| AMERICUS, GA -- Habitat for Humanity International’s Board of Directors announced that Habitat is expanding the number of countries it is working in from 92 to 100, and named a managing director to help continue the organization’s remarkable 28-year track record. With the addition of Angola, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Laos, Myanmar, Macedonia, Turkey and Micronesia, Habitat will be working in more than half the countries of the world. Coinciding with this, the board named Paul Leonard, longtime volunteer and former board chair, managing director of the global nonprofit homebuilder. Leonard, who brings experience in ministry and homebuilding to his new role, plans to “work hand in hand” with Millard Fuller and David Williams to provide day-to-day direction and management. Fuller is Habitat’s founder, CEO and president, and Williams is executive vice president and chief operating officer. “Now that we are working in more than half the countries in the world, we grow ever closer to our ultimate goal – a world in which everyone has, at minimum, a simple, decent, affordable place to live,” says Leonard, of Davidson, N.C., a retired real estate and housing professional, who last held the position of executive vice president of Centex Real Estate Corp. The board also confirmed that Habitat will build its 200,000th home and house its millionth person in a Habitat home by the end of 2005. The announcements follow a milestone year for Habitat, which built its 50,000th homes in both the United States and Latin America/Caribbean regions. For more information, go to: http://www.habitat.org | 
