A native of Bangor, Maine, Mr. MacDonald attended the University of Maine at Orono and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1976. In 2006, he received a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University. In addition, he received the following educational designations in 2006: Master Financial Professional, Master Financial Manager, and Chartered Asset Manager.

In 1989, he formed T Management Company, where he managed 100 units of LIHTC—market and commercial units—and purchased real estate projects. Six years later he assumed the post of Low-income Tax Credit Administrator for Maine State Housing Authority. In this role, he was responsible for the review of all tax credit transactions submitted for allocation of credit and worked closely with the underwriting staff to determine scoring criteria, credit amount, and underwriting assumptions.

From 1998 until 2001, Mr. MacDonald served as the Chief Executive Officer for Realty Resources, a real estate management and development company with 65 properties in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts, accumulating more than $100 million of new development pipeline projects before he left.

Mr. MacDonald’s former civic responsibilities include board membership to the Bath Board of Education, Bath YMCA, and Patten Free Library (trustee). He currently serves as a board member for Midcoast Hospital, a trustee for Plant Memorial Home, a charter member of Bath Rotary Club, and is often a presenter for Affordable Housing Conferences. He is also a Housing Credit Certified Professional.

Mr. MacDonald spends his leisure time boating with his family and friends and bicycling. He is known as a committed and involved citizen of his community, with a gift for thoughtful and witty conversation. He lives in Bath with his wife, Joan, and their two children.

John G. Gallagher, Consultant
John G. Gallagher, Westbrook Housing executive director since 1999, brings a unique background to his position as head of one of the most active housing organizations in Southern Maine—one that has evolved to the point where it is entering new territory in search of future growth.

Having honed his administrative skills while manager of the Development Division of the Maine State Housing Authority, Gallagher also brought to his current position a background in real estate development and sales—at Ocean Properties Ltd, Delray Beach, Florida, in hotel and restaurant development and management, and residential sales at Flaherty Realty, a Bath firm he co-owned and managed.

Gallagher, as executive director, is the executive secretary and treasurer for the Housing Authority of the City of Westbrook, serving as the Contracting Officer and liaison between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the agency.

Since Gallagher took the helm, Westbrook Housing has restructured the debt on the organization’s real estate portfolio and completed two new Tax Credit Developments—29 units of elderly and 36 units of family housing. It has also developed 13 units of market rental housing in the downtown and two affordable housing communities—one single-family townhomes and the other condominiums in a restored public school building—adjacent to the central business district.

As president of Westbrook Development Corporation, the development arm of Westbrook Housing, he continues to investigate the feasibility of developing other affordable projects, and has become a resource for other communities seeking to develop housing projects in their towns.

Gallagher holds a Public Housing Manager Certification from the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. He has also completed training with the National Development Council in multifamily housing development finance, the National Council of State Housing Agencies in housing credit underwriting, and the Institute of Professional and Executive Development in affordable housing building blocks.

He serves on a number of boards, including Avesta Housing and the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce. He is currently the chair of the Northern New England Investment Fund.

A graduate of New Hampshire College with a bachelor of science in management and Southern New Hampshire University with an MBA, Gallagher and his wife, Pauline, reside in Bath.

Eric Larsson, Consultant
Mr. Larsson was the founder of Rosedale Real Property Partners, LLC, which acquired, redevelops, and manages affordable residential rental property. Mr. Larsson is also an attorney author for Thomson-West, where he specializes in real estate and land use regulation.

From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Larsson was the Project Manager for the Greater Rochester Housing Partnership, where he was responsible for starting and managing a successful acquisition and rehabilitation program. With an annual development budget of $6 million, the program purchased HUD foreclosure inventory and substantially rehabilitated homes for resale to first-time buyers with low to moderate incomes. While working with the Partnership, Mr. Larsson also managed a program to rehabilitate SRO units, and performed due diligence and underwriting on a variety of LIHTC and other multi-family rental projects. Mr. Larsson has worked as a consultant in the telecommunications industry, providing services in site acquisition, permitting, and project management.

Mr. Larsson has a J.D from New York University School of Law. He was admitted to Maine state and federal courts in 1995, and has practiced in areas including land use regulation and transactional real estate. Mr. Larsson is a graduate of Earlham College, where he majored in mathematics. He has also completed graduate coursework in planning and community development at the University of Southern Maine's Muskie School.

Mr. Larsson’s civic involvement has included serving on the Maine Department of Parks and Public Lands Integrated Resource Policy Committee and on the Board of Directors of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. He was a co-founder and board member of Growth Through Learning, which provides educational scholarships to young women in East Africa. In addition, he has also co-founded a youth earn-a-bike program.