JANS – William J. Bynum, Chief Executive Officer of HOPE (Hope Credit Union, Hope Enterprise Corporation, and Hope Policy Institute) has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The organization honors individuals demonstrating excellence and innovation in the arts, democracy, industry, education, global affairs, and science. Selected for his business leadership, Bynum joins a 2023 class of members that includes businesswoman Sheila Crump Johnson, director and producer Lin-Manuel Miranda, and biochemist and geneticist Emmanuelle Charpentier.
“Disparities in wealth and opportunity limit the potential of many Americans, particularly people of color, fostering a level of division comparable to the height of the Civil Rights Movement,” said Bynum. “I am honored, humbled, and inspired to stand alongside members of the Academy, past and present, to advance a just and equitable society.”
Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences recognizes accomplished public, private, and nonprofit sector leaders, and engages them “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.”
Notable members from past classes include Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Margaret Mead, Milton Friedman, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Stephen Hawking, Michelle Obama, Bryan Stevenson, Darren Walker and Sherrilynn Ifill.
