About Acción Puerto Rico Inc

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Our Mission  is Preparing for the Event and Connecting the Disconnected.

Our services include a comprehensive consultation to help identify the missing pieces and  disconnected opportunities. Our goal is to get you prepared with surplus property, machinery, equipment, and information that will allow you to solve complex problems that benefit your community, advancing the needs of the most vulnerable of the population.

Executive profiles

Bill Horan

A sought-after expert in entrepreneurial humanitarian aid, often appearing on national TV and media outlets, Horan brings expertise in safe water solutions, chlorination programs, food security innovations, and logistical ops. With more than 25 years of business and international relations expertise, he has helped shape OBI into a “Swiss-Army-knife” with its multifaceted ability to provide humanitarian aid, particularly in times of crisis and disaster as an emergency response provider. Horan was named to ‘The NonProfit Times’ list of “Power & Influence Top 50” following his innovative approach to Hurricane Katrina aid.

Horan is committed to a “Loaves and Fishes Strategy” to leverage and multiply resources to bless as many people as possible and that has led to significant holistic projects such as raised-bed organic farming in Guatemala, solar-powered wells with drip irrigation in Kenya, 10-to-1 U.S. hunger relief delivery program, and fish ranching in Haiti. He has helped OBI to continue to be a leader in developing innovative, entrepreneurial and “ask-don’t tell” disaster response strategies that include: manufacturing liquid chlorine to tackle the Ebola and cholera crises; desalinating saltwater for typhoon victims in the Philippines; setting up brick factories and boat building projects to aid tsunami victims; and conducting a mosquito-eating fish program in post-Katrina Louisiana.

“I think of Operation Blessing as a pipeline to the poor—a conduit in which blessings are multiplied and delivered efficiently the world over,” Horan says.

Prior to working with OBI, Horan was the founder of Michigan Aggregate Machinery, an international company that has been an industry leader in used aggregate machinery. He has traveled extensively throughout Asia, Europe and Africa, having business relationships in all 50 U.S. states and 33 foreign countries.

Raised in Guilford, Connecticut, and Northville, Michigan, Horan graduated from Augusta Military Academy in Virginia. He is an avid fisherman and is past-president of the Cayman Islands Angling Club. Horan and his wife Laura have two grown daughters.

While he now serves as a consultant, Bill Horan retired from his position as president of Operation Blessing in May of 2018.

Chris Baker, FRICS, MAI, CMEA, CCIM, CPM

A business development and federal programs expert, Chris has been working in Puerto Rico to understand the needs and problems of the 78 municipalities and their people. Chris is a certified machinery & equipment appraiser, a real property appraiser, broker, mortgage broker, HUD Underwriter and compliance consultant for lenders in FRT's, Project Based Section 8, HQS, and many other programs.

In 2007 Chris became involved with the CDBG-DR recovery effort for housing and business owners in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. This was known as The Road Home Program and it was the largest single housing recovery program in U.S. history. The program’s objective was to provide compensation to Louisiana homeowners affected by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita for the damage to their homes.  The program was designed to disburse over $7B in federal funding to eligible homeowners affected by Hurricanes Rita or Katrina with up to $150,000 in compensation for losses that enable the homeowners to rebuild their homes or relocate within Louisiana. With more than 123,000 homes and 82,000 rental units in Louisiana. His company was responsible for about 10% of the ground-work for this program. Chris has always  focused on affordable housing, working with non-profits such as Navigate and the Nixon Foundation but it was after Katrina that he was bitten by the disaster bug and subsequently have helped FEMA and the GSA with several tropical storms and Hurricanes since. He has worked extensively within HUD programs over the years but during his time in Louisiana, after Katrina is where his knowledge of CDBG-DR expanded.

Over the past two decades he has assembled teams to work through large disaster programs and established procedures to meet the needs of governmental clients, all of this being accomplished within the framework and compliance guidelines of HUD and Fair Housing.

Chris is a problem solver by nature and  necessity and is most rewarded in career and life when he can provide rapid meaningful responses and counseling to people in need and this is the reason he is a resident of Puerto Rico.

Public Service - Professional and Personal Activities

Alabama Real Estate Appraisal Board – Appointed -2012 - Reappointed 2015 –Chairman 

Superior Court of Ventura County – Mediator

Past Board of Directors Member of  Kiwanis Club International

Leadership Development & Advisory Council Washington, D.C. 2002-2005

National Committee Member - Appraisal Institute 2004 

International Activities Committee Member – CCIM 2012-2014

Demonstration Report Grading Committee Member – Appraisal Institute – 2010 – Present

Capstone Facilitator / Advisor – 2013 - Present

Appraisal Institute - Special Investigator

Certified Section 8 HQS Inspector: Nan McKay & Associates

Notary Public State of California 2016 License Number 2158985

SOL COOP San Juan, Board of Directors Member

Community and Volunteer Service

Mediator Superior Court of Ventura County California

Iberville Parish, Louisiana Sherriff’s Department – Volunteer Deputy