The NAHB Board of Directors elected the association’s Senior Officers during its Jan. 22 meeting in Las Vegas during the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas.

Taking the helm as NAHB’s Chairman of the Board this year is Joe Robson, a Tulsa, Okla.-based home builder. A leader in the Tulsa area home building and development industries for more than 25 years, he is the founder and president of The Robson Companies, Inc., developers of residential communities and commercial properties.

 “We look forward to working with the Obama Administration and the new Congress to develop policies that will help families facing foreclosure, stabilize home prices and put America’s home builders back to work as the engine of the economy,” Robson said. “NAHB will be pushing very hard for an economic stimulus package that recognizes the important role that residential construction plays in generating economic activity and jobs.”

In recent testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Robson noted that the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), “has failed to expand the flow of credit to business and consumers on competitive terms. In addition, the TARP program has not adequately responded to the nation’s foreclosure crisis, which must be addressed to keep people in their homes, help stabilize home prices and promote recovery of the housing market and economy,” he said.

Robson said he expects to draw on his local, state and national experience to help NAHB serve its members during the housing downturn.

“These are challenging times,” Robson said. “We don’t expect a significant turnaround this year, but it appears we are near the bottom, and we have reason to hope that we will come out of 2009 on a modest upswing. This may be a difficult year for home builders around the country, but we will continue to do all that we can to meet the housing needs of America’s families.”

Also moving up on the association’s leadership ladder during NAHB’s Las Vegas board meeting was Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based home builder Bob Jones, who was elected to be NAHB’s First Vice Chairman of the Board. As president of Robert R. Jones Homes, he specializes in land development and the design and construction of single-family luxury homes throughout metropolitan Detroit. During Jones’s 35-year career, he has earned a reputation for excellence and established a continuing commitment to the home building industry across the local, state and national levels.

Reno, Nev.-based builder Bob Nielsen was elected to the post of 2009 Second Vice Chairman. Nielsen has more than 25 years of experience in the industry and has overseen the development of more than 45 new home communities housing more than 4,500 families. He is president of Shelter Properties, a building and development company headquartered in northern Nevada that has constructed communities across the state and in California.

Barry Rutenberg, a Gainesville, Fla.-based home builder, joined the NAHB leadership ladder with his election to the post of Third Vice Chairman. Rutenberg is president of Barry Rutenberg and Associates, Inc. in Gainesville. He has more than 30 years of experience in the housing industry and has overseen the development of more than a dozen communities and 1,000 homes in the Gainesville area.

2008 NAHB Chairman of the Board Sandy Dunn, from Point Pleasant, W.Va., remains on the leadership ladder as Immediate Past Chairman. Dunn is a second-generation West Virginia home builder who has provided affordable housing to Mountain State residents for more than three decades. She is president of Point Pleasant, W. Va.-based B.J. Builders, Inc., a company founded by her father in 1953 that specializes in single-family, entry-level homes.

Rounding out the association’s leadership is NAHB Executive Vice President and CEO Jerry Howard, from Washington, D.C. Howard heads up a professional staff of more than 300 working out of the National Housing Center in Washington.  After previously serving as the association’s chief tax counsel, Howard was promoted to EVP/CEO in February of 2001.

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