WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Shaun Donovan, New York City's housing commissioner, was chosen by U.S. president-elect Barack Obama Saturday as his secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Donovan, 42, is expected to bring extensive experience with housing issues to the Obama administration.
Since he became New York City's housing commissioner in 2004, he has focused on ambitious goals of building more low-income housing in city while navigating the web of interests, including landlords, developers and lenders.
He also has experience in the HUD, where he served as deputy assistant secretary for multifamily housing in the Clinton administration, managing a multibillion-U.S.-dollar housing subsidy program that served 1.7 million people annually.
During this year's presidential election, Donovan took a leave of absence from his job in New York to campaign Obama.
He also worked as a manager of Federal Housing Administration loans and affordable housing investments at Prudential Mortgage Capital Company.
After serving in the Clinton administration, Donovan was also a visiting scholar at New York University.
Earlier in his career, he worked at the Community Housing and Preservation Corporation, a nonprofit group based in New York City.
Donovan was also known for his early interest in a career as a car designer, likely tied to his childhood hobby of building model cars.
He also worked as an architect in New York and Italy.
Donovan was born on Jan. 24, 1966, in New York and received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University.
He is married to Liza Gilbert, a landscape architect, and they have two sons.