South Mountain Co. (SMCo) is a well-known name on the Island. On the SMCo website, founder and former CEO John Abrams explains how the company came to be: “The company began as a cabinetmaking and woodworking shop in New City, N.Y. in 1973. In 1975, my partner Mitchell Posin and I came to Martha’s Vineyard to design and build a house for my parents.”
SMCo has come a long way since those early days. Abrams, a strong leadership team, and a talented group of employees have made it into a bustling architecture, building, interiors, and energy technology firm. SMCo is committed to a triple bottom line, which essentially means that people, planet, and profit are equally important. As a B Corporation and a worker-owned cooperative, SMCo balances its profits with environmental restoration, social justice, and community engagement.
“For us, we think about impact both for the community and for the projects we take on,” SMCo CEO Deirdre Bohan says. One of those community projects was for Camp Jabberwocky, which was completed in 2019. SMCo upgraded Jabberwocky’s Mess Hall, making it accessible for year-round use, and increasing accessibility. It also worked on the Early Education and Care Center for M.V. Community Services, and is slated to start building a counseling center for veterans, seniors, victims of domestic abuse and substance use, and other Islanders in need.
Bohan’s journey to becoming CEO wasn’t particularly linear or even planned. “Some people know what they want to do by middle school. That wasn’t me,” she laughs. Bohan spent childhood summers in Vineyard Haven, where her parents built a house. After graduating from Brown University with a degree in computer science and traveling some, she returned to the Island and worked in a variety of jobs.
“I worked as a hostess at the Black Dog. This job was foundationally great for two reasons: I met so many people, and I had a great boss –– Joey Hall, manager of Black Dog. It was one of those jobs where you don’t want to work for anyone who isn’t that great again.” This positive work experience stayed with Bohan, and influenced her role as a leader. “I try to do that for the interns here, so when they go out into the world, they’ll know what it feels like to work in a place where you’re treated well, so they can find the best fit for them.”
Though working several jobs, she wasn’t quite making it financially, and saw an ad in the paper from SMCo seeking an administrative assistant. “I didn’t know anything about the company. I drove up and had an interview with John and another co-owner. We laughed a lot, and I got the job,” Bohan shares. “The woman who was working in the position was retiring. I didn’t know anything about being an admin, but I had an undergraduate degree in computer science, and that was a world I knew, so I converted her job into the digital world.”
Once the admin digital world was running smoothly, Bohan began exploring new opportunities at SMCo. “I’ve always been interested in interior design. My grandmother changed the colors and designs in her house all the time. She was really attuned to that kind of thing.” Bohan and Abrams talked about creating an interior design department, and Bohan began taking classes at the Rhode Island School of Design: “I focused on classes that were practical for our new interior design practice.”
The field work as an interior designer helped her gain building knowledge. “I had no carpentry experience. No one in my family did. Drawing and learning how to read plans and architectural drafting taught me a lot.” After leading the interior design department, and as the company grew, Bohan became COO, and chair of SMCo management committee and leadership team. Upon Abram’s retirement, she became CEO in 2023.
But she wasn’t sold on becoming CEO at first. “John is very outgoing. I’m introverted. John has a community presence, and I didn’t feel like I could step into it. He suggested we take the two weeks during Christmas vacation to think about it more. When I came back … I still had no idea,” she laughs. But Abrams did, and together they created a strong leadership team. That leadership team consists of Bohan, director of production and co-owner Newell Isbell Shinn, director of finance and administration and co-owner Siobhán Mullin, director of architecture and co-owner Ryan Bushey, and director of energy technology and co-owner Rob Meyers.
“We make a lot of decisions together every day. The relationships we have with one another and the trust we have with one another makes me not feel like I’m doing it on my own,” Bohan adds.
Being a part of a strong team is beneficial, of course, but SMCo is also employee-owned. Employee-owned businesses can increase employee engagement and loyalty, provide job security and wealth-building, and create a stronger company culture and a more stable work environment. “By having new owners come in, we’ll continue our practices through upcoming generations,” says Bohan. “I won’t be here for 40 years –– another group will come up behind me. We turn 50 years old next year, and we need to think about the future. We are always thinking about the future of Martha’s Vineyard –– that it’ll still be here in familiar ways, and maintained for our children and other people’s children.”
Fifty years is nothing to sneeze at, and over the many years SMCo has built and maintained strong relationships with organizations, community members, and clients. “These relationships go on forever,” Bonhan says. “I recently went to the wedding of a client’s granddaughter. We built her house 27 years ago.”
South Mountain and its clients tend to have shared values. “Impact is what we focus on,” explains Bohan. “Live fully, tread lightly. We want our clients to have what they want, but there are choices about the future of the Island that we feel strongly about.”
In terms of environmental focus, sustainability is deeply integrated in SMCo’s choices. A seven-lens impact framework — place, water, energy, materials, well-being, equity, experience –– guides their design. This framework ensures that they consider factors like the Island’s single-source aquifer, embodied carbon in materials, ecosystem preservation, accessibility for diverse needs, and resilience in extreme weather. In their solar work, they’ve installed half the systems on the Island, helping hundreds of homes and businesses transition away from fossil fuels.
Building affordable housing is also a priority. Their most recent project is Red Arrow Road, which consists of three two-bedroom homes –– two of which will be occupied by SMCo employees and their families –– and one four-bedroom home they will maintain themselves. “We donated one of the two-bedrooms to Habitat for Humanity. The reason for doing this is to sustain a community so employees can afford to stay here. We are committed to the missing middle,” Bohan says.
Fine craft renovations and higher-end builds are equally important to SMCo, and help them meet the needs of the community, their clients, and their employees. “20 percent of our net profits go to philanthropy,” Bohan shares. “We engage in pro bono pay; our employees are paid to volunteer; we work with the Housing Bank, Spark MV, and the high school, providing work-study opportunities for students.”
Though Bohan has worn a variety of hats during her career at SMCo, she seems to have settled into her role as CEO nicely: “I love the relationships and the creativity in our everyday life and collaborations. The strong ties we have to clients, partners, and to each other –– the collaborative effort –– is fulfilling. But I can’t do any of this work without others.”
To learn more about South Mountain Co., visit its website, southmountain.com.