Robert E. James, II is president & CEO of Carver Financial Corporation. Robert leverages his experiences in banking, law, real estate development, and consulting to provide the building blocks to financial freedom at Black-owned Carver Financial, the holding company of Carver State Bank in Savannah, GA. He created an affiliate of the bank that has won $80 million in New Markets Tax Credits from the U.S. Treasury since 2017. These awards were the first-ever for a Georgia community bank or any Georgia entity outside Atlanta and have created hundreds of jobs in distressed communities across the state. Robert also led the first-ever all-Black bank syndicate to finance a project for a major American sports franchise, the 2021 refinancing of the Atlanta Hawks’ practice facility. Robert is Chairman of the National Bankers Association, the leading advocacy group for the nation’s minority banks. He is also a member of the boards of the Community Development Bankers Association, the National Black Bank Foundation, the National Bankers Community Alliance, and serves as Executive Director of Carver’s nonprofit CDFI affiliate, Catalyst Development Corporation. James graduated from Harvard Law School in 1995 and from Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1992.