John Hope Bryant

An FDIC Chair With Both Head and Heart

Over the years, since Operation HOPE's founding in April, 1992, I have met and dealt with several chairs and vice chairs of the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation). They have all been impressive people, and some are still good friends of mine, such as former chairman Don Powell. Good friends.  That said, some of them were more attuned to the issues of the poor, the working class and the underserved than others. Some were market market oriented.  All were intelligent, and seemingly well intention.

That said, there is one that stands out from all that came before her, and her name is Sheila Bair, pictured here with me following a 2007 community round table at our Anacostia HOPE Center, jist outside of Washington, D.C.  Since meeting Chairwoman Bair I have not only grown to respect her intellect, but I like her as a person, and admire her integrity as a leader without personal agenda. Finally, she "gets" our work, more than almost anyone that has come before her in this post. She is the one FDIC chair that has brought a full compliment of the necessary talents to the job, and applied them.  That includes how she and the FDIC have dealt with this ongoing and growing mortgage subprime crisis. I commend FDIC Chair Sheila Bair, my friend.  She "gets it."  Read on.

Quote of the Day

"Act as if you have faith and faith will be given unto you..."

Quote of the Day

"I freed hundreds of slaves. I could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were enslaved."

Harriet Tubman

My Staff Loves Me To DEATH It Seems Sometimes (Smile)

And so, I arrive back in my office for Operation HOPE, in Los Angeles, after yet another long and fruitful trip for HOPE, and my trusted (smile) executive assistant, Leslie Alessandro, asks me if I wanted a cup of coffee. I then launched into a long monologue about how she would probably try to poison me, so she could knock off early on this beautiful Friday in L.A. --- and then I got this on my desk. Hilarious.

Thanks for the laugh Leslie, and yes, the coffee was safe after all.  I have a fabulous team in the Office of the Chairman here at Operation HOPE World Headquarters; inclusive of my executive assistant Leslie Alessandro, my special assistant Debra Collins, senior aide to the Office of the Vice Chairman (U.S. President's Council) Sharon Jones, and my long-time senior advisor and chief of staff Rachael Doff (and by extension, her right arm and my play daughter, the great Ilya Monroe).  We work hard, and as you can see, we know how to play and laugh a little too.

Onward with HOPE,

John Hope Bryant

Factoid

Approximately half of all American states are experiencing current budget shortfalls. Under state constitutions, most cannot borrow money or run a deficit, making spending cuts a necessity.

New York Times

A Priceless HOPE Corps Volunteer in Detroit, Michigan

Here I proudly stand with Ms. Connie Austin-Gentris of Charter One Bank, one of our amazing HOPE Corps volunteers in our Banking on Our Future, Detroit Program, whom I met after my speech in Troy, Michigan last night for the 7th Annual Joint Meeting & Conference of the CRA Associations of Michigan, which I agreed to do for my friends at Comerica Bank, including Loretta Smith.

In Detroit alone, Banking on Our Future has educated more than 7,500 low wealth youth in financial literacy, has more than 150 HOPE Corps volunteers and serves more than 30 schools and community based organizations.

Globally, Mary Hagerty tells me that Banking on Our Future has educated more than 290,000 low wealth youth, and Emily Ausbrook tells me that we more than 6,000 HOPE Corps volunteers who have committed to HOPE.  This is only the start. Log on to www.operationhope.org to become a HOPE Corps volunteer, just like Connie.

Onward with HOPE,

John Hope Bryant

Quote of the Day

"I don't have a problem with payday loans in principle. If you are a worker without medical insurance and your son Johnny gets sick, and you used your rent money to pay Johnny's medical bill, and then in turn you find you need an advance on your paycheck, and so you went to the payday lender, and after the next pay period you paid the payday lender back,...fine. But if you are getting 12 payday loans, back to back, well that's 'financial crack,' and I have a problem with that!"

John Hope Bryant

Quote of the Day

"All courage is, is the excercise of your faith in spite of your fear."

John Hope Bryant

John Bryant, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Operation Hope and Vice-Chairman, U.S President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, Unites States, Speaks at OECD International Conference on Financial Education

Quote of the Day

"This current economic crisis is not a poor people's crisis, it is mostly a middle class crisis. individuals who asked not what the interest rate was, but what the payment was...and you never ask what the payment is when there is an interest rate attached. This represents massive levels of financial illiteracy in America and around the world. Individuals who purchased homes like we purchased automobiles, and we should not purchase automobiles that way. Individuals who purchase iPods like we purchase automobiles, and we should not purchase iPods that way. If you purchase an iPod for $400.00 and make minimum payments on a high interest rate credit card, you will pay $4,000 over time. Now, you add a few zeroes to that and call it a 30 year, full amortized mortgage, and you have a financial tsunami on your hand. We need to make individuals financially literate, so that this never happens again."

