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San Francisco — February 22, 2023 — Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco, a nonprofit committed to creating homeownership opportunities, and fighting inequity and displacement through affordable housing and home preservation across San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties, is proud to announce the appointment of Dameon Philpotts as Board Chair. The organization is also pleased to welcome two new members to the Board: Mihir Khilnani and Lou Vasquez. The 20-member board will guide the organization as it doubles its impact over the next five years, building over 200 homes and preserving 400 homes through repairs.
Philpotts, who has served on the Board since 2017, is an experienced risk, banking, and lending executive at First Republic Bank. He received his MBA from George Washington University and B.A. from Franklin and Marshal. He lives in San Francisco with his family.
“I’m honored to lead the Board at this pivotal moment in Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco’s distinguished 30-plus-year history,” said Dameon Philpotts, newly-appointed Board Chair. “For local families and communities, our work to build new homeownership opportunities and help others maintain homeownership will enable low-income families to gain security, build wealth and pass along equity to future generations.”
Mihir Khilnani is a Managing Director in KPMG LLP’s consulting practice where he is focused on assisting organizations with governance, risk management, operational excellence, and business transformation efforts. Throughout his career as an advisor to company management and board directors at numerous Fortune 500 companies and private organizations, Khilnani has counseled leaders on setting strategy, achieving operational excellence, managing risk, and building resilience during periods of economic turbulence, disruptive technology and innovation, changing competitive landscapes, and evolving regulatory frameworks. Khilnani received his B.A. in Public Accounting & Economics from Illinois Wesleyan University and completed his executive education from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He lives in San Francisco.
Lou Vasquez is a Founding Partner at BUILD. Over the course of his 40-year career in real estate development, Vasquez has been a principal in the acquisition, entitlement, development, construction and/or management of more than $4B worth of residential and commercial product. Prior to forming BUILD in 2003, Vasquez was at a number of prominent Bay Area residential and commercial real estate development companies, including Trammell Crow, Greenbriar Homes, Bay Communities, Oxford Development, and Archstone Communities. He served for 10 years as a founding board member of Mission Preparatory School, a public charter K-8 school in San Francisco. He currently sits on the boards of Sonoma Family Meal and the Bay Area Housing Action Coalition. Through his volunteer work and board service, Vasquez is committed to ensuring that his hometown of San Francisco remains a diverse city providing opportunities for its most vulnerable citizens.
“The expertise and vision contributed by Dameon, Mihir and Lou will bolster our already-stellar Board leadership, and help us accelerate the critical work we are doing on behalf of those who have been historically excluded from homeownership,” said Maureen Sedonaen, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco. “With Bay Area home prices soaring and an all-time historic lack of entry-level home construction, the challenges faced by low-income Bay Area families, especially communities of color, lead to wealth disparities that are felt for generations and are driving many families to move away. For example, San Francisco lost 17% of low-income Black households between 2000 and 2015. We are proud to be changing that narrative: Habitat GSF Homeowners represent the diversity in our region, with 88% identifying as BIPOC.”
For media enquiries please contact Jasmine Brennan at info@habitatgsf.org