Tulsa, OK – Blue Star Integrative Studio (Blue Star), the Tulsa-based architecture and interior design consulting firm, recently hired Michal Biery, AIA, NCARB, to serve as firm President. In addition, J. Kyle Casper recently joined the firm as Design Director. Together, Biery and Casper will lead Blue Star into a new era of investment and growth in serving public, private and Indigenous clients.
Biery is a seasoned architect and business leader, having held leadership roles at several architecture and design firms in the Tulsa region, most recently as a senior architect and architecture group leader at Benham Design, LLC (a Haskell Company) in Oklahoma City. As the top-level leader for Blue Star, Biery will oversee local operations and collaborate with leadership across Bodwé Professional Services Group to set strategic plans, budgets, and company goals.
Bodwé Chief Operations Officer, Jeremy Berg, AIA, NCIDQ, LEED AP states, “Michal is a strong architect with regional familiarity and connections in Tulsa, and he exudes strong leadership and mentorship skills that will be very beneficial for all the current and future team members at Blue Star. We are very happy to have Michal leading the office in Oklahoma as we continue to expand our footprint in the region serving a wide range of clients.”
Said Biery, “when we began conversations about this role, I felt a deep connection between the culture and values of Bodwé Group and Blue Star, which I felt aligned with me personally. In the design world, it’s not often that the work we do benefits tribal citizens unless we’re hired to do a specific project there. By operating as a tribally owned firm, literally everything we do supports the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi. I am eager to learn what that experience is like.”
In recent roles, Biery has served federal and military clients on a range of project types and believes that this experience, paired with his interest in serving community clients, especially Indigenous communities in the region, creates a perfect combination for the future. “Blue Star has a storied role serving tribal clients regionally and across the country,” commented Biery, “I’m eager to collaborate with Indigenous clients and to continue to expand Blue Star relationships into new markets such as the federal sphere.”
Accompanying Biery in the recently expanded Blue Star offices in Tulsa, J. Kyle Casper recently joined the firm in the newly created position of Design Director. Casper brings an impressive professional design pedigree as well as a personal connection to Native American culture and communities as a member of the Nansemond Tribal Bass family.
“Kyle is a tremendous asset,” said Biery, “and I am very eager to collaborate with him to support the Blue Star team as we all deliver inspired work for our clients. His background is wide-ranging and has touched very esteemed institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and as a representative to the United Nations. Kyle’s work has focused on environmental responsibility and our connections, resilient structures for climate change, and social imperatives for youth and people of the First Nations, all of which will be extremely relevant to his role within Blue Star.”
The addition of a new president and design director demonstrates the commitment of Bodwé Group to the business growth and design capability of Blue Star in serving its clients and the goals of the Bodwé family of companies. “With the two of us joining,” explains Biery, “Kyle and I hope to develop a structure around Blue Star business development efforts to provide a concentrated and focused strategy that will help our team members clearly understand shared goals and how each individual will have ownership.”
Biery and Casper are the latest of many new hires for Blue Star and Bodwé Professional Services Group. Acquired by Mno-Bmadsen in May of 2021, Blue Star Integrative Studio is one of the companies that comprise the Bodwé Professional Services Group of Mno-Bmadsen, the non-gaming investment enterprise and a wholly owned instrumentality of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi. Over the past two years, Bodwé Group has nearly doubled its staff to more than 140 team members across the country.
ABOUT BLUE STAR INTEGRATIVE STUDIO
Blue Star Integrative Studio is a tribally owned, Indian Small Business Economic Enterprise (ISBEE), interdisciplinary design practice built on the belief in the power of place that comes from a long-term relationship between people and the land. Blue Star works with tribal, public, and private clients, holding high standards for ourselves as well as the people and the projects we engage in, from architectural and interior design, to wayfinding, signage and graphics, to development consulting and master planning.
Learn more at: www.bsi.studio
ABOUT BODWÉ PROFESSIONAL SERVICES GROUP
Bodwé is the Professional Services Group of Mno-Bmadsen, the non-gaming investment enterprise of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi. Bodwé Group is comprised of Seven Generations Architecture + Engineering, WBK Engineering, The Steelhead Engineering Company, and Blue Star Integrative Studio. Bodwé teams provide architecture, interior design, master planning, environmental consulting, and structural, civil, and MEP engineering design and staffing services. We partner with Indigenous, healthcare, federal and municipal government, community, and private clients across the country. Learn more at: www.bodwegroup.com
ABOUT MNO-BMADSEN
Mno-Bmadsen is a wholly owned instrumentality of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, launched in 2012 and independently managed with the mandate to diversify the Tribe’s business interests, revenue streams, and wealth for future generations. The Mno-Bmadsen Family of Companies is comprised of four actively managed investment portfolios, including Bodwé Professional Services Group, D.A. Dodd Construction Services Group, Mno-DREK Manufacturing Services Group, and Red Tail Properties Commercial Real Estate Services. Learn more at: www.mno-bmadsen.com
ABOUT THE POKAGON BAND OF POTAWATOMI
The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi’s sovereignty was reaffirmed under legislation signed into law by President Clinton in September of 1994. The Pokagon Band is dedicated to providing community development initiatives such as housing, education, family services, medical care and cultural preservation for its approximately 5,000 citizens. The Pokagon Band’s ten-county service area includes four counties in Southwestern Michigan and six in Northern Indiana. Its main administrative offices are located in Dowagiac, Mich., with a satellite office in South Bend, Ind. It owns and operates a variety of business via Mno-Bmadsen, the tribe’s non-gaming investment enterprise. More information is available at www.pokagonband-nsn.gov
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