Past President, Executive & Governance Committee
Fikso Kretschmer Smith Dixon Ormseth, PS
Kathleen “Kat” Sims is the executive director of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBAKS), the largest and oldest local homebuilders association in the nation. The association’s first female executive director.
Sims has dedicated her career to addressing issues at the intersection of real estate, land use, sustainability, and the environment. Beginning as an associate attorney with Foster Pepper PLLC, then as a partner with Alston Courtnage & Bassetti LLP, Sims counseled many of the Northwest’s well known developers on a diverse range of real estate issues. Her ability to build relationships, find common ground, and drive bold initiatives helped advance her career as senior director of sustainability and then vice president of government relations with Plum Creek Timber Company, which merged with the Weyerhaeuser Company in 2016. She was later promoted to vice president of environmental affairs, sustainability, and corporate responsibility at Weyerhaeuser. Sims earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign before being awarded her Juris Doctor from Syracuse University College of Law. She also completed two executive education programs, one at Harvard Business School on aligning sustainability with business performance, and one at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School on executive leadership. Sims’ strengths in envisioning the future and transforming ideas into tangible solutions are primarily what drew her to the real estate industry.