Atlanta is building its next generation of global leaders, and on November 14, 2025, John Hope Bryant spent an afternoon helping to shape them. Operation HOPE’s Founder, Chairman, and CEO joined the World Affairs Council of Atlanta’s Global Leadership Fellows for a session hosted at Truist, where the day began with remarks from Ambassador Andrew Young and continued with a master class led by John.

The Global Leadership Fellows program, created by the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, brings together early-career professionals from across the city for master classes with leaders in business, diplomacy, and public service. Few rooms in Atlanta offer a better setting for that conversation than one that opens with Ambassador Young, a lifelong example of what it looks like to carry civil rights, public service, and global engagement together. Council President Rickey Bevington was on hand as the fellows gathered.

John followed Ambassador Young with a master class for the cohort, drawing on more than three decades of building Operation HOPE and the lessons he has carried from Atlanta to communities around the world. His message to this group was the one he brings to every audience: leadership is about service, and a global city is only as strong as the opportunity it extends to the people who live in it. For emerging leaders who will help steer Atlanta’s economic future, it was a chance to learn directly from one of the city’s best-known champions of financial dignity and inclusive capitalism.

Thank you to the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, Rickey Bevington, and the Global Leadership Fellows for the warm welcome, and to Truist for hosting. Learn more about the program at wacatlanta.org/glf.