When most people look at a series of numbers, they see just that, numbers and calculations. But when Kimberly Byrum looks at them, a story reveals itself to her. “That really excites me, and I weave that through all parts of my life,” says Zonda’s managing principal, multifamily.
That ability to extrapolate and narrate based on a set of numbers is what makes Byrum a leader in the multifamily industry, where she has worked for 35 years. “I’m with you on the ground, analyzing the data,” she says. “I’m a pipeline psychiatrist. People call me whenever they’re in competition and it’s tough.”
Byrum grew up in a small Texas town on the border and began her career in 1991 after graduating from Texas A&M University. She remains a proud Aggie to this day, she says.
Armed with a degree in economics, Byrum entered the job market during a recession. At her father’s urging, she found employment in Dallas rather than pursuing her dream of working in Chicago trading commodities.
The job was an immediate fit, as she was analyzing data and creating a monthly report that quickly took off and put her in demand.
“I started gathering data on apartments and modeling it and looking at it in different ways,” she says. She grew a loyal client base and remained with that company for two decades. She also built connections and was involved in a joint venture institutional partner at another major company. She became a GE black belt and became familiar with risk management, as well as honing her focus on the multifamily industry.
Through those experiences and her background in economics, Byrum was able to build the systems that supported third-party reporting. She also embraced mentorship and trained a lot of people coming up under her, focusing on research as a fundamental skill. “There are probably over 100 people that I had worked with that are now in bigger parts of different organizations that had come through my group,” she explains.
That value Byrum has placed in relationships through the years saved her when she was painfully laid off from her first job. Because she had worked with a major accounting firm, Byrum was recruited by one of her contacts there, a fellow Aggie, she points out. “I went from industry, from multifamily development into consulting,” she says.
Those opportunities included litigation support, bankruptcies, and a portfolio of historically black college loans. Byrum was later recruited to Zonda, where she took on the role of multifamily expert. With Zonda, Byrum has also focused on the operational side of things, stretching her muscles and learning more about how to sustain the business. “I want to learn as much as I can about margins and running the business and managing people and leveraging and measuring productivity and all those things so that we’re being the best that we can be at consulting,” she says.
Brent Little, president and CEO of Fountain Residential Partners, has worked with Byrum and her team for over 25 years on more than 50 projects across the country.
“Kimberly has made herself available to discuss the information and analysis with capital partners and their teams to talk them through the markets and project viability concerns,” Little says. “When we have gone back and looked at the performance of the analysis provided, we have found them to be highly accurate,” he adds.
Cindy Murillo, chief operating officer of Gardner Tanenbaum, reiterates the reliability of Byrum’s knowledge. “I rely on Kim’s expertise to aid in providing the most current market trends, the right unit mix, unit size, and pricing for successful projects,” she says.
At Zonda, Byrum appreciates the multifaceted offerings the company brings. “I always call it the three-legged platform that is data, media, and then advisory weaving its way through all of those things,” she says. Zonda’s events, as well as the actual people also make for an interesting and positive work environment, she adds.
Aside from enjoying the challenges that Zonda brings, Byrum is adjusting to empty-nest life, as well as a weekend schedule that involves frequent travel to games at her daughter’s and partner’s children’s universities. She also splits her time between Arizona and Texas. “I switch gears back and forth with in my life, which is fun and keeps things exciting. And I don’t get bored!” It is this quest for novelty that keeps Byrum at the top of her game, both in life and in her role at Zonda.
