With over 25 years of experience in association and private sector management, Rob Patterson has served as a senior executive within the health care, housing, financial and real estate industries. As the founder and principal of The Center for Association Resources, Inc., a national association management firm servicing non-profit organizations, Rob provides his clients with an array of services including: executive management, strategic planning, market research/assessment, fundraising, organizational development/effectiveness and public policy advocacy.
Prior to forming The Center for Association Resources, Rob led several high-profile nonprofit organizations by casting a successful vision of an entrepreneurial spirit, mentoring the associations to realize valuable lessons from the private sector. His leadership philosophy combines the best of corporate America and non-profit entities, allowing his clients to learn from each other. With this approach, Rob has orchestrated the operational, Financial and programmatic turnaround of multiple associations including Life Services Network, Arizona Association of Homes & Housing for the Aging and the Illinois Housing Institute.
While Executive Director and CEO of the Arizona Association of Homes and Housing, he took the association to an unprecedented level of success, from both a state and national perspective, in one of the shortest periods of time ever by a state affiliate organization through membership growth, meeting attendance growth, non-dues revenue growth, staff growth and public policy prominence. He also led the charge to redistribute sales tax monies in multiple states, paid over ten years, to nonprofit retirement communities and actual Arizona residents by drafting, strategizing and effectively lobbying for any equitable legislative changes.
His nonprofit advocacy work also achieved national recognition as he advanced and passed “deemed-status legislation” in two different states in two years and had the legislation considered on final approval before Congress during final passage of the 1994 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act.
His client list has included the Illinois State Bar Association, American Hospital Association, American Dental Association, Clinical Laboratory Management Association, National Association of Bar Executives, the Arthroscopy Association of North America, Mississippi Association of REALTORS, the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons, the American Society of Neuroradiology and the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, to name a few.
Rob is an active member in several professional association groups including the American Society of Association Executives, the Association Forum of Chicagoland and the Illinois Society of Association Executives. He received a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. He went on to complete his law degree at Chicago-Kent Law School receiving a Juris Doctor Degree.
