Scott Chaplan Named to Forest Stewardship Council Board of Directors

PRLog (Press Release) – Jul 08, 2008 – Reston, Virginia - Scott Chaplan, Chairman of the Urban Group of Companies, has been named to the Board of Directors of the Forest Stewardship Council-US. This election is a milestone in Mr. Chaplan’s 20-year career of service to non-profit organizations.

Mr. Chaplan is a real estate developer and attorney in Los Angeles, California, and a long-time champion of sustainable real estate development in the urban core with a primary focus on affordable housing. As Chairman of the Urban Group of Companies (http://theurbanholdings.com), Chaplan and his team of 104 own and manage over 1,000 apartment units, mixed-use and office space in over forty (40) projects in six states. Urban Group affiliates include Urban Eco-Housing (http://www.urbanecohousing.com), one of the first companies in America built specifically to create sustainable affordable housing in the urban core, Urban Development & Finance, LLC (http://www.urbandf.com), a triple bottom line investment banking firm which is developing mixed-use projects in deeply underserved areas of South Los Angeles, and Urban Housing, LLC, (www.urbanhousing.com)the Urban Group’s management and maintenance arm.

Chaplan is the Chief Executive Office of Urban Consulting, the nation’s premier faith-based non-profit consulting firm. He is deeply experienced in the non-profit world, having advised, served on the boards of, and formed dozens of organizations during 20 years of service. His non-profit leadership presently includes The American Alliance for Affordable Housing and the Mid City Housing Task Force, a low-income housing tenant advocacy group. He is a board member of Camp Max Strauss Foundation, which manages a $10 million endowment that supports a day camp for at risk, urban youth; and The Chase Foundation, which endows play rooms for terminal and extremely ill children in conjunction with Children's Hospital. Chaplan serves as a board member of the City of Refuge Ministries; Christ Our Redeemer Economic Development Corporation, an Orange County (CA) faith-based economic development corporation, and Perfecting Faith Church, led by Pastor Donnie McClurkin.

Mr. Chaplan co-authored the West Corporation’s Code Form Book; National Business Institute’s Landlord Tenant Guide, and, with Bishop Noel Jones, A Vow of Prosperity. He was a member of the Law Review at the Pepperdine School of Law where he serves on the faculty as an adjunct professor, and serves as a member of the Advisory Board for its Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology Law. Mr. Chaplan received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California.

About the Forest Stewardship Council
The Forest Stewardship Council (“FSC” - http://fsc.org) was created after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio to change the dialogue about and the practice of sustainable forestry worldwide. Driven in part by the failure of an intergovernmental process to agree on a global forest compact, and the compelling question: “what is sustainable forestry?”loggers, foresters, environmentalists, and sociologists came together in the first General Assembly to form the FSC in 1993. FSC-US (ttp://fscus.org) was formed soon thereafter. FSC standards represent the world’s strongest system for guiding forest management toward sustainable outcomes, and have now been applied in over 57 countries around the world.

About the Urban Group of Companies
The Urban Group of Companies is a full service real estate development, management, investment banking and finance group focused on opportunities in the urban core. The Urban Group of Companies manages over 1,000 units of affordable housing, mixed-use projects and office buildings in six states and employs a staff of 104 professionals. For more information, please visit www.theurbanholdings.com and www.UrbanDF.com.