Bynum briefed journalists in September 2021: Financing Rural America.

William J. (Bill) Bynum is CEO of HOPE (Hope Enterprise Corporation, Hope Credit Union and Hope Policy Institute), a family of organizations that provides financial services and engages in advocacy to combat the extent to which factors such as race, gender, birthplace and wealth limit one’s ability to prosper.  Since 1994, HOPE has generated over $3 billion in financing that has benefited nearly 2 million people in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.  Bill began his career in North Carolina building groundbreaking programs at Self-Help and the NC Rural Center.

Bynum’s board and advisory service includes the Aspen Institute, Bank of America, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Prosperity Now, William Winter Institute, E Pluribus Unum, Mississippi Today, Churchill Capital IV and Churchill Capital V.  A recipient of the University of North Carolina Distinguished Alumnus Award, Bynum’s honors and recognition include the John P. McNulty Prize (Aspen Global Leadership Network), Housing Visionary (National Housing Conference), Lipman Family Prize (Univ. of Pennsylvania), Ned Gramlich Award for Responsible Finance (Opportunity Finance Network), National Entrepreneur of the Year (Ernst & Young/Kauffman Foundation), Rural Hero Award (National Rural Assembly), Pete Crear Lifetime Achievement Award (African American Credit Union Coalition) and Annie Vamper Helping Hands Award (National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions).

An Emerson Collective Dial Fellow, Henry Crown Fellow and Salzburg Global Fellow, Bynum previously chaired the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau Advisory Board and Treasury Department’s Community Development Advisory Board, served on the US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty, and as a Towsley Policymaker in Residence at the University of Michigan Gerald Ford School of Public Policy.