John Hope Bryant (born February 6, 1966) is an American financial literacy entrepreneur and businessman. Bryant is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of nonprofit Operation HOPE, chief executive officer of Bryant Group Ventures and The Promise Homes Company, co-founder of Global Dignity, advisor to business and government and author of bestselling books on economics and leadership. He served as vice-chair of President Bush's Council on Financial Literacy, a member of President Obama's Advisory Council on Financial Capability, the vice chair on the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy and as the chairman of the Committee on the Underserved.
Early life
Bryant was born on February 6, 1966, in Los Angeles, California, and raised primarily in Compton, and in the South Central area of Los Angeles, by parents Juanita Smith and Johnnie Will Smith.
Bryant started his first business at age 10, a neighborhood candy store. At age 15 he enrolled in the private K-12 Hollywood Professional School and made connections which led to a career acting on television.
Career
On May 5, 1992, Bryant founded Operation HOPE, Inc. immediately following the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, California.
Spearheaded by Bryant, the first Bankers Bus tour occurred while parts of the city were still on fire. Bryant has organized and led over 15 bankers bus tours since HOPE's inception in 1992, including the cities of Los Angeles, Maywood and Oakland, California, Anacostia, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia, with the purpose of encouraging financial investment in low-to-mod communities.
On January 22, 2008, Bryant was appointed vice-chairman of the President's Council on Financial Literacy by U.S. President George W. Bush. He continued this work under President Barack Obama as part of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability (PACFC). He was appointed chairman of the new Subcommittee on the Underserved and Community Empowerment for the PACFC in January 2012.
Bryant directly inspired the creation of the City of Los Angeles loan fund (Administration of Mayor Tom Bradley), financial literacy as U.S. federal government policy, circa 2008, (George W. Bush Administration), U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Entrepreneurship Education (George W. Bush Administration), emergency financial disaster preparedness, response and recovery federal policy framework for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/FEMA (George W. Bush Administration), commitments for 100+ local financial literacy councils across the U.S., and formalized the inclusion of FEMA into federal financial capability policy (a seat on the U.S. Financial Literacy & Education Commission for the Obama Administration).
Motorsports
In November 2014, Bryant started a pursuit in motorsports. His first track day was a 2 Day event with Chin Track Days at Road Atlanta in a modified 2010 Lotus Evora. Bryant quote "fell in love with the track and the car" and further described high performance driving as "Buddhism at 150mph."
In February 2016, Bryant attended the Skip Barber Racing School at Road Atlanta and received his Full Competition Racing Certification.
In April 2016, Mark Lauth, CEO of Fantastic Racing, invited Bryant to join his FR-Shelby Racing Team for the 11th Annual Phakisa 2-Hour Endurance Race in South Africa driving a Shelby Can Am prototype race car. He took 3rd place overall with a total of 60 laps completed.
In October 2016, Bryant unveiled his newly acquired Shelby Mustang GT350R at the Caffeine and Octane car show in Atlanta alongside a new project called Bryant Group Motorsports Academy which he describes as: "a new nonprofit organization that will be focused on inspiring, exposing and empowering young people with what we call their 'Identity Project.' Once a young person from an underserved community figures out what their 'Identity Project' is, there is not much in life that can stop them.....We believe that motorsports, which is connected to financial literacy and STEM (and physics), can open the door to untold, untapped opportunity, and could inspire a re-imagination of self for a generation of young people."