AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust Names Emily Johnstone as Western Regional Marketing Director

SAN FRANCISCO, June 23, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT) has hired Emily Johnstone, formerly of RBC Capital Markets, as its Western Regional Marketing Director based in San Francisco.  The HIT is a $4 billion investment company, which utilizes union pension funds to invest in affordable housing and economic development projects around the country.

Ms. Johnstone has 18 years of housing finance and marketing experience, with a focus on the San Francisco area.  While working with RBC's Tax Credit Equity Group, she served as Director of Investor Relations and Director of the group's West Regional Office. She also chaired the RBC Socially Responsible Investment Working Group.  Before joining RBC in 2006, she spent four years with AEGON Community Investments in San Francisco.  She worked for the HIT earlier in its San Francisco office as an investment officer from 1998 to 2001.

"We're very pleased to have Emily heading up our marketing activities on the West Coast," said HIT Marketing Director Lesyllee White. "Her talent and experience should help us serve the needs of our West Coast pension fund clients while expanding our investment activity in the area."

In her new position, Ms. Johnstone will handle relations with the HIT's investors in the Western U.S. and will be responsible for the HIT's marketing strategy in the region.   She will also work closely with HIT Western Regional Office Director Liz Diamond, who leads the sourcing of HIT's multifamily investments in the area.

The HIT has a long history of bringing housing, union jobs and economic development to the San Francisco area.  Currently, the HIT is providing $105 million in financing for three residential projects under development in the city.  These projects represent over $230 million of development activity and will create 616 housing units for San Francisco residents, including 107 units that are affordable to low-income families.

About the HIT

The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust is a fixed-income investment company registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It manages $4 billion in assets for approximately 350 investors, which include union and public employee pension plans. The HIT invests primarily in government and agency insured and guaranteed multifamily and single family mortgage-backed securities.  The HIT is one of the earliest and most successful practitioners of socially responsible, economically targeted investing, with a track record that demonstrates the added value derived from union-friendly investments.  The investment objective of the HIT is to provide competitive returns for its investors and to promote the collateral objectives of constructing affordable housing and generating employment for union members in the construction trades and related industries.  Since its inception, the HIT has invested over $6 billion to finance more than 101,000 units of housing nationwide, generating more than 68,000 union jobs.

Contact:
Michael K. Frisby
202-625-4328

SOURCE AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust