The Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association has hired Kevin M. Cuff, a career association leader, as its new executive director.

Cuff replaces former MMBA President Susan Zuber, who resigned in January after an eight-year stint with the organization.

The role Cuff assumes will be similar in scope to the position previously held by Zuber, although the job title is different. The change to executive director from president stems from Cuff’s vision of the job, one that the association shares, according to MMBA Chairman Nathan Hagan.

The title president or chief executive officer often implies a financial stake or commitment to an organization, Cuff said, who added, “That’s not what this job is about.”

“It’s a directorial position. I report to a board of directors. I implement what they tell me to do,” Cuff said.

Cuff joins the MMBA from Manchester-based Professional Relations and Research Institute, an association management firm that provides a variety of services to 26 state, national and international medical specialty societies and affiliated foundations. He was vice president at PR/RI, which he joined in 1995, and served as executive director for a number of the specialty societies with which the firm worked.

Prior to that, Cuff was director of legislative, government and public affairs at the South Shore Chamber of Commerce in Quincy. He also has served as public affairs director to the U.S. Conference of Mayors and, between 1988 and 1992, as operations and finance director for the Mayor Raymond L. Flynn Committee, where he coordinated political activities and fundraising for the former Boston mayor.

Cuff emerged from “a fabulous pool” of about 60 candidates for the position, said Hagan, who is president of Stoneham-based Secondary Marketing Resources. The strong response received by the search committed was in part due to an appeal put forth to association member to encourage qualified candidates to apply.

Hagan said the association was seeking someone with a strong entrepreneurial bent, leadership skills and expertise as a group spokesman.

“Kevin brought a unique combination of those skills,” he said.

Cuff said that his association leadership experience is well suited to the position with the MMBA, but acknowledged that his knowledge of the mortgage and real estate industries will have to grow on the job.

“Clearly, that’s the challenge,” he said. “There are many aspects of the mortgage banking industry that interest me.”

Hagan said that because the MMBA board of directors includes members with a wealth of industry knowledge that can be shared, organizational leadership skills were the foremost consideration in the candidate selection process. Also critical was the requirement that the new executive director be capable of representing the mortgage industry well on Beacon Hill and presenting “a good face on the industry” in public, Hagan said.

Zuber resigned as president of the association to become chief executive officer of the National Association of Enrolled Agents, a Washington, D.C.-based group that represents tax preparers. The MMBA tendered the job offer two weeks ago and Cuff accepted on Tuesday last week.

Cuff said one of his primary goals as executive director would be to increase active participation in the workings of the association by its members.

“There’s a great core group of leaders, but beyond that it [MMBA] doesn’t have too much backbone to support it,” Cuff said.

Improving the reputation and perception of the mortgage banking industry also will be a priority for Cuff.

“I’m not coming to the job because I want [to preserve the] status quo,” he said. “We’re not in a maintenance mode.”