John Hope Bryant

OPERATION HOPE CEO AND VICE CHAIRMAN OF U.S. PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL ON FINANCIAL LITERACY, JOHN HOPE BRYANT DELIVERS KEY ADDRESS TO FINANCIAL DECISION-MAKERS AT FINANCIAL SERVICES ROUNDTABLE 2008 SPRING MEETING

    

 

 

Silver Rights Leader inspires and educates Roundtable members to recognize importance of financial literacy

 

los Angeles, CA – May, 2008 – Keynoting a morning address to attendees at the Financial Services Roundtable 2008 Spring Meeting, on May 1, Operation HOPE (HOPE) Founder and CEO, and U.S. Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, Vice Chairman, John Hope Bryant, "raised the bar", challenging financial industry executives to get involved in financial literacy education.

Quote of the Day

"You can't sell a toaster that burned down 1 million homes, but it is okay to sell a mortgage that does?"

Hilarious.

Quote of the Day

"No good deed shall go unpunished (smile)."

Quote of the Day

"Financial literacy is not about making more money, but making better decisions with the money you make."

John Hope Bryant

Factoid

The combined debt of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is equal to the public debt for the United States government.

Secretary Paulson Names Leadership for President’s Advisory Council

Washington- Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr., and Charles Schwab, Chairman of the President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, announced the appointment of several key Council officers today as the group conducted its second public meeting.

Secretary Paulson designated Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Education Dan Iannicola, Jr., as Executive Director of the President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. On behalf of Secretary Paulson, Mr. Iannicola will manage the council's activities and support Chairman Schwab's agenda to raise the nation's level of financial literacy.

Images from National Small Business Week Keynote Address

Quote of the Day

"...Some of the first people to be hit by the subprime-mortgage crisis were the very brokers who had sold people inappropriate mortgages. Having drunk their own Kool-Aid, they found themselves with enormous debts and no job. 'It takes less credentials to be a mortgage broker than a pimp on a street corner in Harlem,” he says. “Because a pimp needs references.'”

John Hope Bryant from The Economist feature on the now global aspects of financial literacy

Bryant is chairman of Operation HOPE and vice chairman, U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy

Fred D. Smith Public Testimony on the Proposed Bank of America Acquisition of Countrywide

Testimony Public Meeting

Bank of America Acquisition of Countrywide

April 29, 2008

By Frederick D. Smith of Operation HOPE

• Ms. Chairwoman, regulators and participants:
• I am pleased to represent Operation HOPE, a Los Angeles-headquartered non-profit financial literacy and empowerment organization, and our Chairman John Hope Bryant, who is also Vice Chair of the President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, chaired by Charles Schwab.
• My financial services career has included the private sector, a federal government agency, the State of California and Operation HOPE. I currently head HOPE Coalition America for Operation HOPE, where we have aided everyone from Katrina survivors to those impacted by the subprime mortgage crisis. I am here to support corporate activities that are in the best interest of customers, stockholders, investors and communities.
• The two financial institutions that are the subject of discussion today have long corporate histories and their current financial positions and public images are well known.

Operation HOPE Founder and Presidential Appointee to Council for Financial Literacy, John Hope Bryant Addresses National Small Business Week Attendees in New York City

Small Business Administration recognizes young entrepreneur’s role in building a strong American economy; Bryant to highlight “Silver Rights” mission to promote wealth and empower the spirit

LOS ANGELES, CA – April 30, 2008 - In celebration of the American entrepreneurial spirit and accomplishments of small business owners, each year, the President of the designates one week as “National Small Business Week”.

Something to Think About

"....Just had a quick conversation with one of our partners who spoke of a call she was on this week with senior executive management and former President Clinton, and they were speaking on a number of topics including education and financial literacy. ...When asked how best to impact communities in regards to financial literacy, President Clinton firmly said the FIRST thing you need to do is align yourself with John Hope Bryant and Operation HOPE... Continue to shine my brother......"

James M Bailey, "Jay"

Metro Atlanta Program Manager

Banking on Our Future | Operation HOPE, Inc.

Statement of Support for HUD Secretary Nominee Steve Preston

From John Hope Bryant

Founder, chairman and CEO, Operation HOPE

Vice chairman, U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy

The following is a statement by John Hope Bryant. As founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Operation HOPE, America’s first non-profit social investment banking organization, founded after the Rodney King riot of 1992 in Los Angeles, I am writing to provide my support for SBA Administrator Steve Preston as the new HUD Secretary nominee. I know Administrator Preston through Operation HOPE’s work in the Gulf following Hurricane Katrina. Frankly, the relationship started out on somewhat shaky ground, as I make it a personal commitment to only involve HOPE in agreements and government led initiatives that I believe will bring real value to real people.  Following Hurricane Katrina Operation HOPE was asked to partner with the SBA in the Gulf, prior to Administrator Preston’s arrival, in an initiative that in my opinion was well intentioned but respectfully, never achieved its stated objectives (for the people there).   As far as I was concerned, the problem was one of organizational leadership.

The Young Global Leader Family at Harvard University

YGL's at graduation from the Harvard University "Global Public Policy and Leadership in the 21st Century" Executive Education program at tke Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Ma. What an experience.

