2010 NETWORKING® MAGAZINE’S DAVID AWARD HONOREE.

MAURICE "MO" VAUGHN

Co-Founder, Omni New York LLC

Maurice “Mo” Vaughn, affectionately known as the Boston Red Sox’s lovable first baseman, signed up for a new career after he left Major League Baseball in 2003. Today, he is co-managing director and co-owner of Omni New York LLC, a real estate revitalization and development company he founded with his business partner, Eugene Schneur. Omni’s goal is to provide quality, well managed affordable housing in neighborhoods that have historically experienced a shortage of such housing.

Since December 2004, Omni has acquired and has either rehabilitated or is in the process of rehabilitating some 2,700 units of affordable housing in New York, of which 1,142 units are located in the New York metropolitan area, including the renovation of Noble Drew Ali Plaza in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and refurbishment of the Whitney Young Manor in Yonkers. Under Vaugh’s leadership, Omni also completed construction of 40 new units of affordable housing in Seneca County.

Through its affiliate Omni America LLC, the company has purchased and rehabilitated 94 units of affordable housing in Gillette, Wyoming, and has purchased and is currently rehabilitating 414 units in Massachusetts. In January 2009, Omni purchased Sycamore Village, the former Bradford Apartments in the North Boston community of Lawrence, along with two Boston-area properties. The deal was the company’s first in Massachusetts. The complex will include renovations to kitchen and baths, new appliances, and exterior improvements, such as new security cameras and safety lighting in common areas. Vaughn said that the revitalization also reflects Omni’s long-term commitment to keeping apartments affordable.

“Multi-family living’s tough enough,” said Vaugh. “At least you can be secure and safe and walk the property and enjoy it. That’s one of our things—you don’t want to be a prisoners in your own apartment.”

Most notably, Omni focuses on the social aspects of revitalizing the neighborhood by partnering with community groups to provide social services, such as school programs for children and skill-building seminars and classes for adults. Vaughn adds that part of Omni’s mission is to promote “the right style of life” at their properties. He says the company has a “zero tolerance” policy for guns, drugs and criminal behavior.

Vaughn enjoyed a successful career in Major League baseball, playing eight seasons for the Boston Red Sox, from 1991-1998. Vaughn, who hits lefty and throws righty, was the hardest hitting batter of the team. In 1995, he was named “Most Valuable Player,” as a result of his .300 batting average, 39 home runs, 126 RBIs, 11 stolen bases, team leadership and community service. He was a three-time All Star selection. Following the Red Sox, he played for the Anaheim Angels for six seasons, before coming to the New York Mets.

Born to parents who were educators—his father, a former high school principal and football coach; his mother, an elementary school teacher—Vaughn learned to work hard to improve his skills. His mother taught him to play baseball when he was three years old. A native of Norwalk, CT, he attended Trinity-Pawling, a rural New York preparatory high school, and Seton Hall College, where he amazingly broke the career home run record by a Seton Hall player in his freshman year. The Big East Conference named him Player of the Decade.

Vaughn inherited both his competitive nature and his charitable instincts from his parents. Each year, his family was known to give gifts to the homeless at Christmastime. He continues to abide by his Omega Psi Phi fraternity beliefs of manhood, scholarship, perseverance and uplift, and has shared these values with young people.

Vaughn has been an active supporter and contributor to various community based organizations and charities. While playing with the Boston Red Sox, he often spoke to inner city children and used proceeds from formal autograph signings to fund cultural outings for under-privileged youth. He supported the Boston Food Bank and Catholic Charities, assisting the homeless; provided sports equipment for the local Boys and Girls Club; and worked with the Jimmy Fund, an organization dedicated to fighting cancer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and helping raise the changes of survival for children and adults with cancer around the world.

In 1994, he co-founded the Mo Vaughn Youth Development Program with two of his childhood friends. The program includes an after school center for teens, providing help with school work, a safe place to play, and many opportunities for the development of self-esteem and motivation to excel in life. He was known to personally arrange outings to the circus, ballet, opera, science fairs and other cultural activities. As part of the Red Sox’s Adopt-a-School program, Vaughn sponsored the Charles Taylor elementary School in Mattapan, MA.

During the years he spent with the Angels, Vaughn helped raise over $30,000 for the “Friends of Kiley,” a foundation assisting the sick child of a California policeman. He donated the “Mo Vaughn Child Life Playroom” to the UCI Medical Center Pediatric Department in Orange, CA, and helped raise funds for the Gene Autry Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities League. A partnership between the Anaheim Angels and the Boys and Girls Club of Orange County, the League was committed to giving youth the opportunity to play baseball. As part of this effort, Vaughn brought 400 children to Disneyland to participate in a parade.

Vaughn was a major supporter of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, a national organization that awards four-year college scholarships to academically gifted students of color with financial need. He also supported the JP Morgan Chase “Baseball is for Kids” program.

The author of “Follow Your Dreams,” Vaughn is the 1995 recipient of the A. Bartlett Giamatti Award for Community Service, presented by B.A.T., the Baseball Assistance Team, which helps members of the baseball family. The award is presented to individuals who exemplify the compassion demonstrated by the late Baseball Commissioner.

NETWORKING® January 2010