John Hope Bryant

Founder & CEO, Operation HOPE

John Hope Bryant, Advisory Board, is an American entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, and prominent thought leader on economic empowerment and financial dignity that has been recognized as one of Time magazine’s “50 Leaders for the Future.”

John is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Operation HOPE, Inc., the largest not-for-profit and best-in-class provider of financial literacy, financial inclusion and economic empowerment tools and services in the United States for youth and adults; chairman and chief executive officer of Bryant Group Ventures and The Promise Homes Company, the largest for-profit minority-controlled owners of institutional-quality, single-family residential rental homes in the U.S., and co-founder of Global Dignity. He currently serves on the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans.

A member of the founding class of The Forum of Young Global Leaders, and founding member of Clinton Global Initiative, John is a LinkedIn Influencer and Huffington Post, THRIVE Global and Black Enterprise, and a member of the World Economic Forum and OECD Expert Networks.

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. John recently received an honorable mention in Inc. magazine’s “The World’s 10 Top CEOs” article that spotlights global servant leaders as the visionaries behind some of the most successful organizations. Additionally, Operation HOPE and John are a permanent part of the Smithsonian AFRICAN-American Museum in DC.

John is the author of bestsellers; The Memo: Five Rules for Your Economic Liberation (Berrett-Koehler, September 2017), How the Poor Can Save Capitalism: Rebuilding the Path to the Middle Class (BerrettKoehler, 2014), and LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass, 2009). He is one of the only bestselling authors on economics and business leadership in the world today who happens to also be African-American.

John founded, created and now leads more than 35 companies and organizations, for-profit, nonprofit and public benefit in North America, and in some cases active around the world.