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Throughout her career, Luba Kim-Reynolds has been focused on impact. Now the senior director of investor relations and ESG initiatives at Freddie Mac, Luba’s professional career began when she immigrated to the United States in her early 20s and started a job at Trader Joe’s. The experience provided her with a new perspective and gave her the opportunity to continue her education and explore new passions. Since she joined the Freddie Mac team, she has put those passions to work by helping us meet our mission and address challenges in housing. 


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After graduating college, she spent several years providing due diligence for and structuring commercial mortgage-backed security deals for a major accounting firm and a real estate investment trust. When her previous boss started the investor relations team within Freddie Mac’s Multifamily and Capital Markets areas, Luba jumped at the opportunity to join the team.


“Although I had been helping to facilitate some really large transactions, sometimes I felt a little too removed from the impact side,” Luba said. “I knew about Freddie Mac and had worked with them in the past, but I did not realize how much impact the company has on the affordable and workforce housing space. As an immigrant starting work in a new country, I was exactly the person who needed access to affordable workforce housing. Creating that opportunity for others is why working at Freddie Mac resonates with me.”


In her first years at Freddie Mac, Luba established lines of communication with investors to promote our Multifamily bonds to the market and supported our capital market securitization team through transaction work. Her efforts helped Freddie Mac transfer risk and increase liquidity in the multifamily market. At the same time, she completed her Master of Business Administration and positioned herself for her next career step.


Growing up, Luba lived in countries where resources could be scarce and saw how conscientious people could be about conservation. When she moved to the United States, she recognized how fortunate everyone was to live in a place where resources were abundant, but it wasn’t until a 2018 trip to India where environmentalism and sustainability became a primary focus in Luba’s career.


“I realized how important it was to care about the environment on a large scale. What we often overlook is that the Earth is one planet, so your actions in one country absolutely impact actions taken in another,” Luba said. “The United States is a world leader and there’s plenty of responsibility we have to support smaller countries with less infrastructure. That’s really where I got inspired.”


Through conversations with investors promoting our Multifamily bonds, Luba saw an opportunity to make an impact. Investors that were interested in purchasing bonds more clearly aligned to ESG or impact goals had few choices in the market. Freddie Mac offered loan products that fit this criteria, including a mortgage that financed energy-efficient improvements and a product that preserved workforce housing, but no bond product that investors could purchase. So she pitched the idea, created the business case and launched  Multifamily’s Impact Bonds program. In 2019, the first Impact Bond, a Green Bond, was offered.


“We took a leap of faith. We created these bonds and convinced investors these products could help them reach their goals by reconsidering what impact meant,” Luba said. “They were not just directing funds to affordable housing projects, they were helping real people access an affordable place to call home.”


Since the program launched, Freddie Mac has issued nearly $21 billion across our three Impact Bonds deal types: Green, Social and Sustainability. Proceeds from these bonds have helped finance energy- and water-efficiency improvements, supported affordable housing, and generated economic growth and sustainability in communities nationwide. For three years in a row, her team has been recognized by Environmental Finance for our Impact Bonds program and, in recognition of her work, Luba was recently named a  2024 HousingWire Woman of Influence. In 2021, Luba was promoted to lead the investor relationships group and its ESG initiatives and continues to improve and evolve our Impact Bonds program. Luba credits her position within the Multifamily business line and support from her manager for her continued ability to make an impact.


“If you are interested in doing good, whether it’s supporting affordable housing or DEI efforts, working within one of our business lines can provide plenty of opportunity to make an impact,” Luba said. “Within the business lines, you can see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together and how to make the most impactful decisions.”


Working for Freddie Mac, too, has provided its advantages. According to Luba, Freddie Mac is a big company that still feels small, as evidenced by the amount of support and encouragement she’s received in her time here. But more than that, Freddie Mac’s reputation and position in the market allows her and her team to.


“Freddie Mac provides an extremely valuable platform. The size and scale of our work is immeasurable,” she said. “No matter where you are in your career or where you are in the company, there are so many ways for you to make a difference.”


Join us in driving the housing industry forward.  Explore open opportunities at Freddie Mac.



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