Washington, D.C., March 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On March 17, Christopher E. Donald was sworn-in as the Executive Director/CEO of the District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency (DCHFA). The Agency’s Board of Directors appointed Donald to the position of Interim Executive Director following the untimely death of DCHFA Executive Director and CEO Todd A. Lee in January 2020. At the time of his appointment, Donald was the Senior Vice President of DCHFA’s Multifamily Lending and Neighborhood Investments division. “Christopher guided the agency through its most tragic period of losing Todd Lee, and under his leadership DCHFA has continued to thrive and serve the residents of the District during the coronavirus pandemic. He demonstrated to the Board that the direction he is steering the Agency is a course that should continue, and the members of the Board and I voted to make his appointment permanent,” stated Buwa Binitie, Chairman, DCHFA Board of Directors. Donald’s nomination was approved by the Council of the District of Columbia on March 2, 2020.

“I would like to extend my gratitude to the Board of Directors for entrusting me to continue leading the Agency and for its support over the last year along with the support of DCHFA’s staff. I look forward to continuing the Agency’s innovative work to achieve the city’s housing goals and to provide resources and housing for residents of the District,” said Christopher E. Donald. For four years Donald has led the Agency’s Multifamily Lending and Neighborhood Investments division, as the Senior Vice President. Donald possesses nearly 20 years of experience in real estate finance, community building, project development, land entitlement and construction. He has entitled over 1MM square feet of mixed-income, transit-oriented and amenity rich housing. Donald is also skilled in structuring low-income housing, historic and new market tax credits. He has completed over $1 billion in real estate financing during the course of his career and renovated over 1,000 multifamily units.

Prior to his tenure at DCHFA, Donald served as the Principal and Co-Founder of The Leidesdorff Group (TLG). TLG is a diversified real estate advisory firm focused on the regeneration of urban communities within the Mid-Atlantic region. As a principal of TLG, Donald focused on distressed and disinvested urban communities. Throughout his career, Donald has served in leadership roles in for-profit, mission based and public agencies to advance the cause of affordable housing. Donald is a member of the Urban Land Institute and serves on the Board of Directors of the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers (HAND) and the National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies (NALHFA). From 2018-2020 he was a member of the African American Real Estate Professionals of DC (AAREP-DC) board of directors.

The District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency is an S&P A + rated issuer, serving Washington, D.C.’s residents for more than 40 years. The Agency’s mission is to advance the District of Columbia’s housing priorities; the Agency invests in affordable housing and neighborhood development, which provides pathways for D.C. residents to transform their lives. We accomplish our mission by delivering the most efficient and effective sources of capital available in the market to finance rental housing and to create homeownership opportunities.