Realogy Corporation, a leading provider of real estate and relocation services, recently announced that CEO Richard A. Smith has been appointed to serve on the Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) newly formed Housing Commission.
The Housing Commission’s stated objective is to craft realistic and actionable policy recommendations that address near-term problems and long-term challenges in housing while recognizing the imperative to restore the country’s long-term fiscal health.
Smith has led Realogy’s operations since 1996 and is a sought-after expert regarding the residential real estate market. In 2009-2010, he chaired the Business Roundtable’s Housing Working Group, and earlier this year he testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee regarding the state of the domestic housing market and also spoke at a national housing policy conference hosted by the Progressive Policy Institute and e21.
Former U.S. Secretaries of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Henry Cisneros and Mel Martinez, also a former U.S. Senator, former U.S. Senator Kit Bond and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader and BPC Founder George Mitchell were named to lead the BPC Housing Commission in October. In addition to the co-chairs, the Commission is comprised of 17 business and civic leaders, including Smith. (See below for complete list of Commission members.)
“I am honored to be appointed to this Housing Commission, and I look forward to working with the distinguished co-chairs, my fellow commissioners and the Bipartisan Policy Center in order to make strong bipartisan recommendations that will help shape a contemporary national housing policy,” says Smith.
The Commission will actively seek input and ideas from the public and thought leaders by hosting regional forums across the country in 2012. The first forum will be in San Antonio, Texas, on March 6, 2012; followed by Orlando, Fla., on April 17, 2012; St. Louis, Mo., on June 5, 2012; and, Bangor, Maine, on July 25, 2012.
Members of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Housing Commission:
Co-Chairs:
• Henry Cisneros, Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
• Mel Martinez, Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and former U.S. Senator
• Kit Bond, Former U.S. Senator
• George Mitchell, Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader and BPC Founder
Commissioners:
• Carin M. Barth, Co-Founder and President, LB Capital, Inc.
• Ed Brady, President, Brady Homes
• Alfred DelliBovi, President and CEO, Federal Home Loan Bank of New York
• Robert M. Couch, Counsel, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings
• Laurie Goodman, Senior Managing Director of Amherst Securities
• Renee Lewis Glover, President and CEO, Atlanta Housing Authority
• Frank Keating, President and CEO, American Bankers Association
• Bruce Morrison; former Congressman from Connecticut
• Janet Murguia, President and CEO, National Council of La Raza
• Nicolas P. Retsinas, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
• Nan Roman, President and CEO, National Alliance to End Homelessness
• Ronald A. Rosenfeld, Former, Chairman, Federal Housing Finance Board
• Robert M. Rozen, Partner, Ernst & Young’s Washington Council
• Richard A. Smith, President and CEO, Realogy Corporation
• Marilyn Jordan Taylor, Dean of School of Design, University of Pennsylvania
• J. Ronald Terwilliger, Chairman Emeritus, Trammell Crow Residential
• Barry Zigas, Director of Housing Policy, Consumer Federation of America
Director:
• Pamela Patenaude, Former HUD Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development
For more information visit www.realogy.com or www.bipartisanpolicy.org.
