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54 A STORIED CAREER Former HUD Deputy Secretary Brian D. Montgomery looks back over a long career in public service and shares the key lessons he's learned along the way. To say that Brian D. Montgomery has lived a full and interesting life would be an exercise in understatement. A universally respected veteran of four presidential administrations (both Republican and Democrat), Montgomery most recently served as Deputy Secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2020 to 2021 (and acting Deputy Secretary since January 2019). He is the only person to be confirmed to lead the FHA twice, where he served as Federal Housing Commissioner and Assistant Secretary of Housing for a total of 6.5 years under three different presidents. During his years in public service, Montgomery traveled alongside President George W. Bush on September 11, 2001, including visiting Ground Zero with the president in the days after the World Trade Center attacks. In 2003, Montgomery led a White House working group that oversaw various aspects of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster investigation. Nor is Montgomery a stranger to the private sector. Between stints in public service, in 2009, he co-founded the Collingwood Group, a Washington, D.C.-area based advisory firm focused on housing policy (later acquired by SitusAMC). After departing HUD in 2021, he co-founded Gate House Strategies, LLC, a DC-based advisory firm "focused within the Financial Services, Mortgage Lending/ Servicing, Community Development, and Public Housing sectors." In addition to Montgomery, Gate House's founding partners include former HUD Assistant Secretary, Public and Indian Housing, Hunter Kurtz; former HUD Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Policy Development and Research Michael Marshall; former FHA Chief Risk Officer Keith Becker; and former Senior Advisor to the FHA Commissioner Dror Oppenheimer. As the recipient of Five Star's 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award, Montgomery took some time to sit down with DS News and discuss his life, his career, and the perspectives both have brought him. You've had a long career in public service, you've been in the private sector, you've served under multiple administrations. How did you first wind up pursuing public service and government work? You know, like they say, life's got a thousand different journeys and a thousand different stories, and sometimes you're not the only author. at's probably the case with me. I started college to be a geologist. I had this fascination with rocks and Cover Story By: David Wharton