Real estate veterans Lonnie Plaster and Karen Kidwell have been named as the new Senior Vice Presidents and Regional Managers for the Northern Virginia and West Virginia region of Long & Foster Real Estate, the largest independent residential real estate company in the United States. Kidwell, who currently leads Long & Foster’s Annandale and Falls Church offices, and Plaster, who’s the leader at the company’s McLean location, bring a wealth of real estate and sales experience to their new positions.
“Supporting today’s real estate professionals takes highly knowledgeable and motivated leaders, and I’m confident that with Karen and Lonnie at the helm of our organization in Northern Virginia and West Virginia, we’ll continue to strengthen our market position,” said Larry “Boomer” Foster, president of Long & Foster Real Estate. “During their tenure with Long & Foster, both Lonnie and Karen have proven to be effective and engaging leaders, and their genuine commitment to the company, our agents and their clients, as well as their positive approach to business, will help ensure our ongoing success in Northern Virginia and West Virginia.”
Both Plaster and Kidwell were raised in the Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia real estate markets—Plaster’s father worked as an agent and builder and Kidwell’s mother is a Realtor and broker. That background provided them with an in-depth understanding not only of the local market, but also of the entrepreneurial drive needed to succeed in the competitive real estate business. Those skills, over the years, translated into Kidwell’s and Plaster’s own prosperous real estate careers, as well as an ability to help their agents and their clients to achieve real estate success.
“We’re thrilled to work together in leading our Northern Virginia and West Virginia regions and look forward to sharing our knowledge and experience with the distinguished team of professionals in our local offices,” said Kidwell and Plaster. “We complement each other in terms of our backgrounds and approaches to leadership, and that creates numerous opportunities for the agents and managers who call Long & Foster home, as well as their clients, to achieve all their real estate goals.”
A sales and marketing professional for over 25 years, Kidwell joined Long & Foster as a sales associate in 2004. Real estate was her second career, having spent many years in commercial and government contracting, as well as consulting. Those roles provided her with extensive experience in marketing, sales, business development and training, and she employed those skills to build a thriving real estate career, earning numerous awards from the industry and Long & Foster. It was Kidwell’s passion, though, for helping people—whether teaching clients about the market or sharing her business knowledge with agents—that led her to leadership. In 2010, she earned an assistant manager position at Long & Foster’s Herndon and Reston North Hills office and later took over as the manager of the company’s Falls Church office in 2012 and its Annandale office in 2013.
Kidwell graduated from Radford University with degrees in business and education. She currently holds the real estate designations of Graduate, Realtor Institute (GRI), Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR), and ePRO marketing specialist. Kidwell belongs to the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR) and the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and is a graduate of NVAR’s Leadership Institute. She currently resides in Herndon, Va., with her husband, Don, and her two grown daughters, Lauren and Camille.
Plaster brings over 25 years of experience to his new role at Long & Foster. During his career, he built and sold two prosperous real estate companies—the second, Cowne, Odend’hal & Plaster, being acquired by Long & Foster in 2003. Since then, he has led several of Long & Foster’s real estate offices in Northern Virginia, with the exception of a few years when he worked in the Charleston, S.C., real estate market. Most recently, Plaster led Long & Foster’s McLean office, which achieved over $1 billion in sales in both 2013 and 2014—a significant achievement for a real estate office.
A graduate of Radford University with a degree in finance, Plaster is active in the local real estate industry. He belongs to the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors. Over his career, he has served on numerous real estate boards and committees, including as president of the Prince William Association of Realtors, and earned multiple awards for his sales and leadership results both from the industry and Long & Foster. Plaster currently resides in Haymarket with his wife, Ashley, and his three teenage sons, Zachary, Anderson and Bradley.
Click here for higher resolution photos of Kidwell and Plaster. For information, visit www.LongandFoster.com.
