Janna Hafer
CFO and Co-owner of High Plains Architects
jhafer@highplainsarchitects.com
Janna Hafer is the CFO and co-owner of High Plains Architects. A native of Billings, she holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology and Environmental Health from Montana State University in Bozeman. Before and after she began her family of four children, she spent many years in laboratories testing things such as water, dairy products, and asphalt. Co-founding an architecture firm was never on her radar screen until she met Randy Hafer in May 1997. They were married one year later (to the day) in May 1998 and their blended family grew to include seven children.
In 1999, Randy and Janna opened the doors of High Plains Architects. In the early days when it was a team of two, Randy was the architect and Janna ran business and finance operations. Being the scientist that she is, organization and accuracy in data are very important to her; however, neither Randy nor Janna had any background in business so they learned a lot quickly.
Now, more than twenty years later, the business has grown and is going strong. In addition to her office financial duties, she and Randy have personally developed a number of projects in downtown Billings with an emphasis on historic rehabilitation and sustainable adaptive reuse of existing structures. They were named Small Business Persons of the Year for Montana in 2014 by the Small Business Administration. In 2019, they received the Beagle Award (Billings Exceptional Advocates for Gifted Learners and Educators).
In 2020, their own sustainable home was certified a Living Building by the International Living Future Institute—the first in Montana and only the 26th in the world. Since 2013, Janna has served as one of nine trustees on the Billings Public School Board and is also the school board’s Chair of the Planning and Development Committee. In that role, she has advocated for introducing photovoltaic arrays at their schools, with three projects completed, one in construction, and one in the planning stages.
Janna enjoys spending time outdoors gardening, hiking, boating at the lake, and improving her skills on the golf course and/or pickleball court. She also looks forward to traveling and visiting family any chance she gets.