Margaret McDonald Named One of St. Louis’ Most Influential Business Women

Margaret McDonald remembers her first project as a designer quite fondly.

The Boeing Leadership Center in Florissant, as McDonald tells it, was a comprehensive experience—incorporating elements of hospitality, office, dining and living—to create a destination for the aerospace company to train legions of new leaders. (Boeing, on its website, said it has trained more than 20,000 employees at the center.)

“For that first job, to be able to draw and then see something built, and even call it out if it was incorrect, was just incredibly valuable,” she said.

It was the kickoff to what would be a 20-plus-year career in which she worked on projects for storied local employers such as Spire, Washington University, Cortex, Enterprise, Ralston Purina and many more—first with HOK, then with Arcturis and now back with HOK as senior principal and one of three members (and the only woman) of its St. Louis leadership team.