There are no ways to adequately describe a man with conviction. He is so busy doing, executing on his beliefs, that he makes little to no noise of or about himself, as he cuts through the challenges before him. Such is the man the world refers to as Michael Arougheti.
Michael and I met casually, but our bond as brothers and friends, early on, was anything but – casual. He joined my board of directors for Operation HOPE, and later I joined his board, for a new publicly traded company called Ares Commercial Real Estate REIT. I tried my best to help him with his endeavors and dreams, and he (and his wife Nelly Bly) certainly leaned into mine. He tipped the scale of HOPE for me, on several occasions. and I will never, forget that — that conviction, of one Michael Arougheti.
Helping me was certainly not his job, nor his calling or his role in life, but he never once made me feel like I was secondary to what was his primary. Whenever I called on Michael, he was there. And call on him, I did often.
I remember clearly, the many times I pushed him to have the company he led, Ares Management, to support Operation HOPE, but the timing back then was not right. So Michael and his super talented author,wife Nelly (Bly) decided to do it personally, themselves.
And without betraying their confidences, let me just say that what Michael and Nelly did for HOPE, and at the time they did it, was extraordinary. And kind. And material, at that time, to our very survival. And the thing is, they did it so — casually.
They made a major commitment to the work of my life, but they did it without fanfare, without press release, and without any desire for their own recognition. But they did it. And they have done it for far too many other organizations to name.
And then they did it again, one day at one of our HOPE Global Forum, watching a pitch competition of young Black and Brown business owners in the making. They didn’t just fill the air with kind platitudes, they filled our bank account with the very resources we needed to go from surviving to thriving, to winning.
They did this three times. Three. Separate. Times. And if I didn’t say this here, now, I guess no one would ever know. Certainly, Michael and Nelly would never say an external word. They did it, because that’s simply who they are. Convicted. People, of deep convictions.
And then the friendship came. And our family has been enriched, spiritually and emotionally, from that bond, the most. Love and authenticity tends to have that effect on people.
And when I launched my dream for The Promise Homes Company, there was Michael Arougheti once again, making the first real commitment to our start-up dream. And let me just say this — it was meaningful. And when Michael Arougheti committed, that gave license to Tony Ressler, his co-founder at Ares Management, that he could do the same. And he did. Together, personally, they both became the financial backers for the founding of my Promise Homes Company dream. That was June, 2017. A dream planted, but not much more.
Michael didn’t stop there. He helped me assemble a team, and he introduced me to the language and structure and approach that I would need to implement, to make this new venture successful. And then he met with me weekly, for close to four years, making himself fully available to my dream, treating it like it was his own. Treating me, like I was his own. Just life family.
Block by block amd piece by piece, we pulled the institutional fabric together that we now call The Promise Homes Company. Yes, I did the work, and I did a great deal of the building, but everything has a start. A beginning. A sponsor. A key support beam. And Michael Arougheti, was all of that. For me. And I will never forget it.
Together, we built The Promise Homes Company into the largest Black controlled owner of singles family residential rental homes in the country, with $150 million in assets.
And thanks to that early vote of confidence, and the early stage founding capital from Michael Arougheti and Tony Ressler in early 2017, last late last year, in December, 2021, the company itself – standing on its own now – secured it’s own $200 million credit facility: Now reportedly the largest capital raise for a Black owned company in a decade, according to Black Enterprise.
Michael is not an obviously emotional person, to the outside world. He’s sort of a walking brain, and I am pretty sure he has a genius IQ. But every time I speak with my friend Tony Ressler, I also feel and see the heart of Michael Arougheti, because Michael introduced me to Tony. And that was no accident either.
You see, these men of conviction are different. They are most only concerned with the outcome, not the credit. But today, I wanted to give just that — credit.
Thank you Michael Arougheti. Because of what you did to help elevate me and my dreams, with Operation HOPE, and then later with the Promise Homes Company, you too — get celebrated as a part of Black History Month.
John Hope Bryant. Entrepreneur.