Bill Bynum
The chief executive officer of Hope Enterprise Corporation and Hope Credit Union helps improve the quality of life for citizens in the high-poverty Mississippi Delta with comprehensive solutions like community investment, banking, housing, education, and healthcare.
CEO, Hope Enterprise Corporation and Hope Credit Union
Bill Bynum is chief executive officer of HOPE, a credit union, loan fund, and policy center dedicated to advancing economic opportunity in the lower Mississippi Delta. Since 1994, HOPE has leveraged resources, shaped policies, and generated over $2 billion to deliver financial services to more than one million individuals living in the most impoverished communities in the country.
Bynum began his career by helping to establish Self-Help, a pioneer in the development finance industry, and later built nationally recognized programs at the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center. Bill has advised presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama on financial service matters, and served as chair of Treasury’s Community Development Advisory Board and the CFPB Consumer Advisory Board. He is a member of the U.S. Partnership for Mobility from Poverty, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. His current board service includes: NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Aspen Institute, Corporation for Enterprise Development, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, Fannie Mae Affordable Housing Advisory Council, the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, and Millsaps College.
Bill is a recipient of the NFCDCU Annie Vamper Award, National Credit Union Foundation Herb Wegner Award, Opportunity Finance Network Ned Gramlich Award, E&Y/Kauffman Foundation National Entrepreneur of the Year, Aspen Global Leadership Network John P. McNulty Prize, and UNC Distinguished Alumnus Award.
