Winning a NTCAR Stemmons Award wasn’t enough for Colliers International North Texas EVP Allen Gump. Now he’s taking over as the global president of SIOR. (That’s him at the SIOR national gathering in Chicago this month.) He’ll be at the helm of an org with more than 3,000 members in the commercial real estate world across 630 cities in 37 countries. Allen says becoming a member of SIOR was the single most important decision he's made as a real estate broker. He tells us SIOR is in the middle of restructuring its governance, as well as a rebranding campaign. The new governance will allow SIOR to become more responsive to the needs of its members and sponsors, he says. This has been a two-year process that should be completed by year-end. He's also traveling all over the US, Mexico and Europe telling the SIOR story. The first European Regional Conference in London will be next June and earlier this year he was in Mexico City for its first official chapter event for Mexico. "We’re fortunate to have a great deal of interest in membership from the young professionals and want to work hard to grow that segment of our membership," he tells us.
We got nosy, and Allen (right, with KDC CEO Steve Van Amburgh at last year's Stemmons Award event) nicely answered our questions:
Fave food: Anything my wife, Kim, makes, or is on the menu at Al Biernat’s.
Fave book: Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley
Go-to happy hour drink: Glenlivet on the rocks
Personal motto or words to live by: Be honest, build your brand on integrity.
Why commercial real estate: I always wanted to be in sales and it’s the ultimate big-ticket item.
Mentors: Buz Franklin, John Aldrich, Pete Baldwin and Jerry Fults. I was damn lucky.
Memorable deal: ANR Freight with Joe Graham and Sheri Kuykendall. It was a large deal in 1989 that kept me in the real estate business. It was the beginning of a wonderful relationship with Joe and Sheri that continues to this day. My two very favorite people in the real estate business that pretty much saved my career; it was tough times.
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