Mario Brown, the chairman and founder of Community Housing Trust, was recently honored as an Emerging Leader Under Age 40.
Previously known as Forty Under 40, SCBIZ’s Emerging Leaders Under 40 is the next evolution of one of South Carolina’s most respected professional recognition programs. What was once a regional program is now statewide, creating a broader platform to recognize exceptional professionals under 40 who are driving business success, innovation and meaningful community impact across South Carolina.
Brown is a former college football All-American, graduating from Gardner-Webb University in 2009 with degrees in English & Political Science. After cutting his teeth in business management and marketing with a national sports training company, Brown decided to go all-in on Greenville in residential construction and brokerage.
He spent three years representing a regional production builder. There, using marketing and social media skills crafted at his previous station, Brown quickly became the company’s top agent. Eager for a more integrated, local work concentration, he joined Milestone Custom Homes, an exclusive luxury home builder, as their director of sales and marketing. The four years Brown spent at Milestone helped him truly understand the creative impact builders and developers have on the residential landscape.
Brown co-founded Affordable Upstate in 2016. Today it owns more than 1,300 apartments and has placed more than $55 million in investor equity. As Chairman of Community Housing Trust, he leads the platform that holds every property it touches to the public purpose standard and publishes the results: what residents pay, what they save, and what the community gets back.
“Affordable Upstate started with 63 apartments and a simple belief: affordable housing should be the best housing in a neighborhood, not the last option. Community Housing Trust holds every property we touch to that standard, and we publish the results.”