Habitat News
Credit Unions Building Community in Denver
Credit Unions Building Community in Denver Team members at BellCo Credit Union helped a homeowner repair their siding as part of a Habitat Metro Denver home
18 Jul, 2023
Long-serving CEO Heather Lafferty announced her resignation earlier this year to ensure a smooth transition for the organization.
“The Habitat Metro Denver board has great confidence that Jaime is the right person to be our next CEO,” shared Gail Fritzinger, vice-chair of the Habitat board of directors and chair of the selection committee. “His extensive experience in the affordable housing space, ability to lead diverse teams, and passion for affordable homeownership and Habitat’s mission made him the clear choice.”
The power of stable, affordable homeownership has been a guiding force in Gomez’s career – from his professional experience as a finance and operations leader, to his board service and volunteerism with housing nonprofits.
Gomez began his career in finance roles, including as managing examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (Denver Branch) and as director of finance and business development for the Colorado Office of Economic Development under Governor Romer. Since then, he has dedicated his time to the affordable housing industry, including his most recent role as Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer at the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA). Gomez also has had a longstanding relationship with Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver, serving as a board member from 2012-2017, and as chair of the board’s finance and audit committee from 2015-2017.
In the search for our next CEO, our ideal candidate needed to understand the impact of affordable homeownership – and its ability to transform lives, improve health and educational outcomes, and benefit our communities. Our ideal candidate also needed to know how to work within current housing systems to impact positive change and make affordable homes accessible to more people in our community.
We found that in Jaime. He brings deep knowledge of our mission, knowledge of the affordable housing community in Metro Denver, ability to lead diverse teams and projects, and clear passion for our work.
“I am thrilled to welcome Jaime as Habitat Metro Denver’s next CEO. His deep knowledge of and dedication to affordable housing programs will ensure Habitat Metro Denver’s impact in our community grows even stronger in the future,” said outgoing CEO Heather Lafferty. “Jaime understands that when families purchase an affordable home, they experience stability, improved health and education outcomes, and increased generational wealth. The impact of stable homeownership is felt for generations.”
This selection comes after a long and thorough search process by our CEO selection committee and board of directors, where we met a strong set of qualified candidates. Jaime came into that search process not only with relevant experience, but also with a deep relationship to Habitat and alignment with our mission. He knows Habitat, and he knows the critical role we play in confronting the affordable housing crisis.
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