Brett Hautop

Founder

Workshape

I welcome life as a new adventure every day. I am grateful that I get to spend most of my time harnessing the power of design to make other people’s lives better. I designed my first house for construction at the age of 16 and at 29 I started an architecture practice and real estate development firm, which we successfully operated until becoming part of Gensler and opening their office in Raleigh, NC. I was fortunate enough to work on projects across many practice areas ranging from single family residential, to cultural institutions, to large scale mixed use developments, to sports facilities, to university buildings to a wide variety of types of corporate workplace projects and office buildings both small and large. At the same time, I taught design and architecture classes at North Carolina State University as an adjunct faculty member.  
 
In 2015 I took a big personal leap to move my family cross country and leave professional practice to begin a career with the amazing team at LinkedIn, leading design and construction for all of their workplace projects globally. I then graduated in my role at LinkedIn and was responsible for all aspects of our global workplace program and the workplace experience. It was an absolutely amazing experience with one of the most wonderful companies in the world, but I felt a constant calling inside of me to get back into professional practice, to help companies overcome their biggest workplace challenges. The existential changes being contemplated all over the world today have lead me to realize that there is a real need for my highly unique combination of skills, perspectives and experiences. Now is the time to get out there and co-author the next chapter in the global evolution of work and the workplace, so in September of 2022, I launched Workshape.