I and we here at Operation HOPE, are proud and pleased to welcome our friend and Project 5117 partner, Bryan Jordan, as the newest member of the Operation HOPE Global Board of Directors. Bryan is not only a first class and highly respected leader, who has spearheaded impressive growth for an institution with 15o years of history in Tennessee alone, he is also one who genuinely cares about, and is engaged in this thing we call ‘community.’
I met Bryan through our alliance with the FINANCIAL SERVICES ROUNDTABLE, but we quickly became good friends. He ‘got’ what we were doing with the HOPE Inside model.
Bryan committed to one location, and once he saw the immediate power of what we were doing, he committed to 5 locations, the first of which would be in Memphis, Tennessee. It was not lost on me that Atlanta, Georgia is where Dr. King’s journey began, and Memphis was where his amazing life journey tragically ended. I wanted to ‘do’ something positive and empowering, in Memphis.
The results came in, and soon Bryan and the company had committed to double their commitment to 10 locations. The last time we opened an office together, in Nashville, TN, he had increased that commitment to 15 locations total, including our first planned rural HOPE Inside location.
Bryan and the First Horizon and First Tennessee Bank family are also working to advance a vision I had to formally memorialize Dr. King’s last trip into the Memphis Airport with a proper historical marker at the airport.
Below is a formal background on Jordan and his growing institution.
John Hope Bryant
D. Bryan Jordan is chairman, president and chief executive officer of First Horizon National Corporation, a $25 billion-asset, 4,200-employee financial services company that is one of the 40 largest publicly traded banking organizations in the United States in terms of asset size. First Horizon’s two major brands – First Tennessee and FTN Financial – provide customers with a broad range of products and services. First Tennessee provides retail and commercial banking services throughout Tennessee and other selected markets and is the largest bank headquartered in the state of Tennessee. FTN Financial is an industry leader in fixed income sales, trading, and strategies for institutional clients in the U.S. and abroad.
Before joining First Horizon, Jordan was chief financial officer at Regions Financial Corp. His experience also includes positions at Wachovia (formerly First Union Corp.) and KPMG.
Jordan is an active member of the community and serves on numerous local and national boards. He is currently chair of Memphis Tomorrow, the Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America and Youth Villages. He also serves on the board of AutoZone Inc., the Federal Reserve Bank of
St. Louis and the Tennessee Bankers Association. In addition, Jordan volunteers on the Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation, the Governor’s Foundation for Health and Wellness and Operation HOPE boards.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in accounting from Catawba College. He and his wife, Kim, have three children.