Kidder Mathews Names New CEO

Kidder Mathews President and Chief Operating Officer Bill Frame will become the company's first new chief executive in over 20 years, the company said Monday.

Current Kidder Mathews Chairman and CEO Jeff Lyon will leave the post on July 1, making way for Frame's promotion. Kidder Mathews Regional Brokerage President Brian Hatcher will become president and COO.

Lyon has led the Seattle-based company as CEO since 1999, steering revenue growth from $27M in his first year to $212M in 2019. He merged his family-owned business with Kidder Mathews in 1992, worked as a broker and served on the board for most of that decade. 

Frame, who has worked in his current dual role since 2016, joined Kidder Mathews as a broker almost 30 years ago, specializing in office sales, leasing and investment properties, with a special focus on corporate and healthcare real estate. Before becoming president and COO, he served as managing director of the company's Tacoma, Washington, office for 16 years. 

During Lyon's tenure, Kidder Mathews, which says it is the largest independently owned commercial real estate firm on the West Coast, grew from four offices in Washington to 22 offices across five states, now employing about 850 people.

Their new chief executive says new territory could be on the horizon in the medium term but that growth opportunities in Northern and especially Southern California will keep it busy this year.

"Our biggest opportunity in the next three to five years is in the markets we're already in on the West Coast," Frame told Bisnow.

Starting next year, opportunities to expand into Denver and Salt Lake City could flash onto Kidder Mathews' radar, he said. 

The company saw $9.6B in transaction volume last year, offering brokerage, appraisal, property management, project and construction management, and other services for all property types. 

Hatcher has been with Kidder Mathews since 1997, overseeing the firm's brokerage business in Washington and Oregon since 2011.

Lyon will stay on as the company's chairman of the board.