Former Corporate Executive Chosen to Head Habitat for Humanity

No sooner had Jonathan T.M. Reckford been named Habitat for Humanity International’s new chief executive than the former corporate manager and pastor got to work trying to mend the wounds left over from the split between Habitat and its founder, Millard Fuller.

The charity’s board fired Mr. Fuller six months ago after a long-running dispute.

Mr. Reckford says the first call he made after being named to the job by the board this month was to Mr. Fuller, in the hopes of clearing the air. “We had a good meeting,” he says. “I wish to have a positive relationship with him.”

In response, Mr. Fuller said he appreciated the effort. “I was not prepared to like the guy,” Mr. Fuller says. “But I did.”

Mr. Reckford, 42, brings what he describes as a “hybrid” background to the job. He has worked for several companies, including as a financial analyst at the Goldman Sachs investment firm and as an executive at Best Buy, the electronics retail store.

But after deciding to pursue a more “purpose-driven” career two years ago, Mr. Reckford became executive pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church, in Edina, Minn. In that role, he oversaw a 4,300-person congregation and managed the church’s charitable efforts to help people with AIDS in Uganda.

“In some ways it is a culmination of all the different parts of my career,” he says of his current role running Habitat, a worldwide Christian charity that raised more than $418-million from private sources last year to build houses for poor people. “The opportunity marries the passion and impact of the not-for-profit world with the complexity and the chance to use the skills I’ve acquired in the business world.”

Unanimous Choice

Despite his enthusiasm for the job, Mr. Reckford says he did not seek the position. When an executive-search firm contacted him, he agreed to meet with Habitat officials, but did not expect to be hired.

Habitat for Humanity’s Board of Directors voted unanimously to choose Mr. Reckford due to his experience leading “complex organizations and for his personal commitment to heed Christ’s call to serve the poor and forgotten,” said Rey Ramsey, chairman of the board, in a statement.

Mr. Reckford, who will earn $210,000 a year as Habitat’s leader, joins the housing organization during a tumultuous period in its history. In January Habitat for Humanity’s board fired Mr. Fuller, following an investigation into allegations that he had engaged in inappropriate conduct with a former female employee. The board dismissed the allegations, but it said Mr. Fuller’s continuing public comments on the matter were detrimental to Habitat.

More recently, Habitat in May sued Mr. Fuller, arguing that the name of a new charity he established was too similar to Habitat for Humanity and would confuse donors (The Chronicle, June 9). Habitat dropped the lawsuit when Mr. Fuller changed the name of his nonprofit group from Building Habitat to the Fuller Center for Housing.

Aside from efforts to repair relations with Mr. Fuller, Mr. Reckford said the charity’s biggest challenge is making sure it can maintain the growth it has experienced in recent years in its operations and revenue. “We want to keep growing exponentially, and if we don’t keep building the platform for that growth, at some points the wheels can fall off,” he says.

One idea Mr. Reckford and the board is exploring is whether to move Habitat’s headquarters from Americus, Ga. “One of the issues in the five-year plan is what’s the right organizational structure and where do we need to be to maximize our effectiveness. We’re going into that with an open mind,” he says.

However, Habitat’s founder, Mr. Fuller, has denounced the idea. “I’m astounded they would even consider it,” he says.

As for his own transition, Mr. Reckford, who officially starts September 12, has moved into an apartment in Americus, while his wife and three children — ages 10, 8, and 5 — will remain in Minnesota at least until Christmas.