How girl who loved Legos went from MIT back to the perfume counter to CEO of multi-billion dollar design firm

Published

7 months ago

May 22, 2025

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As a kid, Diane Hoskins always loved building. Legos, Barbie Dreamhouses, the racecar sets that her brother got but didn’t have the patience to put together himself when it took reading along with an hour’s worth of instructions.

“Whatever it was … I just love putting things together and building things,” Hoskins, global co-chair of architectural firm Gensler, told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin in a recent CNBC Changemakers interview.

That childhood building bug also made Hoskins the atypical example of a person who knew exactly what they wanted to do from an early age. “It led me to want to be an architect,” said Hoskins, named to the 2025 CNBC Changemakers list for her role at Gensler, where she served as co-CEO for two decades before becoming global co-chair in 2024.

Founded in 1965, Gensler employs 6,000 people across 57 locations in 16 countries, and generated close to $2 billion in revenue last year.

While she said her passion for building as a child “became a drive that just felt right,” Hoskins did not take an exactly linear path to the top of the world of architecture.

She shared with CNBC some of the lessons learned on the journey to the top of her profession.

Say ‘no’ quickly to life under an ‘all about me’ boss

Once Hoskins graduated from MIT and had mastered all of the basic skills to be a professional architect, she went to work in her “dream job” at a firm run by a genius in the field. That genius was the worst boss she could have ever hoped for starting out in her career, she now says.

The story, which Hoskins shared last year in an MIT commencement address, was a warning to the current generation of students that their vision of an ideal architecture experience may be more difficult to find than they realize, and it’s an important lesson about being prepared to pivot quick, and even pivot away from a long-sought path.

“You buy into this mythology of working in the office of ‘fill in the blank’ architect, who you believe is the epitome of architecture. … I went to work for one of those architects and found it to be not creative, and basically all about that person and what they wanted and not about the ideas of anyone else on the team,” she told Boorstin.

And quickly, she realized, “I don’t want to do this. I won’t live my career as the support cast of someone else’s vision,” Hoskins recalled.

She moved back to her family’s home in Chicago and went to work at the perfume counter at the department store Marshall Field & Company. Even though she had an MIT degree, she said that decision made her feel “extraordinarily independent and satisfied.”

“It was about saying no to something I know was not right for me, even if it might have checked a lot of boxes on what kids in college think is the right job path,” she said.

Eventually, a former classmate came into the store one day and suggested during a conversation that Hoskins apply to her firm. It was a huge firm that had the exact opposite approach of the one she quit, with team-driven projects involving people from various backgrounds and countries.

“It wasn’t in the service of a particular architecture ego that was at the center of the pyramid,” Hoskins said.

This belief has turned into a guiding model at Gensler, and not just for Hoskins in her roles as co-CEO and co-global chair. “It’s a bit of the antithesis of the CEO ethos, the commander at the top, the pyramid and all that thinking,” she said. “We believe strongly in collaborative leadership,” she added.

At Gensler, there are co-chairs in every leadership role within the firm, co-regional heads, and co-leaders in “every domain of work practice areas,” she said.

Terrace at IBM flagship office at One Madison Avenue in New York City, designed by Gensler.

Alexander Severin, courtesy of Gensler

Follow inner path, not expectations, even if it’s non-linear career

Even once Hoskins was established in architecture, she left to get her MBA because she wanted to learn from the perspective of her clients and what was driving their needs in real estate development.

“I left the profession again,” Hoskins said. “I had the courage to follow an inner path rather than expectations.”

Learning about real estate, and also studying business and management theory and concepts in competitive strategy, including the work of Michael Porter and Peter Drucker, gave Hoskins a “deep thinking on how business works,” which she says has benefitted her ever since.

There will always be a framework involving a budget, schedules, a team of people, and maximizing resources, but Hoskins says growing an organization’s skills and learning beyond a core sector focus, such as architecture, is critical.

Every business, Hoskins says, needs to be about innovation today. “Business can’t run on yesterday’s premise,” she said. “Innovation is the thread in every single business enterprise today.”

That goes for the sector most closely associated with innovation, too. “Solutions need to be framed by more than one discipline,” she said. “More people in our tech companies would benefit from having been in other domains,” she said, “bringing more perspective to these tools across our daily lives.”

