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William J. (Bill) Bynum

Bill Bynum is the founding CEO of HOPE (Hope Enterprise Corporation, Hope Credit Union and Hope Policy Institute), a family of organizations dedicated to strengthening the financial health and wealth of people in under resourced communities across the Deep South. Since 1994, HOPE has generated nearly $4 billion in financing that has benefitted more than 2.6 million people throughout Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, while shaping policies and practices that have improved conditions in opportunity deserts nationwide. Bill began his professional career in North Carolina by helping to establish Self-Help, a pioneer in the development finance industry, and later built nationally recognized programs at the NC Rural Economic Development Center.

A member of the U.S. Academy of Arts & Sciences, alumnus of the Henry Crown Fellowship, Emerson Collective Dial Fellowship and Salzburg Global Fellowship, Bynum serves on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta – New Orleans branch, Aspen Institute, NAACP Legal & Education Defense Fund, Black Vision Fund, Deep South Today, Churchill Capital IV, on the U.S. Treasury Department’s Advisory Committee on Racial Equity, and as an advisor to Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and E Pluribus Unum.

Bill is a recipient of the Myrlie & Medgar Evers Voices of Courage & Justice Award, John W. Gardner Leadership Award, Heinz Award, McNulty Prize and University of North Carolina Distinguished Alumnus Award, he previously chaired the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Consumer Advisory Board, Treasury Department Community Development Advisory Board, served as a member of the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition Team, the U.S. Partnership on Mobility from Poverty, and as a Towsley Policymaker in Residence at the University of Michigan Gerald Ford School of Public Policy.

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Bill Bynum - HOPE CEO

William J. (Bill) Bynum

Chief Executive Officer