John Hope Bryant

Operation HOPE founder John Hope Bryant meets with President Bill Clinton

Today I was deeply honored to meet and spend substantive time one on one with former U.S. President (and my friend) William Jefferson Clinton, in his Clinton Foundation office in Harlem, New York.  I was also pleased to have with me Mrs. Mary Hagerty Ehrsam, our global chief of financial dignity.  Our government relations chief, Ms. Jena Roscoe who worked for President Clinton in the second term at the White House, did not join us but she was there with us in spirit.

We covered a range of items of mutual interest to both his foundations and the Operation HOPE family, both domestic and international, including the new Gallup-HOPE Index and the Gallup-HOPE Index Cities Initiative.  We actually presented President Clinton and his staff with the first draft copy of the Gallup-HOPE Index 2011 Report, which will be mailed out nationwide to leaders later this month.  We also briefed the President on the HOPE Financial Dignity Center, Ebenezer which is presently under construction in Atlanta (at the King Center complex and within th new Martin Luther King, Sr. Community Resource Complex), our new HOPE Office of Small Business & Entrepreneurship which will be formally announced to the public on my birthday, February 6th, 2012, along with our new HOPE Business-In-A-Box and the HOPE FILE Program (HOPE Fellows, HOPE Interns and HOPE Loan Executive Programs).

Special from CBS in Erie, Pennsylvania: Dr. King's Legacy Remembered as Focus Turns to New Movement

Watch the complete newsroom video here.

As the nation remembers Martin Luther King Jr's famous "I have a dream" speech, others are turning their attention to a new movement.

"Forty years after his death, we need to realize his last movement was about economics, it was a poor peoples campaign.  It was no accident that last movement was not about race," said John Hope Bryant, the chairman and CEO of Operation Hope.   

John Hope Bryant served as the special guest speaker Friday night at the 2nd annual MLK Awards Dinner.  He says the new movement is not "civil rights" but "silver rights."

"This cannot be about any race.  We have to see that we're all bound up together.  This is about class and not race.  We are really in a fight against China, not a fight against each other," he said. 

The theme of the awards dinner, which honored several local people for their work in the community, was "Creating Economic Empowerment, Building the Dream."

"We get a little complacent.  We forget about what Dr. King really wanted us to do.  We have to refocus and I think building on the dream theme tonight is most appropriate," said James Sherrod, executive director of the Bayfront NATO Martin Luther King Center. 

And while they shift their focus slightly, remembering Dr. King's legacy continues to remain just as important.

 

 

Unsung Heroes for Financial Dignity: Members of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability

 

Last Thursday, January 19th, 2012, in a full capacity meeting in the Cash Room at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, members of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability met to kick off 2012 with a strong agenda and plan on behalf of President Obama and the nation.

Some of the accomplishments of this meeting included:

• A formal and Council approved recommendation by my friend and Council Partnership Subcommittee Chair Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz around financial literacy and federal employee engagement.
• An Interim Report from the full Council to President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Geithner.

Additionally, the Council and the public heard from Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Cyrus Amir-Mokri, Council Chairman John Rogers, Josh Wright, acting director of the Treasury Office of Financial Education and Financial Access, and substantive subcommittee reports from Council members Arty Arteaga, Ted Beck, Amy Rosen and Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz.  Council vice chair Amy Rosen moderated an in-depth discussion with Alan B. Krueger, chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. Later, friend to the Council, Ms. Michelle Greene, vice president of corporate responsibility for NYSE Euronext and executive director of the NYSE Foundation, moderated a panel discussion with Steve Bigari, CEO of Stellar Restaurant Solutions and founder of America's Family, Brad Wenger, general manager of Hilton, Wilmington, Mary DuPont, director of financial empowerment for the State of Deleware, and Mateen Ali, senior manager of retirement and wealth strategy for Best Buy.

12 HOPE Volunteers and Partners Honored on MLK Day by the White House at Ebenezer Church

 

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Dr. Martin Luther King is often quoted stating "Everybody can be great...because everybody can serve." In this spirit it was Operation HOPE's honor to recommend the below individuals to receive the Presidential Drum Major for Service Volunteer Service Award! Congratulations to all! We are very proud of you.

The MLK Drum Majors for Service Award was created to acknowledge and celebrate volunteers who perform extraordinary everyday acts of service with reliability and commitment, but who seldom receive recognition. On behalf of the Senior Administration Officials of the White House Offices of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and Office of Public Engagement, the Corporation for National and Community Service, Operation HOPE, and representatives from faith and community organizations across America we salute these individuals as beacons in their community, and a Drum Major leading the charge and making a difference.

In particular, we thank you for your service and personal contribution to the betterment of Metro Atlanta.  

All honorees joined Reverend Dr. Raphael G. Warnock, Senior Pastor of the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church to attend service on Sunday, January 15th, 2012, where they were recognized.  Ms. Valerie Jarrett, representing President Obama, was also present and gave inspiring remarks to the volunteers. Congressman John Lewis and Mrs. Christine King-Farris, sister of Dr. King.