And in Hoskin’s view, that is true for all professions. The path to success, she says, is often about not coming at it “from a single set of ideas.”

Watch the Changemakers Spotlight video above to learn more about Hoskin’s career and her advice to finding career success on your own terms.

Environment

Giddyup: Polestar picks up $600 million in fresh funding

Published

2 hours ago

December 20, 2025

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Giddyup: Polestar picks up 0 million in fresh funding

Geely-backed performance EV brand Polestar has had some troubling times in recent months, but its future is looking a whole lot better after the company secured a $600 million loan facility to help it keep on keepin’ on.

Despite vehicle sales picking up in 2025 on the strengths of the Polestar EV brand’s Swedish sensibilities, cutting-edge Chinese EV tech, and Volvo-aided safety specs, the company’s financial picture has been anything but rosy, with the threat of having its stock delisted from the NASDAQ looming large at several points.

In a vote of broader confidence and better times ahead, Volvo’s parent company Geely Sweden Holdings AB is backing the brand with more than half a billion dollars of fresh funding to extend its operational runway:

Polestar, as borrower, entered into a credit agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary, as lender, of Geely Sweden Holdings AB in relation to a subordinated term loan facility of up to USD 600 million, of which the last USD 300 million would require lender consent based on Polestar’s future liquidity needs. The term loan facility is available to Polestar for general corporate purposes.

POLESTAR

The new funds are just the most recent part of a big week for Polestar – one that saw the Polestar 4 recently begin deliveries to its first North American customers, and recent upgrades to the Polestar 3 have made that car a viable V2G/V2x offering in Europe, as well. With that in mind, it’s no wonder that Geely wants to see how this all plays out.

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The company has four models in its current line-up on sale in 28 countries, along with additional planned models that include the Polestar 7 SUV (set to be introduced in 2028) and the Polestar 6 coupe/roadster.

Electrek’s Take

Polestar 4 deliveries — Polestar 4; via Polestar.

Product-wise, at least, it’s hard to argue that Polestar’s future appears to be anything but bright. The new Polestar 3 crossover is a viable competitor to the industry-leading Tesla Model Y, and the upcoming Polestar 4 and 5 models seem like winners, too. To drive that point home, Polestar is promoting up to $18,000 in incentives to lure in Tesla buyers.

You can find out more about Polestar’s killer EV deals on the full range of Polestar models, from the 2 to the 4, below, then let us know what you think of the three-pointed star’s latest discount dash in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

SOURCE: Polestar.

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Environment

The backup battery choice you didn’t know you had: natural gas fuel cell

Published

3 hours ago

December 20, 2025

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The backup battery choice you didn’t know you had: natural gas fuel cell

WATT Fuel Cell Advances Commercial Rollout with First 2 kW WATT HOME™ Installation in Clarksburg and Initial Shipments to Hope Gas Ahead of 2026 Residential Launch

Whether it’s to keep the lights on after a natural disaster or just to avoid peak energy rates, more people than ever are adding battery energy storage to their home solar systems — but li-ion batteries aren’t the only option. The new WATT Fuel Cell uses the natural gas connection your home already has to generate power when you need it.

Technically a solid oxide fuel cell, the WATT unit turns the natural gas in your home into electricity without combustion, relying instead on a chemical reaction between the natural gas and oxygen in the air to create an electric current in a way that’s conceptually similar to a hydrogen fuel cell, but that makes use of a more readily available (and far cheaper) fuel source to generate power while producing far fewer harmful emissions than a conventional generator.

How it works

The company’s latest offering, the WATT HOME system, recently achieved certification at a 2 kW power rating, marking an important step on the company’s commercialization roadmap as it races to meet market demands for a natural-gas-powered backup solution to guarantee uptime in outage-prone regions.

This week, the company marked another major milestone by installing the of its first 2 kW WATT HOME solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) at the Edward M. Smith National Career and Life Skills Development Center, Hope Gas’ new state-of-the-art training facility in Clarksburg, West Virginia – but the news doesn’t end there.

