Populous Co-Founder Earl Santee Transitioning To Executive Chairman As Part Of Leadership Restructure

Veteran sports architect Earl Santee is transitioning from CEO of Populous to executive chair, he told Pollstar this afternoon.

Contrary to a previous report, Santee said he is not retiring after spending 40 years as one of the sports industry’s foremost architects. The move comes among other changes in the design firm’s leadership structure, including Bruce Miller, current managing director of the Americas region, being named new global chair and CEO.

Santee, senior principal, CEO and founder of Populous, known as the “Big E” for both his physical stature and a reference to his vast experience, has designed more than 20 Major League Ballparks over the course of his 40-year career. Those venues include Truist Park, Target Field, new Yankee Stadium, Busch Stadium, PNC Park and LoanDepot Park.

Most recently, he’s been principally involved in developing a new stadium for the Kansas City Royals, a project that has stalled due to lack of financing and public support for using local tax dollars to fund construction.

All told, Santee worked on more than 60 projects across the big leagues and college sports, where he spearheaded the development of Baylor’s McLane Stadium and a massive renovation of Texas A&M’s Kyle Field.

Santee, a Kansas City native and University of Kansas graduate, started designing sports facilities in 1985 at the old HOK Sport, in tandem with co-founder Ron Labinski, among others.

His early work was spent on NFL facilities, including old Mile High Stadium, before transitioning to baseball-specific venues during the building boom of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Along the way, Santee became a trusted confidante of MLB team owners pursuing new stadiums, extending from the Steinbrenner and Pohlad families in New York and Minnesota, as well as Drayton McLane, Bill DeWitt and Jeffrey Loria, former owners for the Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins.

Under Santee’s guidance, HOK Sport split from its parent company HOK in 2009 to form Populous, a stand-alone firm focusing specifically on public assembly venues. The move came in the same year the Yankees and Mets opened their new ballparks in the Bronx and Queens, respectively.

Over the past 15 years, Santee served as America’s managing director for Populous and as global chair. In March 2024, he was elevated to CEO, about five months after private equity firm Providence Equity Partners purchased a minority stake in Populous.

Over the past 40 years, Santee has seen Populous grow to 1,500 employees across six continents.

Other executive roles announced today include Christopher Lee assuming new roles as vice chair of the board director and global head of design and Jonathan Mallie named managing director for the Americas region.