WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 20, 2014 — Danny D. Ghorbani, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) will be retiring effective December 31, 2014.

A 46-year veteran of the manufactured housing industry who has served since 1985 as the first and only President & CEO of MHARR, Ghorbani was  asked by the MHARR Board of Directors — and has agreed — to continue as the Association’s Senior Advisor on national policies. Further, to ensure a totally seamless transition and uninterrupted continuation of the Association’s national policies and activities, the Board has selected the Association’s current Senior Vice President, Mark Weiss, to be MHARR’s new President and CEO effective January 1, 2015.

Making this announcement in Washington D.C.,  MHARR Chairman John Bostick stated that “In his 46 years of service to and representation of the  manufactured housing industry, Danny Ghorbani has contributed  tremendously to the advancement and evolution of all aspects of our  industry. We wish him and his family a well-deserved and enjoyable retirement, knowing that he will continue assisting MHARR and the industry going forward.”

A Structural and Civil Engineering graduate from the University of Illinois, Ghorbani was first recruited as  a member  of the professional team assembled by the City of Chicago’s legendry Mayor, Richard J. Daley, to re-design the city’s aging trunnion bascule bridges. A year later in 1968, Ghorbani was recruited by the Mobile Home Manufacturers Association (since re-named the Manufactured Housing Institute) to work with a team of planners, landscape architects and engineers as the Project Engineer and Chief of Design Services for a new program to plan, design and engineer modern manufactured home residential developments and communities throughout the United States in order to meet increasing consumer demand and the rapid growth of the industry.

Four years, and some 200,000+ engineered manufactured housing sites later,  on his way to Georgia Tech University to take a teaching position and complete his post-graduate studies,  Ghorbani was asked by MHMA leaders to remain with the Association, take charge of its transition from Chicago, Illinois to Washington, D.C., and be part of the industry’s entry into  the federal arena.  Ghorbani accepted this challenge and stayed with the Association, where he began twelve years of wide-ranging activities and responsibilities on behalf of the manufactured housing industry, including, among other things,  managing the industry’s 600+ company-strong suppliers group, the industry’s two national shows and expositions (with the then-national manufactured housing show in Louisville, Kentucky being the 5th largest indoor trade show and exposition in the United States for four consecutive years), and serving as the industry’s  representative and liaison to various international housing forums and negotiations.

Then, in 1985, when a group of industry visionaries and pioneers concluded that the fledging federal manufactured housing program was rapidly veering off-course, they selected Ghorbani as the President and CEO of their newly formed association (MHARR) to chart a bold, new and different direction for the industry in Washington, D.C.  Fully aware that the initial federal law — patterned after the automobile industry — and its corresponding regulatory excesses coupled with discrimination against the industry and its consumers had drastically hampered industry  growth, MHARR began devising and aggressively advancing national policies that gradually gained ground and credibility for the industry with officials, lawmakers and consumers in the Nation’s Capital. This effort culminated with the passage of the landmark Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000, signed into law by President Clinton on December 27, 2000, recognizing manufactured homes, for the first time, as affordable, legitimate “housing.” 

A staunch advocate for fair treatment of manufactured housing and its consumers,  with  a watchful  eye to protect the delicate  balance between  consumer protection and  affordability, Ghorbani has, for nearly five decades, been a leader, fighting for fair and reasonable industry regulation and elimination of all discrimination against the industry and its consumers.

In Washington, D.C., Ghorbani said: ”It has been a privilege and honor  to work for, represent and advance an industry that I love and a product that I truly believe in.” He  continued, “but the real reward for me personally has been and will continue to be the literally thousands of friends and supporters that I have been fortunate enough to know and  work closely with in advancing this great industry.”