Wilfred N. Cooper

Wilfred N. Cooper, Sr., is the founder, chairman of the board, and a director of WNC & Associates, Inc. The company’s core business is sponsoring investments in affordable rental housing tax credits. In this capacity, WNC and its affiliates serve as a general partner with expertise in structuring investment funds. This includes raising investment capital from individuals and corporations, selecting qualified properties for each fund, negotiating acquisition terms and actively monitoring the financial performance and compliance of each property.

Mr. Cooper is a U.S. Navy veteran with two years of active duty during the Korean war era (1951-1953) serving as a Hospital Corpsman.

Mr. Cooper is a recognized leader in the affordable housing industry. He was a panel participant in tax reform hearings before a committee of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. In 2001, he received the Limited Income Communities (LINC) Housing Honors award. Mr. Cooper was elected as Life Trustee in 2006 of the National Housing Conference (NHC) and is a co-founder and director emeritus of the California Housing Consortium (an affiliate of the NHC). In 2011, he was inducted into the Affordable Housing Hall of Fame of the Affordable Housing Finance Magazine. In June 2012, he was inducted into the California Homebuilding Foundation’s (CHF) Hall of Fame. He is a senior life director of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), a national trustee for NAHB’s Political Action Committee, a past chairman of NAHB’s Multifamily Council, and in 2012, NAHB honored him with the Robert J. Corletta award for Affordable Housing. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Building Industry Association of Orange County (BIA/OC) and Southern California Building Industry Association (BIA/SC).

Mr. Cooper volunteers his time with several nonprofit organizations and serves on the Board of Advisors for Jamboree Housing (a non-profit developer of affordable housing) and the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance. In 2013, the California Housing Consortium gave Mr. Cooper the California Housing Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2016, The Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition (AHTCC) honored him the David Reznick Lifetime Achievement Award. In June 2019, Mr. Cooper received the Carl A.S. Coan, Sr., Public Service Award from the NHC, in recognition of his outstanding commitment and leadership in the effort to provide decent, safe and affordable housing.

As a prior Board of Director for Volunteers of America National Services (VOANS), Mr. Cooper awarded U.S.VETS a VOANS grant to help support homeless and at-risk veterans. Over the past decade, Mr. Cooper has also participated in and sponsored several U.S.VETS Salute Gala’s.

Mr. Cooper graduated from Pomona College in 1956 with a B.A. degree and completed graduate studies at the University of Southern California.

He was elected to the U.S.VETS board in May 2018.