BOMA Leadership Spotlight: Kristin Howell
When she first joined BOMA in 2007, she was a Real Estate Manager at Meissner Jacquet, and is now Vice President of Operations.
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
by: BOMA San Diego

Section: News




Over the past 12 years, Kristin has contributed to the growth and prosperity of our Organization having served in various leadership positions throughout her tenure in BOMA as well as in her career at Meissner Jacquet.  In BOMA, her past leadership roles include Co-Chairing the 2013 BOMA International Conference Committee and Chairing the Strategic Long Range Planning and Government Affairs Committees. More notably, she served at the Board level as a Member-At-Large, Vice President, President, Immediate Past President and currently as Secretary.  When she first joined BOMA in 2007, she was a Real Estate Manager at Meissner Jacquet, and is now Vice President of Operations. 

In her free time, Kristin enjoys spending time with her husband and her son. They are known to take epic holiday family photos!  She’s also a proud dog mom to two miniature Dachshunds named Ruby and Dexter.  When asked if she had a favorite quote, she said it’s the quote at the bottom of her email signature block - “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” - Albert Einstein.

Read the Q&A below to learn more about Kristin and her climb up the leadership ladder.

BOMA San Diego:  Who opened the doors for you in BOMA San Diego and how did he/she encourage you to stay involved? 

Kristin Howell:  Jaimi Lomas did initially. She convinced me to be involved with the Membership Committee, which she was chairing at the time. I’ll never forget her telling me “We have fun because we ARE fun.” Great selling point, right? From there, I think it was Carrie Petro who encouraged me to interview for the Board.

BOMA San Diego: You are one of our most successful and active Principal members - having served on the BOMA Executive Board for a number of years. Why have you made your participation as a BOMA leader a priority? 

Kristin Howell: When I made the commitment to be Vice President and then President, Meissner Jacquet was incredibly supportive.  We discussed the time commitment and the energy required to do it right and they made accommodations with my workload to allow me time to participate the way I needed to in order to honor that commitment.  They also realized it was great exposure for MJ to have me so involved. As time went on, I learned so much about leadership, teamwork, and even more about the organization itself.  BOMA does so much for our industry and has broadened my horizons immensely. The networking helps me find other managers to bounce ideas off of and trusted service providers to work on my properties. The education has given me an RPA and FMA and along with them, more depth to my management skills. The advocacy work BOMA does has helped keep some crazy legislation at bay.  It’s important for property managers to step out of their daily routine periodically and hear about what’s happening at the local, State, and Federal level because lawmakers are CONSTANTLY trying to pass laws that have a direct impact on what we do and how we do it.

BOMA San Diego: What has been your greatest failure at the leadership level? And what did you learn from it? 

Kristin Howell:  Yikes!  I don’t like to dwell on failures BUT if you’re forcing me to, I guess it would be thinking that everyone is supposed to like me and realizing that not everyone does.  Learning to motivate volunteers that didn’t like me was tough. Learning that leadership isn’t about being liked, that it’s about seeing all sides of a situation, whether I like it or not and putting aside my personal feelings for the good of the organization.

BOMA San Diego: What would you say has been your greatest accomplishment in BOMA?  

Kristin Howell: Co-Chairing the 2013 BOMA International Conference Committee with Kim Davis.  That was an incredible event. Our group put on a conference that people still talk about, six years later.  It was great to see members I had never met before volunteering at the Welcome Booth and people who never attended luncheons working on the convention sub-committee. That convention was truly a team effort.