Ken Sauder

Ken Sauder, who grew up under the Mennonite faith, has felt a calling to serve humanity.

Sauder is now president of San Diego-based Wakeland Housing and Development Corp., a nonprofit that has developed, acquired and rehabilitated more than 5,000 units of affordable housing in San Diego County and Northern California. The company differs from market-rate builders in that it must line up multiple sources of funding far in advance of the project reaching completion.

While Sauder's focus is currently on affordable opportunities in California, his history with the nonprofit housing industry dates back to the mid-1970s working with Habitat for Humanity in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, aiding locals in building simple living structures.

He also worked with nonprofits in the Dominican Republic, Latin America and the Caribbean. Still motivated to remain in the affordable housing and nonprofit arena, he became the founding executive director of Wakeland in 1999.