Ghebre Selassie Mehreteab
Ghebre Selassie "Gabe" Mehreteab is senior adviser to CEOs of major foundations, financial institutions, private and nonprofit real estate firms working on housing and community revitalization issues. Currently, he is working with clients in Detroit,MI, San Diego, CA, New York, NY, Washington, DC and the US Virgin Islands.
Mehreteab served as Chief Executive Officer of The NHP Foundation (NHPF) until September 2009. The NHP Foundation (NHPF). In 1989, he co-founded NHPF and developed it into a leading national nonprofit owner of multi-family housing for low- and moderate-income families in the United States. During his twenty years as NHPF’s Co-Chairman and CEO, he utilized public and private financing sources to acquire, preserve, rehabilitate and build NHPF’s portfolio of 46 properties totaling 11,000 housing units in 14 states. During Mr. Mehreteab's leadership, (1989-2009), NHPF was governed by a nationally recognized board of trustees who were prominent in their respective fields which included J.Rodrick Heller, David O. Maxwell, Ambassador James A. Joseph, Anthony Downs, Judith Richards Hope, Dorothy Terrell, Robert F. Higgins, Barry Zubrow, Dan Emmett, Wesley S. Williams. Jr., and the late Lawrence B. Simons.
Ambassador James A. Joseph, NHPF's former chairman in his recent book, Saved for a Purpose: A Journey from Private Virtues to Public Values writes,"The NHP Foundation was founded in 1989 by Gabe Mehreteab, who quickly developed it into a leading national nonprofit provider of multifamily housing for low-income Americans. Gabe grew its portfolio to forty-six properties in fourteen states, totaling more than ten thousand units.”
He was a program officer at the Ford Foundation from 1981 to 1987. He was responsible for community and economic revitalization programs. Previously, he served as an associate director of the New World Foundation in New York and worked at a variety of community-based organizations in Philadelphia, PA.
Mr. Mehreteab served for 6 years
on the Board of Directors for Douglas Emmett Inc., (NYSE: DEI) a real estate investment trust (REIT) on its Audit and Executive Compensation committees. Mehreteab serves on the Board of Directors of the Lockhart Companies, a private real estate, insurance and financing company on the Executive, Personnel and Compensation Committees and the Audit Committee.
He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Cosmos Club Cosmos Club, and is a member of its Finance Committee, Sigma Pi Phi Epsilon Boulé and is a trustee of the Lockhart Foundation.
Mehreteab testified before Congress on affordable housing and appeared before state agencies and local authorities requesting bond financing, tax credits and tax abatements for NHPF properties. Mehreteab's work and writings are covered in several publications including in the Haverford Magazine, The New York Times and the Washington Post.
Mehreteab was born on June 29, 1949 in Asmara, Eritrea and continues to be involved programs and projects to assist the Eritrean people and received the Fred Hallow Humanitarian Award.. He is the second oldest child in a family of 10 children, has 25 nephews and nieces and two grand children, Claire and Jack Redfern.
He earned his B.A. in 1972 and received a Doctor of Humane Letters (honoris causa) 2007, from his alma mater♙Haverford College.