2009-03-20 02:05:13 -

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA -- (Marketwire) -- 03/19/09 -- Coming on the heels of his Davos appearance with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his Global Dignity co-founders at the closing of the World Economic Forum 2008 Annual Meeting, Operation HOPE's (HOPE) own founder, chairman and CEO, John Hope Bryant traveled to South Africa March 17 - 22, 2009, to speak on leadership and social entrepreneurship in and for Africa's future. Bryant joins panelists Peggy Dulany and Adhiambo Odaga along with moderator Kojo Parris for the Nelson Mandela Promise of Leadership inaugural conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.



Bryant's comments revolve around the growing role that social entrepreneurship is playing, and must play even more in the future, in developing countries, particularly in the

backdrop of the global economic crisis. The panel will address the key reasons why social entrepreneurship is increasingly becoming a permanent agenda item for policy makers and political leaders.



Bryant whose new book, "Love Leadership: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World," addresses the changing and challenging 21st century leadership landscape, what Bryant calls a sustainable form of "good capitalism and fair enterprise for all," the importance of empowerment and creating stakeholders, and how it could create lasting transformations within the culture, and how the 'doing well by doing good,' and enlightened self-interest paradigm can work on the world stage.



"As the world recuperates from what I see as not so much a recession but a hard economic reboot, summits like The Nelson Mandela Promise of Leadership Summit are critical because a collective vision for the future, the power of ideas and enterprise, is what will not only bring us out of the current crisis, but can keep us out of trouble in years to come," notes Bryant, who also serves as vice chairman of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, chairman of the Council Committee on the Under-Served, and a Young Global Leader in association with the World Economic Forum.
"What I am pursuing, promoting and encouraging in the 21st century is an enlightened model of good capitalism, good selfishness, and free enterprise for all people. Global silver rights, and our work on the ground in South Africa, with Operation HOPE, South Africa, is about making capitalism and free enterprise actually work for everyone from the growing middle class, to the poor and the under-served."



HOPE's "silver rights" mission to eradicate poverty and to make dignity and access to financial literacy and economic parity is implemented on-the-ground and through policy and thought leadership circles through HOPE Global Initiatives, the organization's international arm. Work outside of the U.S. also includes Banking on Our Future South Africa, a $1 million (U.S.) commitment between HOPE and its partners to recruit and mobilize more than 500 local HOPE Corps volunteers in a new and innovative private/public partnership to teach 50,000 South African youth and women in financial literacy, dignity and entrepreneurship over the next five years.
The nonprofit HOPE has educated some 6,100 youth and women in the Gauteng and Western Cape provinces, and has already trained 534 HOPE Corps volunteers, since launching an office in Johannesburg in 2007. HOPE, South Africa partners include the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, CIDA University, Citi, International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group, Standard Bank, Deutsche Bank, South Africa, the City of Tshwane, Peace Corps South Africa, and the Gauteng and Western Cape Departments of Education, amongst others.



Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) in partnership with the African Leadership Initiative (ALI) will convene a two and half day summit bringing together the network of ALI fellows as well as other young emerging leadership groups from around the continent. Centered on the new thinking on the challenge of leadership in our times, this two day summit also features an address by Rwanda President, Paul Kagame.



About Operation HOPE, Inc.



Operation HOPE is America's leading nonprofit social investment banking and financial literacy empowerment organization. With more than 400 private sector partners, 1500 nonprofit organizations and schools, and 100 government partners in 68 major U.S. cities as well as South Africa, Operation Hope has raised more than $400 million in its pursuit of educating, assisting and inspiring the next generation of global stakeholders. Through international initiatives and its three principal programs: Banking on Our Future (teaching school children about money), HOPE Coalition America (financial emergency preparedness and disaster relief), and Walk-In HOPE Centers (loans, bill pay, computer literacy, understanding banking principles) Operation HOPE has assumed the responsibility of piloting the "silver rights" movement towards making free enterprise and capitalism relevant to all underserved communities.


For more information contact:

Sherry Tate John
sherry.john@operationhope.org
213-891-2908