John Hope Bryant

John Hope Bryant

John Hope Bryant (born February 6, 1966) is an American financial literacy entrepreneur and businessman. Bryant is the founder, chairman and CEO of nonprofit Operation HOPE,^[1] member of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability,^[2][3] co-founder of Global Dignity, co-founder of the Gallup-HOPE Index, He is an advisor to business and government and author of bestselling books on on economics and leadership. He served as the vice chair on the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy^[4] and as the chairman of the Committee on the Underserved.^[5][6][7]

Biography

Early years

Bryant was born on February 6, 1966 in Los Angeles, California, and raised primarily in Compton, and in the South Central area of Los Angeles, by parents Juanita Smith and Johnnie Will Smith. Bryant graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1984.

Career

On May 5, 1992, Bryant founded Operation HOPE, Inc.^[8] immediately following the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, California.

On January 22, 2008, Bryant was appointed vice-chairman of the President’s Council on Financial Literacy by U.S. President George W. Bush. He continued this work under President Barack Obama as part of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability (PACFC).^[9] He was appointed chairman of the new Subcommittee on the Underserved and Community Empowerment for the PACFC in January 2012.

Appointments

On June 13, 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush appointed Bryant to a four-year term on the non-partisan U.S. Community Development Advisory Board ^[10] for the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

In September 2008, he was selected to be a member of the Global Agenda Council for the World Economic Forum,^[11] Geneva, Switzerland.

On January 29, 2010, he becames a part of President Barack Obama's Advisory Council on Financial Capability.

Honors and awards

• 1994: selected by Time Magazine as "One of America’s 50 Most Promising Leaders of the Future," as part of their 50 for the Future cover story.^[12]
• 1998, the first African-American to be knighted by German nobility and the royal House of Lippe.^[13][14]
• 2004 he received an Honorary Doctorate Degree of Humane Letters from Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas, for his work around education and poverty eradication.
• 2005, received the Crystal Heart Award from the University of Southern California School of Social Work for his work in community service.^[15]
• 2010, Latvian President Valdis Zatlers received Bryant on behalf of the Republic of Latvia as the second speaker for the Latvia Presidential Speaker Series at Latvia University, on the topic of "The Economic Reset, Love Leadership in a fear-based world, and financial literacy as a new civil right." ^[16]
• 2010, Newsmax Magazine named him for his work at Operation HOPE, as one of their 2010 Heroes.^[17]
• 2011, The Root named him to its 2011 100 List of Influencers and Iconoclasts.
• 2011, Operation HOPE and Bryant received the Marcus Garvey Bridge Builder in the Diaspora Award during the 16th Annual Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference in Jamaica.^[18]
• 2012, Leaders and Legends Award from the California Black Chamber of Commerce at their annual conference in Sacramento, California.
• 2012, Working Group Advisor to CGI America for the Clinton Global Initiative and former U.S. President Bill Clinton
• Bryant is the namesake of the "John Bryant Scholarship in Urban Social Development", a permanent scholarship fund at the University of Southern California School of Social Work.

Bibliography

• How the Poor Can Save Capitalism Bryant, John Hope Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2014, ISBN 978-1-626-56032-1
• Love Leadership:The New Way To Lead In A Fear-Based World Bryant, John Hope Jossey-Bass, 2009, ISBN 0-470-42878-3, ISBN 978-0-470-42878-8
• Actions Speak Loudest: Keeping Our Promise For A Better World ^[19] McKinnon, Robert, Williams, Juan The Lyon Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-59921-486-3, ISBN 1-59921-486-5
• Banking on our Future: a Program for Teaching You and your Kids about Money^[20] by Bryant, Beacon Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-8070-4717-0
• Silver Rights Movement Book Series
• Dignity in the Middle East <
• Fixing the Jericho Road: The Silver Rights Movement and the Good Samaritan ^[21]
• Silver Rights Movement in Africa ^[22]
• The Wealthless Power
• The Ownership Society ^[23]
• Racism and the Silver Rights Movement ^[24]
• Banking on Our Future: The Promise for America’s Unbanked ^[25]
• The Silver Rights Movement ^[26]
• Leave No Community Behind

References

Further reading

• "The New Color of Success: Twenty Young Black Millionaires Tell You How They're Making It", by Niki Butler Mitchell, Prima Lifestyles (December 15, 1999), ISBN 978-0-7615-2065-8
• Face Forward: Young African American Men in a Critical Age, by Julian C.R. Okwu, Chronicle Books (March 1, 1997), ISBN 978-0-8118-1631-1

External links

• Leave No Community Behind, by John Bryant, (2001)