John Hope Bryant

Announcing at Ebenezer Church in Atlanta, Georgia: From Civil Rights to Silver Rights, A Conversation on Leadership

This coming Sunday, February 12th, 2012, at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church led by my friend and partner, Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock, I will join both civil rights icon Ambassador Andrew Young and Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, the 5th pastor of America's freedom church in its more than 125 year history, for a special CONVERSATION ON LEADERSHIP: From Civil Rights to Silver Rights, and the new Civil Roghts Issue of Financial Dignity.

Operation HOPE is partnering with Ebenezer Baptist Church to build the HOPE Financial Dignity, Ebenezer, which will be the anchor tenant and partner in the new Martin Luther King, Sr. Community Resource Complex at Ebenezer, and within the broader King Center complex.  The HOPE Financial Dignity Center, Ebenezer is supported by the FINANCIAL SERVICES ROUNDTABLE and its members SunTrust Bank, State Farm Insurance, LPL Financial, Wells Fargo and MasterCard, as well as the US Economic Development Administration, the Coca-Cola Company and the United Way of Greater Atlanta.

Hosted by the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church but not limited to members of Ebenezer, if you are a leader in the greater Atlanta area, you can contact Operation HOPE, Atlanta to RSVP at 404-941-2919, or to get additional information.

 

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 is chairman of the Subcommittee for the Under-Served and Community Empowerment for 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 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).

HOPE Financial Dignity Center, Ebenezer on the Move in Atlanta

Special From Gainesville Sun: Banquet speaker talks class, money

John Hope Bryant was the keynote speaker at the 27th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Hall of Fame Banquet.

Buy PhotoBRAD McCLENNY/Special to the Guardian

By CLEVELAND TINKER
Special to the Guardian

Published: Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 6:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 5:27 p.m.

Life in the 21st century is about economic freedom more than anything else for blacks in Gainesville, the U.S. and people around the world.

That was the message delivered by John Hope Bryant at the 27th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Hall of Fame Banquet Sunday night to more than 325 people at the Paramount Plaza Hotel.

Read the complete story here.

 

John Hope Bryant and Operation HOPE Meets with Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke

Today I was honored to meet with friend of HOPE and friend to underserved communities everywhere -- U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C.

Meeting with the Chairman reminded me of why we gave him our HOPE Award in the first place, when he came to speak at our last HOPE Global Financial Literacy Summit in Anacostia. The Chairman has been a big supporter of financial literacy in the past, and today I formally briefed him on what I believe comes next in the silver rights movement, or financial dignity for all. We spoke about HOPE's 20th Anniversary (May 5th, 2012), our domestic and global work, our Gallup-HOPE Index results, the Gallup-HOPE Index Cities Initiative, the new HOPE Office of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, HOPE Business-In-A-Box, the Wikia-HOPE Global Money Initiative, and our on- the-ground results. Separately, I discussed my new role as chairman of the new Subcommittee on the Underserved and Community Empowerment for the US President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability, a Council chaired by John Rogers. Specifically, I briefed him around our coming Local Financial Literacy Council efforts.

The Chairman has breathed confidence and a sense of stability in these times, in America and around the world. I wanted to thank him, personally. I also told him to remember that "no good deed shall go unpunished." To keep on moving forward, serving, helping.

Stay tuned for more to come from my meeting with the Chairman, and his team. Jena Roscoe, HOPE Government Relations Chief, staffed me for this important meeting.


John Hope Bryant is founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and bestselling author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass).

- Posted from my iPhone

Special From Bloomberg Businessweek: Wanted: More Black Entrepreneurs

Black borrowers face “a perception out there that African Americans have an inferior skill set and expectations,” argues R. Donahue “Don” Peebles, chairman and CEO of Peebles Corp., an African American real estate developer. “How do you start a business if banks won’t lend?” asks the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Smaller nonprofit players such as Seedco Financial, which extends money and technical assistance to low-income entrepreneurs, may help some deal with the funding gap. As President James Bason points out: “The biggest challenge is the first 90 days, when there’s a large outflow of capital.”

Read the complete story here.

 

Operation HOPE Financial Dignity Center, Ebenezer ~ On The Move in Atlanta

This is literally a "steel out of the ground" silver rights movement, under way right now in Atlanta, at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and America's "Freedom Church."

The HOPE Financial Dignity Center, Ebenezer serves as the anchor tenant and partner for the Martin Luther King, Sr Community Resource Complex, next to Ebenezer and on the broader King Center site.

Partners in HOPE Center, Ebenezer, led and organized by Steve Bartlett (CEO) and the FINANCIAL SERVICES ROUNDTABLE, include Suntrust Bank, State Farm Insurance, LPL Financial, Wells Fargo, MasterCard, Coca-Cola, the United Way of Greater Atlanta and the U.S. Economic Development Administration.  This commitment from the FINANCIAL SERVICES ROUNDTABLE is a highlight feature of the HOPE-FSR National Framework Agreement for Financial Literacy, designed to bring financial literacy into the C-Suite of America's financial leaders, and to make it a 'business case' for those involved.

A special thank you to Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, for seeing the vision here for silver rights, and moving to make it real in people's lives.

The best is yet to come.  Stay tuned....

 

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 is chairman of the Subcommittee for the Under-Served and Community Empowerment for 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. 

 

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.

An Unsung Hero for Financial Dignity: John Rogers, Jr.

Most people know of John Rogers, Jr, if they are aware of him at all (he is low key and humble about his noteworthy accomplishments), as the pioneering chairman and founding CEO of Ariel Capital, which became the first multi-billion dollar investor of private sector funds into the mainstream market (featuring amongst others, the very successful Ariel Mutual Funds), led by an African-American. Others know John Rogers, Jr. as a close friend and supporter of President Barack Obama.  

I know a different, but not an inconsistent John Rogers, Jr.  

The John that I know, and have known on some level for 20 years, partnered together with Charles Schwab & Co to produce a then groundbreaking study on the net worth differences between like-income, like-educated mainstream (Caucasian), African-American and Latino middle class Americans.  The differences in net worth between the racial classes was stark and startling, with much attributed to "what" people did with their money, more so that "how much" they actually earned.  In other words, John was pushing financial literacy empowerment before it had a formal name and definition.  I personally remember this study being one of the influencers that pushed me to call for more silver rights in American life, in addition to civil rights, in the lives of low-wealth Americans; including the black and brown middle class.

U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability Announces Subcommittee for the Underserved and Community Empowerment

Operation HOPE Founder John Hope Bryant Appointed Subcommittee Chairman

Washington, DC,  January 19, 2012

Financial dignity empowerment nonprofit, Operation HOPE (HOPE) today announced that HOPE Founder, Chairman and CEO John Hope Bryant has been appointed chairman of the recently announced Subcommittee on the Underserved and Community Empowerment for the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability (“Council”). The subcommittee reports to the full Council, which is chaired by business leader John Rogers, chairman of Ariel Capital Management. Amy Rosen, CEO of NFTE, serves as Council vice chair.

As part of the President’s mandate to serve and empower the underserved, the subcommittee will maintain a full and robust agenda, led by a local financial literacy council plan of action with cities and states. Bryant’s relationships with nonprofits, district leaders in both public and private sectors will help facilitate the building of community networks.