Continuing the on-going upheaval at the top of the major housing trade associations, Thomas Downs has resigned as executive vice president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Home Builders.

Just a few months ago, Paul Reid stepped aside as the EVP of the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Downs cited family health concerns. His wife has cancer, a recurrence from a previous bout with the disease about a decade ago. When Reid stepped down, he said he had done what he had intended to do in putting the MBA back on course as the voice for real estate finance.

Both men were praised for their performance in their rather short tenures. But neither had done a particularly sterling job, according to sources within their respective organizations.

More will probably surface about Downs, who had absolutely no housing experience when he joined the influential 200,000-member NAHB, after he leaves his post officially on Aug. 25.

But Reid has been pretty well raked over the coals by the trade press, which reported some key industry executives as saying that the MBA was no longer functioning effectively. Some cited a "brain drain" among key staffers who had left the organization since Reid took over for Warren Lasko.

One senior official, who asked not to be quoted, pointed out that the group had yet to take a leadership position on the issue of abusive lending practices. The MBA has since addressed that political hot potato, but not before Reid resigned in early June after more than two years on the job.

Another who also requested anonymity said the association has failed to move forward the question of comprehensive mortgage reform.

The MBA is now being run by committee as the leadership looks for a new EVP. The staff is answering to Suzanne Samson, Reid's hand picked choice as his deputy, who reports to Kit Sumner, the current MBA president, and Andrew Woodward, who will take that post in October. Both Sumner and Woodward are out of jobs because their firms were recently purchased.

While Reid came from within the industry he was president of American Home Funding in Richmond, Va., which also was bought out Tom Downs had no experience in the housing sector when he was tapped by the NAHB in October 1998 after an exhaustive 16-month search.

He came from Amtrak, the for-profit government corporation chartered to provide rail passenger service throughout the country. During his five years at the railroad, the Kansas City native was credited with leading the company out of near-insolvency. Prior to Amtrak, he was chairman of the New Jersey Transit Corp.

Downs took over for the popular Kent Colton, who ran the NAHB for about a dozen years. He is being replaced, at least temporarily, by Jerry Howard, the association's chief lobbyist and senior staff vice president for federal government affairs.

According to sources, though, Howard, who joined the NAHB in 1988 as tax counsel, has a "good shot" at holding on to the post on a permanent basis. Meanwhile, Colton plans to return to the association for the next six months as a consultant.

The National Association of Realtors hasn't escaped the changing of the guard, either. Only a few months before Reid and Downs were selected, the NAR picked Terrence McDermott as its new executive vice president.

McDermott, who came from the American Institute of Architects, still holds that position. But several key staffers have since said goodbye, including two men who were extremely popular with the membership chief lobbyist Steve Dreisler and chief economist John Tuccillo.

Published: August 14, 2000

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