Robert Strickland, Alabama Housing Finance Authority

Robert Strickland is not only the executive director of the Alabama Housing Finance Authority -- a position he has held for 13 years -- but he was also the agency's first employee.

The AHFA is an independent, public corporation, with a 33-member staff. Strickland's responsibilities include statewide oversight of affordable housing construction, as well as renovation efforts and administration of single-family programs geared toward first-time and lower-income homebuyers. He has created and instituted programs to serve more than 78,000 families.

Strickland has brought forth measures to improve or institute accounting, investing, personal loan administration, arbitrage rebate calculations, funding and delivery, and loan underwriting. This has allowed the AHFA to achieve increased visibility, and self-sufficiency.

In the last year, the authority issued two single-family bond issues for $125 million, which directly provided low interest rate financing to people with low- to middle-level incomes and people with disabilities. There were also two multifamily bond issues for $7 million that allowed developers to get a lower interest rates, and in turn the builders rent these apartment to people of low and middle incomes.

"These projects are quite a challenge but we are excited to be involved with this," Strickland said. "It takes a number of entities to make this come together."

Strickland earned his bachelor's degree in business at Auburn University. He completed the University of Oklahoma's National Commercial Lending School, Harvard University's Program for Senior Executives of State Housing Agencies, and the Buckley School of Public Speaking. Prior to his position in the AHFA, he had a 14-year career in the Alabama commercial banking industry.