Kevin Folsom Work History and Progressive Development and Advancement

Building Solutions 9/1/20 - Current

Executive adviser in facilities, operations and facilities finance for education institutions. Fractional executive leading numerous facility, operations and finance departments into proper facility management practices that aligns with APPA criteria as the foundational model. Advising is provided through monthly/impromptu calls, site visit inspections for Facility Condition Assessments, provisions of reputable quality assurance and design consultant management, in person meetings, and webinars. Current and past clients have engaged into long-term contracts of 3-5 years where most current have been clients for 10+ years.

Trinity Christian Academy 8/1/2013 – 8/31/20

Lead and manage all aspects of facilities management to include supporting 8,000 events for academic and athletic purposes annually, with 3.5 employees and 95% contracted services, 350,000GSF buildings, 40 acres with formal football, softball, and large baseball athletic fields. Responsible for utilities procurement and efficiency programs where electricity consumption was reduced another 25% over a reduction of usage provided by an outside consultant prior to my arrival. Set up to participate in ERCOT EILS and Oncor demand response programs.

Assisted with master planning and developing a new overlay PD Zoning District with the Town of Addison. Annual operating budget of $2,700,000.

Upon arrival at TCA, I put a lot of effort into determining the existing skill level, motivation and loyalty of 12 staff members. Within four years, I found that all but one of the staff members were not receptive to the responsibilities for their level of pay nor for the direction we needed to go as a department to best support the school.

At the end of the 4th year, the Headmaster informed me that due to enrollment decline he needed to cut $300K from the school's operating budget and he wanted me to try to come up with half the savings from my department and the rest would come from faculty/staff layoffs. I asked the Headmaster to give me an opportunity to create a plan for realizing all the savings from my department alone.

Upon his agreement, I created a new paradigm to outsource all facilities staff with the exception of 3.5 FTE, to include myself, and to bid out the long-time janitorial contractor that TCA loved but was over charging them 25% and under performing without their heeding to my directives. Upon presenting to the leadership the new paradigm they agreed to proceed. While there were growing pains for the campus the first six months, this method has proven to be quite successful and created a legacy savings of over $300,000 annually, to this day. As a result, operations are more effective and well organized than TCA has ever seen and they are grateful that no layoffs occurred in academic faculty/staff.

During my time at this institution, I participated in the following endeavors which further developed my leadership abilities and understanding of facilities management in the K-12 sector:

Joined an association called NBOA: National Business Officers Association. This group is predominantly comprised of CFOs, with a small group of facilities managers, that exclusively serve roughly 1,500 private independent PreK-12 schools throughout the country. Along with experiential learning in this setting, I found their resources to be quite helpful in perfecting my skills in this sector. Developed and presented several topics and written articles to include, most recently, a Covid-19 webinar.

I currently serve as Chair of the APPA Standards and Code Council (ASCC) where I lead several task group chairs at NFPA, ICC, ISEA, and ASHRAE assisting them in planning and preparing standards development activities to bring changes in motion to the membership that will affect the education facilities industry. We educate members through articles on those topics along with weekly webinars, where 300-1,000 APPA and AIA members attend so they can plan and prepare for the standards and codes change implications to their campuses and architectural industry. I am the designated K-12 representative on the Council.

Today, I much prefer the use of online delivery for meetings, training and presenting webinars rather than traveling and being away for these purposes. I continue to attend APPA webinars regularly and am currently going through an online refresher course on the APPA Education Facilities Management Body of Knowledge for public and private institutions since it has been updated after I last studied it years ago.

Dallas Theological Seminary 8/29/1988 – 7/31/2013

Lead and managed all aspects of facilities management for academic, housing, libraries, stores, and cafeteria to include event support with up to 40 FT/PT employees, 550,000GSF buildings, 40 acres with lush landscaping in downtown Dallas. Annual operating budget of $2,000,000.

Lead master planning efforts along with utilities master plan and facilities deferred maintenance and renewal needs. One of the initiatives I developed was to incrementally work toward converting the campus from a distributed hydronic chiller plant to centralized/district plant while facilities were constructed and remodeled. Progress was made and facilities ready to connect into the future loop as it was to be installed and they continue to work toward this plan today. Worked within an overlay PD Zoning District of the City of Dallas, participated in presentations to City of Dallas City Council for zoning changes. Participated in several land/facility acquisitions.

Fully responsible as Owner's Rep to plan, bid, and construct two high-rise housing buildings and numerous renovations in excess of combined $50,000,000. Utilized all construction delivery methods of Design/Build, Design/Bid/Build sealed and public public openings, GMax, JOC, and Cost Plus. Wrote RFPs, reviewed and approved submittals, and approved payapps. Interviewed and hired architects and quality assurance specialty consultants. Experience with designing a high-rise housing building with LEAD criteria.

Responsible for utilities procurement and efficiency programs. Set up to participate in ERCOT EILS and Oncor demand response programs.

Served as co-chair of the staff fundraising program for the Capital Campaign, and chair of the Institutional Effectiveness Committee that evaluated all departments, including the President's office. The Institutional Effectiveness Committee report was included with the SACS Accreditation renewal.

While at this institution, I participated in the following endeavors which greatly developed my leadership abilities and skill:

In 1992, I became a member of APPA: Association of Higher Education Facility Officers (www.appa.org). Along with experiential learning, I formally developed my skills by completing every educational opportunity they offered, and have since returned to teach at their Facilities Institute. I was elected by the APPA membership to serve as their Vice President of Professional Affairs in 2007. One of my responsibilities that was quite rewarding was to lead a team to evaluate universities that have applied for the 'Award for Excellence in Facilities Management' and 'Effective and Innovative Practices Award.'

In 1999,I founded APPA's first local North Texas branch called DFWAPPA (www.dfwappa.org) out of a desire to network with education facility managers in the North Texas area so we could share information in our unique area. This organization exceeded my expectations, and continues to do so today. After spending four years building the association, it has flourished without my leadership. The last meeting I attended in the Fall of last year had 60 attendees with great facilities management educational content, as it was chartered to do in 2001. The association remains in good financial condition.

In 2000, with electricity deregulation impending, I sought out the AEE: Association of Energy Engineers (www.aeecenter.org) to earn my Credential as a Certified Energy Procurement Professional (CEP), and have since been responsible for energy procurement and energy efficiency programs for the institutions I have served and currently serve. I was able to save the institution over $1,000,000 by being one of the first competitive bidding negotiators by extending the contract when all other peers were limiting it.

I have developed facilities management topics and presented them to numerous facilities related conferences. The topics presented mostly related to my perspective on Planned Capital Renewal of education facilities which everything revolves around what I do. While this was not my intent, numerous times I was sought out to consult several other institutions on their planned renewal needs, the most recent being University of Brigham Young in Utah to evaluate their facilities business operations unit.

Additionally, I have written numerous facilities management articles for many periodicals, and for two years was a paid regular contributor to the Facilities Executive magazine as their resident expert to answer questions submitted by readers.

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