Don Graves Jr17

Operation HOPE and the HOPE Financial Literacy Forum, NYC at NYSE Euronext is indeed honored to have Mr. Don Graves, Jr. as our luncheon keynote speaker on July 21st, 2011 in New York City.  Mr. Graves is the executive director of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and also serves as a senior policy and portfolio leader within the U.S. Treasury Department.  I am also honored to call Don Graves a friend to me, to Operation HOPE's mission, and to under-served communities everywhere.

Mr. Graves was intimately involved with the White House Urban Entrepreneurship Summit in Newark, New Jersey, where Operation HOPE was a convener and I spoke, and he is one who clearly sees the correlation between financial literacy empowerment for all (teaching every citizen the universal language of money), and creating a national culture that nurtures new jobs and sustained American competitiveness around the world.  The members of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness is impressive and a snapshot can be found here.

Don Graves was appointed as Executive Director of the U.S. President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness at the White House, where he provides advice to the President on continuing to strengthen the Nation's economy and the competitiveness of the United States, and on ways to create jobs, opportunity, and prosperity for the American people.  Mr. Graves also currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Small Business, Community Development and Housing Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.  In this role, Mr. Graves manages a portfolio of policy issues including business and small business finance and development, housing finance, community and economic development, capital access, job creation and issues related to underserved communities.  Previously, he served as a partner with Graves, Horton, Askew & Johns, LLC.  He is the former Director of Public Policy for the Business Roundtable, and was previously a Policy Advisor for the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Domestic Finance.  In addition, Mr. Graves oversees the newly created Small Business Lending Fund and State Small Business Credit Initiative.

 Mr. Graves holds degrees of Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History from Williams College and Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center where he received the Dean’s Award.  He served as volunteer Chief Executive Officer of Progress Through Business, a national nonprofit focused on economic development, supporting lower-income employees and sustainability.  He also served on the Board of Trustees of the Community Reinvestment Fund and Board of Directors of the Center on Business and Poverty, as well as the Advisory Boards of Wall Street Without Walls and the Greater Washington Board of Trade’s Small Business Network.

Find out more about the HOPE Forum New York City Reception on July 20th, 2011, and the Forum and Live Stream here.

 

John Hope Bryant is a thought leader, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Companies, Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass), and Member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for President Barack Obama

 

 

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