William J. Bates, FAIA, from AIA Pittsburgh/AIA Pennsylvania, was elected 2018 First Vice President/2019 President-elect at AIA Convention 2017 in Orlando. He will succeed Carl Elefante, the 2018 AIA President.
He has served as a member of the Board of Directors since 2011, along with stints as a vice president and the chair of the Board Community Committee from 2015-2016. In 1991 and again in 2010 he served as president of AIA Pennsylvania; he was also president of AIA Pittsburgh in 1987. The vice president of real estate at Eat’n Park Hospitality Group, Inc., and an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University, he received his B.Arch. from the University of Notre Dame and pursued graduate studies in Construction Management at both Pennsylvania State University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.