For A/E/C Firm Leaders Newport Beach, CA

The fractional marketing & sales partner for the firms shaping the built environment.

For three decades, A/E/C principals have brought us in to run their marketing and business development from the inside — through growth, expansion, and exit. Senior judgment, embedded in your firm, without the cost of a full-time hire.

Schedule a working session See how we engage
— Selected long-term partners
Carrier Johnson + Culture Withee Malcolm Morley Builders BSB Design DVD Creative Psomas HNTB HDR United Nations
Bill Nevell, founder of Nevell Associates
Founder & Principal
Bill Nevell
30+ years inside A/E/C marketing & BD
— The Practice

Most A/E/C firms don't need another agency. They need a senior partner who can sit in the principal meeting, build the plan, and personally help bring the work in.

When we help / N° 01

Three moments in a firm's life when we tend to be most useful.

Most engagements begin at one of these inflection points. Each calls for a different mix of strategy, business development, and judgment — but the work is always principal-grade and embedded.

/01 i

The Growth Chapter

When revenue is the priority.

Your firm is steady, your reputation is good, but pipeline is uneven and the partners are too busy delivering work to sell it. You need someone senior driving BD discipline alongside the marketing function — a seller-doer model that actually executes.

— Engagement Fractional CMO
— Cadence Retained, ongoing
/02 ii

The Expansion Move

When the next market is on the table.

A new geography. A new sector. A new service line. The instinct is right — but the assumptions need pressure-testing before you commit budget and partners. We do the market intelligence, build the entry plan, and help you win the first three projects.

— Engagement Strategic Plan
— Timeline 60-day sprint
/03 iii

The Exit Window

When the next chapter is succession.

Founders are thinking about retirement. The firm needs to be positioned for acquisition, merger, or internal succession — and the brand, market story, and revenue trajectory all need to hold up under buyer due diligence. We've done this from both sides of the table.

— Engagement Transition Advisory
— Horizon 12–36 months
How we engage / N° 02

Three engagement formats. One senior practitioner.

Most firms start with the 60-day Strategic Plan and grow from there. Whatever the format, the work is delivered personally — not handed to an account team.

Featured Engagement
Case study / N° 03

Withee Malcolm Architects.

— Engagement
Fractional CMO → Transition Advisory
— Duration
15 years (2007 – 2023)
— Sector
Architecture · Urban infill housing
— Outcome
Acquisition by national firm

When two founders are ready to retire, the firm has to be worth buying — and worth keeping.

Withee Malcolm was an award-winning, 50-person architecture firm in Los Angeles' South Bay when we came on board as their Consulting Marketing Director. The brief was straightforward: raise the firm's visibility and generate revenue.

Over fifteen years, we expanded the firm's market reach across all of California, guided strategy through multiple market cycles, and helped them win work in new sectors that hadn't been part of their portfolio. As pipeline matured, the brand kept pace.

When the founders began thinking seriously about retirement, the assignment shifted. We repositioned the firm for acquisition — sharpening the story buyers needed to see and shoring up the revenue trajectory that would hold up under diligence. The deal closed with a large national firm.

The acquirer was impressed enough with the work to keep it going. We were retained for two more years to maintain market position and ensure a smooth ownership transition — proof that the marketing function we'd built was the firm's, not ours.

15yr
Continuous engagement, founding partners through close
CA
Statewide expansion from a regional South Bay base
+2yr
Retained by acquirer for post-close integration
Selected clients / N° 04

Three decades of relationships.

3M Company Avalon Bay Communities Berne Economic Development Agency, Switzerland Bomel Construction Company Bonterra Consulting Brown, Vence & Associates BSB Design Carrier Johnson + Culture Civic Solutions Cogstone Resource Management Construction Testing & Engineering (CTE) Cumming Group David Evans & Associates David Volz Design Degenkolb Structural Engineers Digital Map Products DVD Creative Ellana Inc. FMI Management Consulting Frank Wilson Associates, Inc. Fuscoe Engineering Global Geobits Griffin Holdings HDR HF&H Environmental HNTB HWA Architects ICF Jones & Stokes JOA Group Kemp Bros. Construction Khatib & Alami Lenax Construction Services Lilley Planning Group MHP Structural Engineering Morley Builders NGI Inc. Nolte Associates (now NV5) Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital Psomas Suffolk Construction The Keith Companies (now Stantec) The Shamrock Group Torres Architects United Nations (UNDB) Urban Land Institute U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA) Withee Malcolm Architects Zeiser Kling Consultants
Bill Nevell · Founder Bill Nevell
About / N° 05

Bill Nevell.

Thirty-plus years of marketing and business development leadership inside A/E/C firms — not from the outside looking in.

The career has been principal-grade work for principal-grade clients: leading marketing for ENR Top 200 engineering firms, running consulting marketing-director engagements at award-winning architectural practices, and advising public agencies and economic development organizations across three continents. International work has included the United Nations, the U.S. Trade & Development Agency, and the Berne Economic Development Agency in Switzerland.

The thread is consistent: senior judgment, embedded inside firms, partnered with leaders who want a real strategist in the room — not an agency at the end of an email.

— Selected Career
2002 — Now
Founder & Principal
Nevell Associates
2025 — 2026
Consulting Business Development Strategist
Morley Builders
2023 — 2024
Consulting Marketing Director
Carrier Johnson + Culture · 90-person, 5 offices
2007 — 2023
Consulting Marketing Director
Withee Malcolm Architects → BSB Design (post-acquisition)
1993 — 1999
Marketing Director
Psomas · ENR Top 200, 7 offices
1987 — 1992
Marketing Manager
The Keith Companies (now Stantec)
Start the conversation / N° 06

One conversation can change the next chapter.

Whether you're stuck on positioning, expanding into a new sector, or quietly thinking about succession — the first call is a working session, not a sales pitch.

“You'll leave the call with at least one idea worth using, regardless of whether we work together.”

Schedule a working session