Quote of the Day

"It is very difficult to accept the fact that there are no guarantees in life, no guarantees that life will progress as it should or that the people you care about will love you back, or even that they will treat you right. But trust in life does not mean trusting that life will always be good, or that it will be free of grief or pain. It means trusting that somewhere inside yourself you can find the strength to go forth and meet what comes, and even if you meet betrayal and disappointment along the way, to go forth again the very next day.

So often we reach out and offer that which we have to give, to someone who has no need for or does not recognize the value of our gift. Thus our gift goes un-received through no fault of our own, and this rejection causes pain. But the real tragedy occurs when someone comes along who has a need for and recognizes the value of what we have to give – but because the memory of rejection is still fresh on our mind, we are no longer reaching out.

It is said that man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue. Which is a nice way of saying that living is the healing. Vulnerability is not weakness. It’s strength. But very few of us are tough enough to be soft."

John Hope Bryant at age 18

Quote of the Day

“I love what Bobby Kennedy said in Bedford-Stuyvesant in 1968: ‘To ignore the potential contribution of private enterprise is to fight the war on poverty with a single platoon, while great armies are left to stand aside.’ Barack, let’s get together with, say: John Bryant of Operation Hope in Los Angeles; Ambassador Andrew Young of Good Works International; Bob Woodson of the Neighborhood Enterprise Foundation in Washington, D.C.; Ted Forstmann of Forstmann Little & Co. in New York; Russell Redenbaugh, a U.S. civil rights commissioner in Philadelphia; and economist Art Laffer. We can discuss how best to tackle the issue you raised in your March 18 speech, when you identified the lack of economic opportunity for people of color as one of our nation’s greatest challenges. Any interest, sir?”

Jack Kemp, former Congressman, vice-presidential candidate, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Excerpt from Jack Kemp's Wall Street Journal Op-Ed

HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway Responds with Leadership Vision at YGL Session at Harvard Kennedy School

My friend and fellow Global Dignity co-founder, HRH Crown Prince Haakon Magnus of Norway was completely engaged during the entire Harvard University Kennedy School Program, sponsored by the Forum of Young Global Leaders last month in Boston. Here he responds and amplifies a leadership point made by another passionate YGL.

Crown Prince Haakon is very good people, and I predict he will prove to be not only a great and inspiring future leader for Norway, but the world over. He is truly a global citizen -- and a good man too.

Onward with HOPE

John Hope Bryant

Quote of the Day

"With April being Financial Literacy Month, I'm honored to share HOPE's mission for 'Silver Rights' -- our goal to propagate economic opportunities that exist across this country and beyond," said Bryant. "It's critical that small business owners realize that financial literacy is as much about enriching the spirit as it is about growing net worth and advancing economic standing." Bryant continued, "I started out as an entrepreneur in Compton, California at age 10. I am still an entrepreneur, but today more of a philanthropic entrepreneur, seeking to empower those left behind and to show them how capitalism and free enterprise can work for them, too."

John Hope Bryant, chairman of Operation HOPE and vice chairman of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, speaking during SBA's National Small Business Week event in Manhattan, New York City

Quote of the Day

"For Boston’s youth to prosper, we must provide them with opportunities to learn, work and equally as important, to save. To fully capitalize on the learning and employment opportunities we help establish for them, we must be certain that at the same time, we teach them the importance of saving a dollar; the value of a bank or credit union account; the long-term significance of making sound financial decisions; the language of money. We need to put financial knowledge, and empowerment, in their DNA at the very earliest age. Otherwise, the significance of youth employment diminishes."

John Hope Bryant and Michael Flaherty, Boston

Factoid

A 2006 survey of 1,800 13-25 year olds found that 79% want to work for a company that cares about how it affects or contributes to society. 64% said their employer's social and environmental activities inspire loyalty, according to Cone, Inc. A Boston-based brand strategy and communications agency which conducted the survey.

Introducing the 2008 Spring Edition of the Operation HOPE "Empowering Communities" Newsletter

You can check out the newest edition of Operation HOPE global news print, "Empowering Communities" here.

Let me know what you think!

With HOPE

John Hope Bryant

President's Council Member Vice Admiral Cutler Dawson Speaks at Financial Literacy & Education Summit

Check out this story, other related stories on other members of the President's Council, and the new U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy-Office of the Vice Chair Blog here.

Onward with HOPE

John Hope Bryant

Images of YGL's On The Move At The Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Quote of the Day

"With our youth in line to serve as our next generation’s CEOs, teachers, firefighters, doctors and scientists, investing in them becomes paramount to investing in our economy — both for today and for the years to come."

John Hope Bryant and Michael Flaherty, Boston

Residents need fiscal literacy

By John Hope Bryant and Michael Flaherty

Boston - Throughout Boston and across the country, many people are worried about the economy, questioning how we can endure this period of financial instability.

Surviving through these dismal fiscal times is especially challenging when so many Boston residents lack important financial literacy skills, which is probably best illustrated by the number of predatory subprime mortgages purchased, high-interest consumer debt and the large presence of fast-money businesses preying on individuals without a bank or credit union account.