February 14, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — Barry Rutenberg, a Gainesville, Fla.-based home builder with more than 35 years of experience in the building industry, was elected as the 2012 Chairman of the Board of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) during the association’s International Builders’ Show in Orlando.
Rutenberg is president of Barry Rutenberg and Associates, Inc. in Gainesville. His firm has developed more than a dozen communities and 1,000 homes in the Gainesville area.
As the residential construction industry begins to recover from a prolonged downturn, Rutenberg has been a leader in NAHB’s efforts to ensure that builders have access to credit for sound projects. Such credit is needed to enable home builders to respond to emerging demand in scores of markets across the nation and get the residential construction industry moving again as an engine of job growth in America.
“In this critical election year, we look forward to working with Republican and Democratic leaders to enact policies that will stabilize and restore the nation’s housing market, a sector of the economy that in normal times serves as a jobs catalyst and accounts for more than 17 percent of the nation’s total economic output,” said Rutenberg. “Specifically, NAHB will work with policymakers to restore the flow of credit for those who want to buy homes and those who want to build them, to protect the mortgage interest deduction, to correct a flawed appraisal process that has negatively affected property values, and to ensure a continued federal role in the housing finance system so that buyers have access to affordable mortgages.”
Rutenberg has been active in the NAHB leadership structure at the local, state and national levels throughout his career. He has served on NAHB’s Board of Directors since 1980 and served on more than 25 NAHB committees and councils. He has served as an NAHB national vice president representing Florida and Puerto Rico for three two-year terms – 1994-1995, 2001-2002 and 2007-2008.
Rutenberg has also served as chairman of NAHB’s Building Materials Task Force, and in that role he has testified before the International Trade Commission and committees of the U.S. Senate and the Canadian House of Commons.
A third-generation home builder, Rutenberg served as the 2000 president of the Florida Home Builders Association. He also served as the 1978 president of the Builders Association of North Central Florida, the local association representing home builders in the Gainesville area. He was selected by his peers as Florida Builder of the Year in 1994, and as the Gainesville Builder of the Year in 1982, 1993 and 1998. In 2007 Rutenberg joined his father, Arthur Rutenberg, as an inductee in the Florida Housing Hall of Fame. Arthur Rutenberg was inducted in 1996, and when Barry joined him in 2007 they became the first father-son team in the Florida Housing Hall of Fame.
Rutenberg is involved in a wide range of philanthropic and civic organizations in Florida. He serves on the Board of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Conservation Trust for Florida and on the Issues Advisory Board of Florida Defenders of the Environment.
Rutenberg graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1970 and earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree from Harvard in 1972.
Rutenberg and his wife, Kris, have two adult children and two grandchildren.