NMHC President Delays Exit to 2023

Longtime leader Doug Bibby is pushing back his retirement for a second time as the multifamily industry is still facing challenges caused by the pandemic.

Doug Bibby, President, NMHC. Image courtesy of NMHC

Doug Bibby, longtime president of the National Multifamily Housing Council, will remain at the helm of the association through January 2023 to help members recover from pandemic-related impacts and to continue to advocate for legislation crucial to the industry and the expansion of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Bibby, who was initially expected to retire this January, announced in September that due to the challenges to the trillion-dollar apartment industry and economy created by the COVID-19 crisis he would remain at the trade association until January 2022. On Tuesday, Bibby said he would now retire at the NMHC’s Annual Meeting in January 2023.

“Leading the NMHC and seeing the success the multifamily industry has experienced in recent years has been the capstone of my career. While I never could have predicted the challenges the industry, our employees and residents have faced over the last year, the way we have navigated the pandemic and resulting financial distress is a testament to the industry. Now that we seem to have weathered the worst of the pandemic, the apartment sector is poised for success and I am excited to do all I can to help and guide the NMHC members,” Bibby said in a statement provided to Multi-Housing News.

David Schwartz, chair of NMHC, said in prepared remarks NMHC officers, members and staff were grateful to Bibby for his willingness to continue as president of the nation’s leading apartment trade association.

Bibby’s Tenure

The association had announced in January 2020 that search firm Russell Reynolds Associates had been hired to help identify a successor who was to have been named at the January 2021 Annual Meeting.

Bibby’s retirement date was pushed back in September, when Schwartz said Bibby’s “leadership, experience and savvy” were invaluable to the NMHC and its members as the industry dealt with ongoing repercussions from the pandemic as well as social and racial inequity that also presented the multifamily sector with new challenges.

Bibby has served as the NMHC president since 2001, when he joined the association after 16 years at Fannie Mae. He began his career at global communications firm J. Walter Thompson, where his last role was senior vice president& general manager of the company’s Washington, D.C., operations.

During his tenure at NMHC, Bibby has tackled numerous advocacy campaigns and is viewed as a strong standard-bearer for the trade association which now has more than 1,100 member firms from the multifamily housing industry.

In the past year, Bibby and the NMHC team have worked to get Congress to pass rental assistance programs to help multifamily property owners and residents with delinquent rent payments.

More than $46 billion has been approved as part of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) now being run through the U.S. Treasury Department between the $900 billion pandemic relief bill known as the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, and another $21.5 billion that was included in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act signed into law in March.

The apartment industry continues to face challenges from the federal eviction moratorium which has been extended through June 30.