Few honors outweigh being asked by your President to serve in the interest of the nation, and it never gets old. When you can help, you should help, and that is my intentions here.
And so, I am indeed honored to be appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as a Member of the new U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans. While I have served President Obama before, as a Member of a prior President's Council, this previous assignment and appointment was more focused on what I would respectfully call 'high-minded' policy, and the necessary analytics that acccompany same. And this was and remains important.
This new Council will be different. It's primary focus will be action, moving the needle, and getting things done. A focus on doing the things that 'can' be done, and not just a focus on the 'ideal,' that in a perfect world should be done.
While the President, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Council Chairman will set the overall tone here, I think it is fair to say that this Council will be more innovative, more solution seeking, more impactful through what happens on the ground, through others (as the Council is by statue, non-operational).
Look forward to great things coming from this Council, focused on our future stakeholders, job creators, job seekers, voters and taxpayers. The Council, is basically focused on R&D for America's future competitiveness, and future GDP.
Furthermore, this new Council indirectly supports the President's newest initiative to empower young boys and men of color, OUR BROTHER'S KEEPER. To quote the Administration directly, "this Council will help with strengthening the financial capability of our young people, which is an investment in our nation's economic prosperity."
Here is a link to the official space for the new U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans at U.S. Department of the Treasury. Also, here is a link to the White House announcement of all appointments to the new Council. I will work to keep all updated here as we move forward.
Separate from my work on the Council, Operation HOPE and I will do our part to advance this broader work of empowering youth through Project 5117, and specifically our HOPE Business In A Box Academies.
Let's go.
John Hope Bryant is the founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Companies, Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass), and is the only 2010-2012 bestselling business author in America who is also African-American. His newest book, due out May, 2014, is HOW THE POOR CAN SAVE CAPITALISM, and will be published byBerrett Koehler Publishing).