September 15, 2021 – Boston, MA – Today, the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Community and Banking Council (MCBC) announced the hiring of Thomas Callahan as its next executive director. Board chair Karl Renney of Eastern Bank said, “We are thrilled that Tom has accepted this opportunity and we look forward to working with him to execute our collective vision for MCBC’s future.”

Callahan is the long-time executive director at the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA) and was a founding board member of MCBC. He will assume his new position on January 5, 2022. “I’m excited to get started. MCBC has such a unique voice where community groups and financial institutions grapple with complex issues and act together to improve the financial futures of low and moderate income households in Massachusetts.”

MCBC was established in 1990 to provide a forum for Massachusetts financial institutions and community organizations to meet and share information with the goal of affecting positive change in the availability of credit and financial services in traditionally underserved communities across the Commonwealth. MCBC produces annual reports on mortgage lending and small business lending patterns, sponsors a low-cost Basic Banking account program, and launched the Don’t Borrow Trouble campaign warning consumers about the dangers of predatory lending.

In the coming years, MCBC will seek to expand its research focus to include the broader financial services world impacting lower income households and to more actively engage in public policy initiatives at the local, state and federal level.

During Callahan’s tenure at MAHA, he guided the organization through numerous successful community campaigns. These include the nation’s longest running Community Reinvestment Act mortgage program serving over 23,000 homebuyers, with over half households of color; a groundbreaking education-based property insurance discount plan for homeowners; a first-in-the-nation matched savings program for first-generation homebuyers; and the expansion of state-level CRA coverage to independent mortgage companies.

In addition to his roles at MAHA and MCBC, Tom Callahan serves as the chair of the steering committee of the Community Preservation Coalition and is on the executive committee of the Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association. He previously served as a consumer representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners from 2017-20 and was on the Board of Trustees of The Appraisal Foundation from 2010-15.

Tom is the author of “From Living Rooms to Board Rooms: Sustainable homeownership deals with banks and insurers in Boston,” a chapter in Organizing Access to Capital: Advocacy and the Democratization of Financial Institutions, edited by Gregory D. Squires and co-author of papers on the impact of the SoftSecond/ONE Mortgage program. He received the Citizens Housing and Planning Association Community Service Award in 2012 and the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association Norma Moseley Housing Advocate of the Year Award in 2007.