Bush Names John Bryant Vice Chairman of Financial Literacy Council

HOPE Chairman and CEO John Hope Bryant was named vice-chairman of the newly created President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy.

Charles R. Schwab, chairman and CEO of the Charles Schwab Corporation, will serve as the Council’s chairman.

The 19-member Council will advise the president and Treasury secretary on improving financial education efforts for students and adults in the workplace, and establishing effective measures of national financial literacy, and promoting effective access to financial services, especially for those without access to such services.

“This is a flexible, this is a resilient, this is a dynamic economy, and the entrepreneurial spirit is high. We want people to own assets; we want people to be able to manage their assets," President Bush commented about the appointements. "We want people to understand basic financial concepts, and how credit cards work and how credit scores affect you, how you can benefit from a savings account or a bank account. That's what we want. And this group of citizens has taken the lead, and I appreciate it."

A literal "Who’s Who" of respected business, non-profit and faith-based industry leaders, the bi-partisan panel includes distinguished individuals such as Don J. McGrath, chairman of Bank of the West and executive committee member on Operation HOPE’s national board of directors.

Bryant felt the Council would be pivotal in educating low-income minorities on the tenets of capitalism: “It is my hope that this historic Advisory Council will seek to provide dignity for millions of low-wealth Americans, ethnic minorities, and anyone in this country who feels shut out and left behind by capitalism and the free enterprise system. This is extremely personal to me, and lies at the very core of why I founded Operation HOPE.”

Created in response to the 1992 civil unrest that occurred in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdicts, HOPE has gone on to become the leading nonprofit social investment banking and financial literacy empowerment organization in the nation.

Having educated more than 271,000 youth throughout the U.S. and South Africa, HOPE has also created more than 1,000 new homeowners and small business owners, and has generated more than $400 million in commitments for homeownership and small business loans from their 400 bank and corporate partners.

HOPE’s Banking on Our Future Program has educated more than 270,000 low-wealth youth, mostly black and Latino, in financial literacy, dignity and in South Africa, entrepreneurship. The organizations emergency economic response division, HOPE Coalition America (HCA), has helped more than 100,000 survivors of Hurricane Katrina, worked with former President Clinton and his foundation, along with H&R Block to return more than $7 million in EITC refunds and a total of $12 million in tax refunds to Katrina survivors.

Bryant was prominently featured in former President Bill Clinton’s national best-selling book, “Giving: How Each Of Us Can Change The World.”

For more information visit us at http://www.operationhope.org/.