Shaun Lawrence Sarda Donovan (born January 24, 1966) is an American government official and housing specialist who served as United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2009 to 2014, and Director of the US Office of Management and Budget from 2014 to 2017.^[1] Prior to that, he was the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development from 2004 to 2009 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In February 2020, he filed paperwork to run for Mayor of New York City in the Democratic primary in 2021, which was ultimately won by Eric Adams. In 2023, he was named President and CEO of Enterprise Community Partners, a housing non-profit.^[2]

Born in New York, to parents Michael and Martha,^[3] Donovan grew up on the Upper East Side and attended the Dalton School in Manhattan.^[4][5] He has three siblings. He holds three degrees from Harvard University: an A.B. in engineering sciences from Harvard College in 1987, a Master of Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1995, and a Master of Architecture degree from the Graduate School of Design in 1995.^[6][5][7][8]

Shaun's father, Michael Donovan, is the founder and chairman of the board of directors of advertising software company Mediaocean.^[9] He was born in Panama of mixed Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish parentage.^[3] Michael Donovan's father was Irish and his mother was Jewish.^[3]

From 1995 to 1998, he worked at the Community Preservation Corporation, a nonprofit lender and affordable housing developer in New York, as a Special Assistant/Assistant Director of Development.^[5][6] While working there, he helped a group of faith-based organizations implement the renowned Nehemiah project, creating 5,000 housing units and helping to revitalize some of New York City's poorest and most disinvested neighborhoods.^[3]

During the Bill Clinton administration, from 1998 to 2001, Donovan was Special Assistant/Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and was acting Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner.^[6]

Donovan then worked on private sector initiatives to finance affordable housing, and researched and wrote about the preservation of federally assisted housing as a visiting scholar at New York University.^[10] As a consultant, Donovan advised the Millennial Housing Commission on strategies for increasing multifamily housing development.^[10][11]

He worked for Prudential Mortgage Capital, from 2002 to 2004, as a managing director of FHA lending and affordable housing investments.^[5][6]

Donovan was Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development from 2004 to 2009 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.^[8][12] The agency had a $1 billion budget, and 2,700 employees.^[11] He was credited with creating the department's Marketplace Plan to build and preserve over 160,000 affordable homes, which was the largest city-sponsored affordable housing plan in US history.^[10]

In 2017, Harvard University named Donovan Senior Strategist and Advisor to the President on Allston and Campus Development and its expansion in Allston, Massachusetts.^[21][20]

On February 3, 2020, Donovan announced his candidacy for Mayor of New York City in the Democratic primary in 2021.^[22] Despite being one of the first announced candidates, Donovan got little support from local organizations and elected officials, and was ranked in the bottom half of pre-primary polls. He committed a notable gaffe when, during an interview with the New York Times,^[23] he estimated the median sale price of a home in Brooklyn to be "around $100,000," when it was actually $900,000.^[24] Donovan later emailed the New York Times to explain that he thought the question referred to the median assessed value of Brooklyn homes, not the sale price. He was defeated with 2.5% of the vote.^[25]

Donovan is married to Elizabeth "Liza" Eastman Gilbert, a landscape designer, and they have two sons.^[21][6][26] They live in Brooklyn, New York City.^[21]