Former Clinton Administration Official to Lead Housing Group

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation has named Maurice Jones, currently Virginia’s Secretary of Commerce and Trade, to be its next president and chief operating officer.

Mr. Jones will replace Michael Rubinger, who has led the organization known as LISC since 1999. Mr. Rubinger, who was paid $478,792 in 2014, the most recent year for which figures are available, announced last September he planned to step down.

During the Clinton administration, Mr. Jones worked in the U.S. Treasury Department, where he helped manage the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. Since then, he has held several position in state and federal government. He served as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Social Services, and as deputy chief of staff to former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.

Mr. Jones, a Rhodes Scholar, was raised by his grandparents in southern Virginia, where his family had a corn and tobacco farm.”In many ways, coming to LISC brings me full circle,” he said. “I vividly remember, as a child, watching my grandparents working themselves to the bone so I could have a better life. Now I feel blessed to be in the position of creating opportunities for a new generation.”

LISC, which receives corporate, government, and philanthropic support, last year invested $1.3 billion in affordable-housing and community-development projects. The group was founded in 1979. Mr. Jones will be the first African-American to lead it. He will start on September 6.