Bill Bynum

William J. (Bill) Bynum is the founding CEO of HOPE (Hope Enterprise Corporation, Hope Credit Union and Hope Policy Institute), a family of organizations dedicated to advancing prosperity in under resourced Deep South communities. Established in 1994, HOPE has become one of the nation’s preeminent community development finance institutions, deploying capital and building partnerships that have benefitted more than four million people in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, while shaping policies and practices that address persistent financial access and economic mobility gaps. Bynum serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta - New Orleans branch, Aspen Institute, NAACP Legal & Education Defense Fund, Expanding Black Business Credit, Acumen America, and Deep South Today boards, on the Brookings-AEI Commission on U.S. Rural Prosperity, and is an advisor to Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and E Pluribus Unum. He previously chaired Treasury’s Community Development Advisory Board, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Consumer Advisory Board, served on the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition Team, and the Treasury Advisory Committee on Racial Equity. A member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Henry Crown Fellow, Emerson Collective, Dial Fellow and Salzburg Global Fellow, Bynum has received the John W. Gardner Leadership Award, Heinz Award, Gramlich Award, Wegner Award, McNulty Prize, the Myrlie & Medgar Evers Voices of Courage & Justice Award, and honorary degrees from Talladega College and Tougaloo College.