John Hope Bryant is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Operation HOPE, Inc. the largest nonprofit provider of financial literacy, financial inclusion and economic empowerment tools and services in the United States for youth and adults and one of Atlanta’s 75 largest nonprofits overall. Bryant is also chairman and chief executive officer of Bryant Group Ventures and the Promise Homes Company, which is the largest for-profit minority-controlled owners of institutional-quality, single-family residential rental homes in the U.S. In addition, he is and co-founder of Global Dignity.
Operation Hope CEO John Hope Bryant to Speak at FVSU’s Fall 2018 Commencement
Staff Report From Middle Georgia CEO
Monday, December 3rd, 2018
Bryant is an entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, and prominent thought leader on financial inclusion, economic empowerment, and financial dignity. He was American Banker magazine’s 2016 “Innovator of the Year,” was featured in Inc. magazine’s “The World’s 10 Top CEOs” and was named one of Time magazine’s “50 Leaders for the Future.” For the past two consecutive years, Bryant has been named in the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “100 Most Influential Atlantans” listing of Atlanta’s top business and civic influencers.
The last five U.S. presidents have recognized his work, and he has served as an advisor to the last three sitting U.S. presidents, from both political parties. In January 2016, Bryant became the only private American citizen to inspire the renaming of a building on the White House campus, when the U.S. Treasury Annex Building was renamed the Freedman’s Bank Building. The Freedman’s Saving and Trust Company, founded by President Abraham Lincoln, has become the narrative of the work of Operation HOPE—to help all people in the “Invisible Class” become fully integrated into our nation’s economy. In April 2017, a historical marker, also inspired by Bryant, to honor the final flight of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Memphis on April 3, 1968, was installed at the Memphis International Airport 49 years to the day that Eastern Flight 381 arrived from Atlanta.
A member of the founding class of The Forum of Young Global Leaders, and founding member of Clinton Global Initiative, Bryant is a LinkedIn influencer, contributor to Huffington Post, Thrive Global, and Black Enterprise, and a member of the World Economic Forum and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Forum expert networks.
His Facebook Live “Silver Rights” Series has received 40+ million views, and serves as an engaging platform to foster essential discussion in the digital age around financial inclusion and social uplift. Facebook’s episodic streaming series entitled Delivering The Memo, inspired by Bryant’s newest bestselling book, The Memo.
He has received hundreds of awards and citations for his work, including, Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award and the John Sherman Award for Excellence in Financial Education from the U.S. Treasury. Operation HOPE and Bryant are a permanent part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in DC.
Bryant is the author of numerous books including The Memo: Five Rules for Your Economic Liberation, How the Poor Can Save Capitalism: Rebuilding the Path to the Middle Class, and Love Leadership: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World.
