Former US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a leading advocate for infrastructure investment as co-chair of Building America's Future, and Mimi Brown, until last year the Commissioner of Rating and Valuation for the Government of Hong Kong, have joined the Board of Directors for the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
“We welcome Ray LaHood and applaud his leadership in transportation and infrastructure, which are critical components of our work in global urbanization, sustainable cities, and land policy,” said Kathryn J. Lincoln, chair of the board and chief investment officer for the Lincoln Institute. “Mimi Brown’s expertise and experience in the property tax and valuation will further enhance our global reach.”
LaHood, who served from 1995-2009 in the U.S. House of Representatives from the 18th District of Illinois, was transportation secretary from 2009 to 2013 under President Obama, overseeing an agency with more than 55,000 employees and a $70 billion budget in charge of air, maritime and surface transportation. His tenure as secretary was marked by landmark efforts to improve safety in every mode of transportation, new fuel efficiency requirements, and improvements to America’s infrastructure, including building or replacing 350,000 miles of highway, repairing 20,000 bridges, and renewing or constructing 6,000 miles of rail track.
As a lifelong Republican, LaHood worked across party lines and frequently reminded partisans that, “there is no such thing as a Democratic road or a Republican bridge.” He joined Building America’s Future -- a bipartisan coalition of elected officials dedicated to bringing about a new era of U.S. investment in infrastructure --as a co-chair in January of 2014. Founded by former Governor Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, BAF boasts a politically diverse membership of state and local elected officials from across the nation. BAF is currently co-chaired by LaHood, Bloomberg, and Rendell. LaHood is also a senior policy advisor at the global law firm DLA Piper.
Mimi Brown qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1979. She is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and is a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors, which she helped form nearly 30 years ago. She is a member of the Board of Advisors of the International Property Tax Institute and a member of the International Association of Assessing Officers Special Committee on International Outreach.
She began her career at Gerald Eve & Co. in London and joined the Hong Kong government in 1977. Throughout her career with the Hong Kong SAR Government, she amassed extensive experience not only in the field of rating and valuation work but also in public policy formulation and administration. From 1995 to 2000, she worked in the Government Property Agency and was responsible for the portfolio management of all non-specialized government properties situated locally and overseas. She retired in 2014 from her post as the Commissioner of Rating and Valuation.
The other members of the Lincoln Institute board include former Interior secretary and Arizona governor Bruce Babbitt; Roy Bahl, Regents Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Georgia State University; Carolina Barco, former ambassador of Colombia to the United States; Thomas M. Becker, president of The Chautauqua Institution; Raphael Bostic, director of the Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Public Enterprise at the University of Southern California; Anthony Coyne, president of Mansour, Gavin, LPA in Cleveland; Alberto Harth, president of Civitas in San Salvador, El Salvador; George W. McCarthy, president and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy; Bruce Lincoln, president of Innervizion Surf Company in Chandler, Arizona; David C. Lincoln, president of VIKA Corp. and chairman of the Lincoln Laser Company; John G. Lincoln III, former senior engineer at CH2M-Hill in Boise, Idaho; Johannes F. Linn, a resident senior scholar at the Emerging Markets Forum in Washington, D.C.; Thomas Nechyba, professor of economics and public policy studies at Duke University; Kenneth T.W. Pang, adjunct professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Jill Schurtz, Executive Director, St. Paul Teachers’ Retirement Fund Association, in St. Paul, Minn., and Andrea L. Taylor, former director of citizenship and public affairs, North America, Microsoft Corporation.
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is the leading resource for key issues concerning the use, regulation, and taxation of land. Providing high-quality education and research, the Institute strives to improve public dialogue and decisions about land policy.