite Food: Peaches
Favorite Movie: Mission: Impossible series
Favorite Activity: Playing with my grandkids
The project’s outcome has been positive, but Jackie celebrates its success by a different measure. Her reward is the heartfelt feedback PDR has received from the people of ExxonMobil. After completion in 2015, her team’s design solutions are still showing their value. Workers have the agility they need to shift and address the changing needs of the market. Systems are in place to support worker health and wellness. More innovation-seeding collaborative connections are happening within the company than ever before.
More recently, Jackie led Dominion Energy through a two-tower, 3,000-person transformation. Her groundbreaking workplace design completely renewed the work experience for the century-old company. It also influenced the restoration of downtown Richmond, Virginia. Again, her proof was in the people, and the positive impact her designs have on their lives.
The designers at PDR are people who work with a sense of purpose. They shine from the inside and are encouraged to burn brighter every day, and this is where Jackie excels. She imparts this to her teams to enable them to transform organizations from the inside out.
