Get to know the 2025 "A Candle in the Dark" Gala Honorees: JOHN HOPE BRYANT Candle Award for Civic Engagement and Entrepreneurship

John Hope Bryant is an American entrepreneur, thought leader, philanthropic executive, and leading financial and economic inclusion expert.

He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Bryant Group Ventures as well as Operation HOPE, the nation’s largest on-the-ground nonprofit provider of financial literacy. He is a bestselling author and founded The Promise Homes Company, the largest for-profit, minority-controlled owner of institutional-quality, single-family residential rental homes in the country.

Bryant was born in Los Angeles and raised primarily in the South Central area, where he graduated from Santa Monica High School and then attended Los Angeles City College. He later attended the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Education, Global Public Policy & Leadership Program and holds honorary doctoral degrees from Paul Quinn College and Alvernia University.

At age 26 in 1992, immediately following the L.A. Riots, Bryant founded Operation HOPE Inc. The public benefit investment banking organization is composed, in part, of a national network of inner-city banking centers that serve low-wealth communities. Following 9/11, Bryant worked with President George W. Bush to make financial literacy an official policy of the U.S. federal government.

He served on Bush’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy as well as President Obama’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability, and he inspired the U.S. Treasury Department to host an annual Freedman’s Bank Forum to reduce economic inequality.

Bryant is the author of several books, including “Banking on our Future: A Program for Teaching You and Your Kids about Money,” and “Financial Literacy for All.” In 2024, TIME magazine named Bryant to its inaugural list of The Closers, 18 global leaders working to close the racial wealth gap. He is a CNBC contributor, host of the iHeartRadio podcast, “Money and Wealth with John Hope Bryant,” and a CNBC Global Financial Wellness Council member. He has more than 3 million followers across his social media platforms.

Bryant has received hundreds of awards and citations for his work, including Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award and the Treasury Department’s John Sherman Award for Excellence in Financial Education.

He was part of TIME magazine’s inaugural class of “50 Leaders for the Future” in 1994 and named “Innovator of the Year” by American Banker in 2016. Three years later, the City of Atlanta, the base of Operation HOPE, designated April 15 as “John Hope Bryant Day.”

Bryant and his wife, Chaitra Dalton Bryant, live in Atlanta.

On Saturday, February 15th, John Hope Bryant and five other individuals will be honored at the 37th annual "A Candle in the Dark" Gala.

To learn more about events during Founder's Week, please visit morehouse.edu/founders-week