Ron Abad, CEO and Executive Director of Community Housing Innovations (CHI), is a member of BRI’s Suppliers/Service Providers Advisory Council (SSPAC) and a member of BRI’s Welcome Home Westchester Steering Committee. Learn more about him below!
As a dynamic speaker and thought leader with a personal mission and passion to strengthen individuals and families and move them from poverty to self-sufficiency, Ron Abad has nearly 30 years of executive-level leadership in government and nonprofit organizations in the field of housing.
Ron joined Community Housing Innovations (CHI) in March 2021 to serve as the second Chief Executive Officer in the organization’s 30-year history. With an operating budget close to $100m and over 500 employees, CHI provides housing to thousands of families of individuals in Westchester, Long Island, Hudson Valley, and New York City and has been a member with the BRI since 2004. CHI operates emergency shelters, transitional and supportive housing, permanent housing, homeownership, foreclosure prevention counseling, eviction prevention services, financial literacy and CHI realty, an independent brokerage that works to place homeless individuals and families into permanent housing.
Before his current role at CHI, Ron served as Senior Vice President for Acacia Network Housing; Chief Operating Officer at Urban Pathways; Assistant Commissioner for the New York City Department of Homeless Services and Vice President of Operations for Housing Works.
He was recently awarded NYNMedia Nonprofit Trailblazers Award 2023 and was listed in Crain’s New York Business Notable Hispanic Leaders 2022 and the 914Inc. Magazine ‘The Face of Affordable Housing and Homeownership’ 2022.
Ron is a proud father of three daughters and five grandchildren. Ron enjoys sports, particularly Yankees baseball, working on house projects, and reading biographies and leadership development books.
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