Kim came to wealth management through banking. She helped start Bank of Montana, a private business bank in Missoula, serving as Senior Vice President and Senior Credit Officer. The bank opened during the Great Recession, arguably a very challenging time to start a bank. Sitting across the table from business owners in that period gave Kim a durable respect for what having a team of great financial advisors can do for someone in the long run, as well as what it takes to build something, and for the people doing the building.
Kim co-leads The Vesta Group, a wealth management and life planning practice serving entrepreneurs, executives, and families across the United States. The Vesta Group team provides comprehensive life planning and wealth management services-including portfolio management, retirement income planning, equity compensation strategy consulting, business transition advising, and estate coordination. While this is all part of the services Vesta provides, Kim's attention is almost always on the conversation underneath the technical work. As she describes it, the goal is to ask the questions in a meeting that you can't Google.
Her years in banking showed Kim how real and compounding the confidence gap around money can be for women. She began teaching a free personal finance class for women and took it across the state of Montana. That experience led her to organize a group of women to found The Athena Pack, a women's leadership summit in the Rocky Mountain West built around real, actionable skills — helping women build their own networks and develop capability in financial management, negotiation, and leadership.
Born and raised in Missoula, Kim began her career in investment banking and economic development, serving as assistant vice president at Montana Business Capital Corporation with a focus on commercial lending, real estate development, and economic development lending. Her earlier professional experience includes work in Latin American global business development for the Gillette Corporation and teaching entrepreneurship and microlending to students at the University of Stellenbosch and in South African townships.
Kim is a graduate of Babson College's Entrepreneurship and Women's Leadership Programs, served as president of the University of Washington's 2012 Pacific Coast Banking School class, and has taught advanced leadership coursework at UW's Graduate School of Banking. She is a frequent guest instructor for the Montana Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs at the University of Montana.
Kim is passionate about financial capacity as a force for good, building community, women's leadership, and access to education.