2012 Presidential Drum Major For Service Volunteer Service Award Recipients:

Starlyn Baxter          Associated Credit Union
Bill Cheeks              ABBA HOPE SE Board
MoniqueTaylor         Boy Scouts of America
Scott Brown            Georgia Pacific - Youth Entrepreneurs
Barbie Palmer         Bank of America
Kelli Bacote-Boone  Atlanta Public School, ATL READS
Grace Lee               Georgia State University
Gary Dryden           Chubb Insurance
Brandi Harvey          Young Fit and Fly
Kim Braud                Nationwide Insurance
Greg Clay                City of East Point
Lillian Lane               Beal Bank

 

CNBC Captains of Industry, South Africa: Featuring John Hope Bryant, Part I

 

 

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) the only African-American bestselling business author in America, and a Member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for President Barack Obama.  Mr. Bryant is the co-founder of the Gallup-HOPE Index, the only national research poll on youth financial dignity and youth economic energy in the U.S. He is also a co-founder of Global Dignity with HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Professor Pekka Himanen of Finland. Global Dignity is affiliated with the Forum of Young Global Leaders and the World Economic Forum. 

 

Operation HOPE Launches Arabic Version Financial Literacy Curriculum

I was honored to be in Morocco recently, speaking as the closing keynote for the annual meeting of the African Securities Exchange Association and before 22 CEOs for their respective country's stock exchanges, throughout the whole of Africa.  More than 400 delegates attended from countries beyond the African continent, and I was also thrilled to again spend some time with my friend and our HOPE Global Board of Advisors' Chairman, Mr. Sean Cleary, whom I lovingly refer to as the "South African James Bond."  Mr. Cleary, a legend in South Africa who helped to draft the South African Constitution, was also a featured speaker.  The conference was organized, hosted and held by my friend and fellow global advisory board member Karim Hajji, CEO of the Casablanca Stock Exchange.

The launch the Arabic contextualized version of our Banking on Our Future financial literacy curriculum, and a featured part of our Wikia-HOPE Global Money, Morocco Initiative, was no small feat. The actual work to get this done came through the staff of the CSE (for whom I and we are very thankful), but the importance of getting this done, and at this particular time and place in history cannot be understated.

HOPE Founder John Hope Bryant joins Casablanca Stock Exchange CEO Karim Hajji to announce Arabic version of financial literacy empowerment curriculum at 2011 ASEA Conference in Marrakech, Morocco

Wikia-HOPE Global Money Initiative Adds Contextualized Arabic Financial Literacy Curriculum to Wiki Site 

Casablanca CEO, Karim Hajji and HOPE Founder John Hope Bryant announce fully adapted Arabic version of financial literacy empowerment curriculum at 2011 ASEA Conference

Marrakesh, Morocco--Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) CEO Karim Hajji, and Operation HOPE [HOPE] Founder, Chairman and CEO John Hope Bryant, announced during the 15^th ASEA Annual Conference, held in Marrakesh from December 11-13, that the Global Money Wiki site will offer fully adapted or “contextualized” version of HOPE’s financial dignity curriculum based on Moroccan banking system starting in January 2012.

“Harnessing the power of the internet, the Wikia-HOPE Global Money Initiative seeks to provide the poor and under-served around the world over with a first-ever empowerment resource: a free global and fully downloadable financial literacy curriculum, based on the banking and financial systems relevant in each community,” said Bryant. “It is our belief that this tool will help thousands of Moroccans build better futures for themselves as well as boost Africa’s growing economy,” Hajji continued.

Financial Dignity and Financial Literacy: A Time and Place

As I wrote in a recent piece for the Huffington Post, after helping to establish financial literacy as federal policy in the United States in 2008, and working closely with the White House and our committed President Barack Obama to make financial literacy real for every American (even a requirement for every child in school), respectfully, I am actually now moving away from the traditional definition of financial literacy, per se.  I am now moving actively towards an operational vision for financial dignity. The Operation HOPE website  actually now describes our organization as a "global leader in financial dignity."  Our global vision was but one of the reasons why the world could find me in Morocco earlier this week, launching the Arabic version of our Wikia-HOPE Global Money Initiative.

I don't believe that you can find any truly successful brand or company in America that wasn't "aspirational," and I believe the same is true for financial literacy.  It has been positioned (by well intentional people) as a left-brain/left-brain, mostly analytical issue.  In other words, a logic table.  But that is not the way people operate, nor even the way they see their lives or priorities. If you want to speak to people, and to get them to "move" in their lives -- you must speak to their aspirations in life.  This is particularly true amongst inner-city, under-served and low-wealth communities.  Places where people are more poor than they are poor.

"There is a difference between being broke and being poor. Being broke is a temporary economic condition, but being poor is a disabling frame of mind and a depressed condition of the soul. We must vow to never, ever be poor again."

And so, financial literacy still has a role in what comes next, and I would even say a critically important role, but financial literacy is tactical, while financial dignity is more strategic.  

Memories: Global Dignity Day in Norway

Operation HOPE CEO Discusses Occupy Wallstreet with Capitol Hill Radio Program | Operation HOPE Blog

Operation HOPE CEO Discusses Occupy Wallstreet with Capitol Hill Radio Program | Operation HOPE Blog.

 

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) the only African-American bestselling business author in America, and a Member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for President Barack Obama.  Mr. Bryant is the co-founder of the Gallup-HOPE Index, the only national research poll on youth financial dignity and youth economic energy in the U.S. He is also a co-founder of Global Dignity with HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Professor Pekka Himanen of Finland. Global Dignity is affiliated with the Forum of Young Global Leaders and the World Economic Forum.