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Jonathan Reckford
CEO of Habitat for Humanity International, Author, Affordable Housing Advocate, Keynote Speaker
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Jonathan Reckford
Biography
Jonathan Reckford is an inspirational speaker, leadership expert, author, award-winning activist, and CEO of Habitat for Humanity International. In 2017, he was named the most influential nonprofit leader in America by The NonProfit Times. Under his leadership, Habitat for Humanity won the 2020 Golden Halo Award nonprofit winner by Engage for Good, which honors causes that do well by doing good.
Since taking over the leadership of the global Christian housing organization in 2005, Habitat for Humanity has grown from serving 125,000 individuals per year to more than 4.2 million.
The non-profit organization has helped over 39 million people construct, rehabilitate or preserve their homes.
Over his career, Jonathan has held various leadership positions with several Fortune 500 organizations, including Marriott, Best Buy, and Disney. He also served as the executive pastor at Christ Presbyterian Church in Minnesota before being recruited as CEO for Habitat for Humanity.
Jonathan is the author of Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World (2019).
Jonathan lends his expertise to various boards. He chairs Leadership 18, and is a member of the Freddie Mac Housing Advisory Council, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Urban Steering Committee for the World Economic Forum.
Jonathan graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with a BA in Political Science where he was a Morehead Scholar and a recipient of a Henry Luce Scholarship. He earned his MBA degree from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Jonathan Reckford
Featured Videos
Jonathan Reckford
Featured Keynote Programs
HOW TO LEAD WITH A MISSION AND PURPOSE
Does your company have a strong purpose? Employees and teams want to be inspired by their work and their leaders. Organizations that have a strong purpose tend to be more innovative and have employees who are more engaged and productive. In this talk by the CEO of Habitat for Humanity, Jonathan Reckford shares how you can build your teams, inspire your employees, and create a mission and purpose that will drive your company to new heights.
DO WELL BY DOING GOOD
HOW SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMPANIES CAN SUCCEED THROUGH SERVICE AND VOLUNTEERISM
Today’s employees want to be part of a socially responsible company. They want to be part of a company whose purpose is to give back to communities. Employees who are part of a purpose-driven company are often more engaged and productive. So how can your company become more purpose-driven and socially responsible? In this talk Jonathan Reckford will share how public-private company collaborations can make for a better community and increased employee engagement.
SEVEN SIMPLE VIRTUES THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE AND THE WORLD
How can you change the world when you’re just one person? How can you or your employees find purpose in life? Sometimes, the world’s problems seem too great to fix alone. However, each of us can do our part to effect change if we follow the seven simple virtues: kindness, community, empowerment, joy, respect, generosity, and service. In this inspiring talk by the CEO of Habitat for Humanity, Jonathan Reckford shares stories of everyday heroes who embody these virtues as well as three questions you need to answer to find your calling. You will come away from his talk inspired to find opportunities to give back to your community, neighborhood, or workplace with tools you need to lead a purpose-driven life.
THE FUTURE OF CITIES, HOUSING & URBANIZATION
How can we build the sort of cities we want to live in 20 years from now? How can we ensure that ordinary workers aren’t priced out of the communities they serve, and that cities are engines of opportunity for all? In this insightful talk, Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity will share the importance of providing adequate and affordable housing and land policies and what you can do to help.
Jonathan Reckford
Featured Book
Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World
by Jonathan Reckford
Inspiring and insightful, Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World celebrates the shared principles that unite and enable us to overcome life's challenges together.
"When the waters rise, so do our better angels."--President Jimmy Carter Jonathan Reckford, the CEO of Habitat for Humanity, has seen time and again the powerful benefits that arise when people from all walks of life work together to help one another. In this uplifting book, he shares true stories of people involved with Habitat as volunteers and future homeowners who embody seven timeless virtues--kindness, community, empowerment, joy, respect, generosity, and service--and shows how we can all practice these to improve the quality of our own lives as well as those around us. A Vietnam veteran finds peace where he was once engaged in war. An impoverished single mother offers her family's time and energy to enrich their neighbors' lives. A Zambian family of nine living in a makeshift tent makes room to shelter even more. A teenager grieving for his mother honors her love and memory by ensuring other people have a place to call home. A former president of the United States leads by example with a determined work ethic that motivates everyone around him to be the best version of themselves. These stories, and many others, illustrate how virtues become values, how cooperation becomes connection, and how even the smallest act of compassion can encourage actions that transform the world around us. Here are tales that will make readers laugh and cry and embrace with passion the calling of our better angels to change the way we take care of ourselves, our families, our communities, and the world.