Changemaker: Craig Archibald
Born and raised in Colorado Springs, Craig Archibald completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Colorado before relocating to Michigan to pursue a graduate degree in political science from the University of Michigan. While there, Craig was hired by the Michigan Department of Commerce, where his role included assisting in the formulation of economic development and urban policy. After completing his studies in Michigan, Craig studied at the Yale School of Organization and Management.
“While I was at Yale, I called my old boss from Michigan, who had become the head of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority,” Craig recalled. “I asked him if he could help me get a summer internship in Colorado. He knew Dave Herlinger, who had recently become CHFA’s Executive Director.”
While on break from his graduate studies, Craig served as a summer intern at CHFA in the early 1980s, a time of economic struggle in Colorado and throughout the United States. He also spent a brief stint during college working in construction and building housing in Colorado.
“This was a time when interest rates were very high for home mortgage loans,” he explained. “CHFA was able to respond by issuing tax-exempt bonds for single family mortgage loans as well as multifamily loans.”
Not long after the conclusion of the CHFA internship and completing his studies at Yale, Craig accepted a full-time role as a Program Development Officer at CHFA, where he was tasked with the creation and development of commercial lending programs to support small and moderate-sized businesses. His role was established after the Colorado General Assembly’s passage of a bill in 1982 authorizing CHFA to provide this type of financing, expanding the organization’s mission and mandate beyond housing.
“CHFA saw a need for economic development in the state, and Dave Herlinger was instrumental in supporting legislation that expanded CHFA’s authority to do this work,” Craig said. “This was during the oil bust, unemployment was high, and it hit the Western Slope especially hard.”
In 1984, as CHFA began supporting the state’s economic recovery through commercial lending, Craig assumed the role of Director of Commercial Programs. In this capacity, he supervised CHFA’s commercial lending team and served as a liaison to the Colorado General Assembly and state agencies on issues and matters related to economic development. Some customers supported by CHFA during its early years in economic development included the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and The Gallegos Corporation, both of which are still in existence today.
“I spent a lot of time driving around the state, meeting with local officials, and giving talks about what we were trying to do,” said Craig. “It was a grim time, and so Coloradans were fairly receptive to that message. There was also a fair amount of justified skepticism, both inside and outside the organization, since the mission had to that point been solely focused on housing.”
In 1987, Craig was promoted to Deputy Executive Director, working closely with David Herlinger and overseeing CHFA’s lending and asset management functions.
“At that time, CHFA was a still a fairly small organization,” Craig recalled. “I oversaw moving our offices to the Blake Street location, which required us to redesign the building. Nothing was really going on in that area of town when we moved there, and the ballpark wasn’t there yet. Seeing that whole area develop was a real highlight, and CHFA played a role in that.”
By the mid-90s, following six years serving as Deputy Executive Director, Craig made a transition to the private sector. This chapter in his career included serving as Vice President of Small Business Finance for GE Capital, where he developed new commercial loan products for nationwide rollout. As he continued his career in a variety of roles in the private sector, Craig served for many years on the Board of Directors for Urban Peak, a Denver-based nonprofit assisting youth in exiting homelessness.
In 2005, Urban Peak’s Board of Directors asked Craig to take over as the organization’s Executive Director, a role he would hold for three years. Craig was responsible for overseeing programmatic, fundraising and administrative activities of the organization, which included 24-hour shelter programs in Denver and Colorado Springs. He served as Urban Peaks’s Executive Director until 2008 and has since focused on private consulting work and enjoying retirement. He also served on Denver Housing Authority’s Board of Directors from 2012 until 2023.
“I’ve always had an interest in housing and economic development, even from my earliest days working in construction during college,” Craig said. “I saw the difference that it made in communities. I was also drawn to the work because the programs to support affordable housing were some of the most effective human services programs in the public sector, and they continue to see success today.”