John Hope Bryant

John Hope Bryant is an American entrepreneur, thought leader and philanthropic leader. He is referred to as the Conscience of Capitalism by the CEOs of Delta Air Lines, Walmart, and countless others. Mr. Bryant is the Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Operation HOPE, Inc. the largest non-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. Operation HOPE is working to level the opportunity playing field, connecting communities to the private sector, through inclusive capitalism, at scale. Bryant is also Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of John Hope Bryant Holdings, Bryant Group

Ventures and Executive Chairman of The Promise Homes Company (Promise Homes), the largest for-profit minority-controlled owner of institutional-quality, single-family residential rental homes in the U.S.

The organizations that Bryant has founded have provided more than $4.0 billion in capital for the underserved over the past 30 years. By the end of 2022, Bryant’s 1 Million Black Businesses Initiative (1MBB), launched in October 2020, had already created more than 150,000 new black businesses and counting, or an amount equal to 5% of all black businesses in America. On May 2, 2023, Operation HOPE and its lead signature partner Shopify won the Fast Company 2023 ‘World Changing Ideas’ award. Operation HOPE and Bryant are a permanent part of the Smithsonian African American Museum in Washington, D.C.

John Hope Bryant has been recognized as an influential leader by many. 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. Department of Treasury. Bryant has also received the 100 Black Men of America “Chairman’s Award for Economic Empowerment,” he was listed by The Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “2022 Power 100”, named #2 among 100 inspirational leaders on the “Yahoo Finance Empower Role Model list 2022," Georgia Trend’s “100 Most Influential Georgians” in 2022, 2023 and 2024, Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “Most Admired CEOs of 2018,” Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “The Power 100: Most Influential Atlantans in 2020,” American Banker magazine's 2016 “Innovator of the Year,” and one of Time magazine’s “50 Leaders for the Future” in 1994. Bryant received an honorable mention in Inc. Magazine’s “The World’s 10 Top CEOs” an article that spotlights global servant leaders as the visionaries behind some of the most successful organizations.

Five former U.S. presidents have recognized Bryant’s work, and he has served as an advisor to three sitting U.S. presidents from both political parties. In 2008, Bryant inspired then President George W. Bush to make financial literacy the official policy of the U.S. federal government.

Bryant also worked with the Bush Administration to create a new federal policy framework of emergency financial disaster preparedness, response, and recovery work, following 9/11, resulting in a first ever partnership with the Department of Homeland Security/FEMA and HOPE.

Bryant was 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 and past member of the World Economic Forum and OECD Expert Networks. He is one of three co-founders of Global Dignity and co-founder of Just Brothers.

During the Obama Administration, Bryant continued his pioneering work of financial literacy and inclusion, and in 2016, Bryant inspired then Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to rename the former U.S. Treasury Annex Building into the Freedman’s Bank Building, in honor of the Freedman’s Bank of 1865, becoming the only U.S. citizen ever to cause the renaming of a building on the White House campus. The Biden Administration continues the Bryant inspired Freedman’s Bank Forum to this date.

Bryant is the author of Up from Nothing: The Untold Story of How We (All) Succeed (Publication Date Oct 6, 2020); bestsellers; The Memo: Five Rules for Your Economic Liberation (Berrep-Koehler, September 2017), How the Poor Can Save Capitalism: Rebuilding the Path to the Middle Class (Berrep-Koehler, 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.