Roto, a leading planning & design-build firm, has announced an executive leadership transition to coincide with the company’s 20th anniversary celebrations.
Maurice Twomey, formerly CFO/COO, has been appointed as president of Roto. Dana Russell will now serve as VP of brand and culture. In this new role, Russell will lead marketing, business development, organisational culture, recruitment, and external collaborations.
Joseph Wisne, founding partner and CEO of the employee-owned firm, will take on the new title of chief creative officer. He will steer the creation and opening of Roto’s forthcoming “experimental museum” in Ohio, US, while maintaining a focus on the firm’s long-term business and creative strategies.
Wisne comments: “Roto has seen tremendous growth over the last 20 years. Not only in scale, but in the breadth of our markets and level of innovation horsepower. I’m excited to apply Roto’s unmatched creative and technical capabilities to produce next-level immersive and interactive experiences in the years to come.”
Supporting growth
Wisne founded Roto in 2004 with three other partners after serving as COSI’s vice president of exhibits. Along with Twomey and Russell, they have grown the firm to become one of the biggest exhibit and attraction design-build companies in North America.
Roto now employs 100 people full-time and serves more than 250 museums, science centres, and aquariums, with clients including the Smithsonian, Google, and the Equal Justice Initiative.
Twomey joined Roto in 2018 as CFO after serving in executive positions at Klarna and Citibank. He has been instrumental in Roto’s continued growth and has doubled project revenues, made two strategic acquisitions, and built new internal capabilities in high-end fabrication, large venue A/V integration, and cutting-edge immersive media and animation.
He will continue to hold significant financial and CFO responsibilities in his new position, which will see him take charge of company operations. In addition, Roto is now hiring for a senior financial role to oversee Twomey’s former accounting duties.
“I look forward to the challenges of nurturing our continual adaptation to changing markets, new technologies like AI, and even more ambitious project goals,” shares Twomey. “Supporting the team is our surest means of delivering quality and innovation in all of our work.”
Russell has progressed from VP, to co-owner and partner, to VP of brand and culture. She is known for her ability to engage with both internal and external partners, and will now focus on talent development in addition to her marketing and business development responsibilities. This expanded position recognises Russell’s significant role in Roto’s growth and culture.
Long-serving leadership
In the past year the firm has completed 25 projects ranging from $50,000 to $12.5m. These included the grand openings of the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame, Branson Aquarium, Kaleideum children’s museum, and major exhibits at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Chicago Children’s Museum, Great Lakes Science Center, and Dollywood.
Its recent major projects include the Getty Museum and One Times Square in Manhattan.
The firm’s success can be attributed to the continued leadership of its original partners, Sean Ramsay, Allen Boerger, and Neil Baker, as well as Caroline Petitti, new partner and design director, and a team of experienced principals and directors with an average tenure of over ten years.
Roto recently marked the completion of a new location for the Da Vinci Science Center at PPL Pavilion in Pennsylvania, US. The attraction took three years to design and two years to build. It features more than 50 new innovative experiences and four galleries including a 1,500-square-foot immersive live otter habitat.
