Concord, NH – The New Hampshire Community Loan Fund is pleased to announce the recent additions of Rick Minard as its Vice President for Policy and Programs, and Craig Welch as its Vice President of Housing.

Community Loan Fund President Juliana Eades said the two executive positions were created to help the Concord-based non-profit respond strategically to current and future opportunities and challenges. 

“We know from past economic cycles that recessions create opportunities for people with low or moderate incomes and for the organizations that serve them,” Eades said. “Both Rick and Craig are entrepreneurial thinkers who know New Hampshire and who will help us find and respond to those openings.”

Minard, who lives in Bow, has extensive nonprofit and public policy experience. He has been President and CEO of New Hampshire Audubon, co-Executive Director of the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, and Executive Director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment.

His early career was divided between journalism and government. He was a reporter for the Keene Sentinel, then press secretary for U.S. Sen. John Durkin of New Hampshire. He returned to the Granite State as editorial page editor of the Valley News in West Lebanon, then worked in state government in Vermont. He served for six years as Associate Director for the Center for the Economy and the Environment at the National Academy of Public Administration in Washington, D.C.

Minard has a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard University. He has also served on numerous boards and panels in New Hampshire, many of them concerned with environmental policy and climate change.

Welch, who lives in Portsmouth, is President of Craig Welch Group, LLC, a commercial real estate brokerage firm where he has worked to develop nearly 1,000 senior housing units throughout New England. He has been an instructor at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire, and was Principal and Executive Vice President for Business Development at Wunderkind Studios, a new media design, development, and communications firm.

Welch also has considerable public sector experience. He is board chair of the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP), was a special assistant for telecommunications policy in the office of Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, and is a former AmeriCorps Leader for the New Hampshire College and University Council.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of New Hampshire, and a Master of Education, Organization and Management degree from the Antioch New England Graduate School.

The Community Loan Fund is a non-profit financial organization that turns investments from individuals and institutions into fixed-rate loans and education that create opportunity and transform the lives of people with low and moderate incomes across New Hampshire. The Community Loan Fund collaborates with a wide range of business, nonprofit and government partners to provide the fair loans and support people need to own homes, have quality jobs and child care, and become financially independent.

For more information about the Community Loan Fund and its various programs, visit www.theloanfund.org or call Steve Varnum, Director of Communications and Marketing, at (603) 856-0767.