Phil McKenna steps down, sells company to employee John Jackson

Although he didn’t want to unsettle his clients by saying he was selling his company, Phil McKenna said the “transition” was announced June 14.
McKenna made a special visit to the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees work/study session on July 19 to tell them goodbye.
He brought with him the new owner of the company, John Jackson, who had been with the firm for 19 years.
“He’s familiar with what we do,” McKenna said of Jackson, who was serving as executive vice president.
“I’m not retiring, but I’m staying with the firm as long as necessary,” McKenna told the board. “It’s not that I’m ill or losing my noodles.”
He said Jackson was hired in 1996 or 1997. He said Jackson was brought up in the Detroit area and has been doing presentations for the company throughout the state and is an excellent professional.
He said he doesn’t want to call it a “sale,” so they are calling it a transition, because it will be gradual.
He said they have a contract with Sally Hodges, the township’s former planning consultant, and even though she’ll be in North Carolina she will be doing some projects.
He said Jackson is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a planning degree and graduated from Miami of Ohio, a highly regarded architectural school.
“We also had organizational changes because of Sally’s departure,” McKenna said. Hodges had been VBT’s planning consultant for 22 years.
Jackson told the board it will be a seamless transition and McKenna Associates will be providing the highest level of quality service.
He said Principal Planner Patrick Sloan, who has been working on township projects for some time, will be VBT’s primary person.
Vidya Krishnan, Senior Planning Consultant, is working on VBT building demolitions.