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The company plans to take advantage of the new 30% ITC benefit (a federal tax credit that lets homeowners deduct 30% of the cost of qualifying clean energy systems, which now includes natural gas) under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to help drive sales, with installations beginning in Hope Gas’ utility territory in Q1 of 2026.

“The WATT HOME system’s new 2 kW certification … validates the performance capabilities we’ve engineered for years and strengthens our competitive position as we move into multi-year deployment with Hope Gas,” says Caine Finnerty, WATT’s CEO and Founder. “With the ITC benefit, we anticipate accelerated adoption and substantial value for customers, utilities, and investors.”

The gas fuel cell can send power directly to the home’s panel, keeping the lights on directly, or perform the same function as a solar panel, sending power to a battery where it can be stored for later use.

Keep in mind, though – this isn’t a zero emissions option the way a solar + battery solution is. This is very much a fossil fuel-powered solution that gives off carbon and nitrous emissions, and the only reasons we’re talking about it are:

the tech is kind of cool
I didn’t know these existed
it is objectively cleaner than a conventional ICE generator

That said, while solar is still the better solution in an ideal world, a WATT HOME fuel cell might be a better option in situations where rooftop space is limited (or nonexistent), such as condos or vertically-designed townhomes. In those scenarios, solar panels are unlikely to generate a meaningful amount of electricity, but a fuel cell that can tap into the buildings’ existing natural gas lines to provide reliable backup power if the grid fails.

That makes the fuel cell an attractive option for residents in multi-unit buildings, older historic neighborhoods with strict aesthetic rules, or any building where adding solar panels aren’t feasible, but a low-emission, low-noise backup solution is still needed.

The better question, then, isn’t is it better than solar – it’s is it better than solar for you? If you’re in West Virginia, you might be able to find out in just a few weeks. In the meantime, watch WATT’s own explainer video, below, then let us know what you think of the idea of a natural gas fuel cell in the comments.

Powering your home with a fuel cell

[embedded content]

SOURCE | IMAGES: WATT, via PRNewswire.

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Environment

Mammoet expands electric vehicle fleet with massive XCMG hybrid crane

Published

4 hours ago

December 20, 2025

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Mammoet expands electric vehicle fleet with massive XCMG hybrid crane

Mammoet adds hybrid XCMG all terrain crane

French heavy lift and logistics specialists Mammoet are living up to their name with the addition of a new, mammoth-sized, 60-ton hybrid crane from the electric equipment experts at XCMG.

The 60-ton XCA60 EV crane from Chinese heavy equipment brand XCMG rides on three heavy-duty axles and packs a 48-meter telescopic boom. Add in an optional 16-meter jib, and the big crane’s hoist height tops 60 meters – more than enough to work on urban construction jobs or shipside at port.

“This delivery marks more than just a product handover – it’s a step forward in redefining what’s possible in sustainable lifting operations,” explains Zhen Li, chairman of XCMG Europe. “We’re proud to support Mammoet’s efforts to reduce environmental impact and look forward to seeing the XCA60-EV contribute to a cleaner, more efficient tomorrow.”

Taking delivery

The XCMG XCA60 EV powers its drive and lift motors with a 170 kW (~230 hp) electric motor that’s fed by a 115 kWh li-ion battery pack that’s integrated into the crane’s counterweight system. That means that the crane’s bigger battery, in this case, means more lifting power as well as more operating time on battery power – in this model, the crane’s battery is good for 6-8 hours of continuous operation.

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On sites where access to grid power is limited, the onboard diesel generator can kick on and provide additional, extended hours of operation (hence: hybrid) while offering as much as a 40% increase in efficiency compared to a diesel drive unit.

Mammoet’s new XCA60 EV is one of the first production examples of the big electric-drive crane, which was first shown as a concept at Bauma 2022, to reach customers – but it won’t be the last.

“Mammoet is proud to be investing in the XCMG XCA60-EV crane, which is another important step in our ambition to deliver sustainable heavy lifting to the Dutch market, and beyond,” says Peter van Oostrom, director of global assets at Mammoet. “We look forward to seeing it deliver real results for our clients, helping to reduce the carbon impact of projects, while increasing their safety.”

SOURCE | IMAGES: Mammoet, via Crane Briefing; PRNewswire.

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