2002 NETWORKING® MAGAZINE’S DAVID AWARD HONOREE.

ROBERT MCMILLAN

Founder, LI Housing Partnership

Being an active member of the community is part of the very fabric that makes up Robert R. McMillan.

The founder of the Long Island Housing Partnership, Inc. credits an upbringing by his grandmother, religious roots and inheritance for his desire to serve.

It was in 1987 that McMillan founded the Long Island Housing Partnership, Inc. He served as its chairman until 2001. The partnership is the first suburban coalition in the United States of business, banking, labor, religious organizations and institutions of higher learning to build and facilitate the construction of affordable housing.

In the partnership's first decade, over 400 new homes were built and almost 2,000 families were placed in homes. In addition to getting houses built, the LIHP does mortgage counseling, foreclosure prevention work, neighborhood-based technical assistance, community development lending and commercial development.

Currently, McMillan is a partner in the law firm of McMillan, Rather, Bennett & Rigano, P.C. and he is a member of the boards of directors of Empire BlueCross BlueShield and Interboro Mutual Indemnity Insurance Company.

During the course of his career, McMillan was employed by Avon Products, Inc. for 16 years. As a corporate officer of Avon for 10 years, he was responsible at various times, for Avon's Asia-Pacific businesses; international legal affairs; worldwide government affairs; personnel; public relations; the Avon Foundation; worldwide data processing sytems; women's sports programs and community affairs. Moving women into management positions was a priority for him during his tenure at the company.

Before joining Avon, McMillan served as an honor graduate attorney in the Anti-Trust Division of the United States Department of Justice; Counsel to U.S. Senator Kenneth B. Keating; and Special Assistant to Richard M. Nixon prior to his presidency.

McMillan was named by President George Bush to the Board of the Panama Canal Commission and confirmed by the United States Senate for the post on November 19, 1989 and on October 27, 1993, he was elected chairman of the commission's board of directors, making him the first person who was not an official of the Department of Defense to serve as chairman. McMillan presided through 1994 but continued his interest in Panama and the Panama Canal. He currently serves as chairman of the United States - Panama Business Council.

McMillan believes that his desire for community involvement stems from both inheritance and religious roots. It was his grandmother who took the
reins of raising he and his two brothers after the death of his mother and it was she, who encouraged him to be an active community participant.
He served in the United States Army from 1952 to 1954 and left as a First Lieutenant. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal while serving in Korea.
The war, however, left him on edge and feeling like he needed to do something. "I think I felt so frustrated in Korea that when I came back it caused me to become active in a broad range of community activities," he said.

In addition to his work at the LIHP, McMillan has been a member of numerous government commissions and boards. The lengthy list of affiliations
include his currently being chairman of the SUNY College at Old Westbury Foundation; being a member of President Reagans Advisory Committee on Women's Business Ownership from 1983 to 1985; being on the New York State Statue of Liberty Centennial Commission from 1984 to 1986; and being on the National Advisory Board of Fannie Mae from 1998 to 2000.

Besides his being honored as a David Award winner, McMillan has been the recipient of numerous awards. They include the Brotherhood Award of the
National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Community Service Award of the New York Boys Choir, the Distinguished Leadership Award of Long Island Business News, the Old Westbury College Medal for Global Leadership, the Excellence in Leadership Award of the Helen Keller Services for the Blind and the Community Service Award of the Institute for Community Development. He was also the 50th Anniversary Honoree of the Association for the Help of Retarded Children.

McMillan received his Juris Doctor degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1960 after completing his undergraduate work at Adelphi University.

He has appeared regularly on national television talk shows and co-hosts Face-Off, A PBS Television show seen throughout the metropolitan New York
area.

NETWORKING® January 2002