Community financial services, nonprofit management 

José is the Mission Asset Fund’s (MAF) founding CEO. Under his leadership, he quickly built MAF into an award-winning nonprofit with innovative nationwide models for integrating financially excluded, low-income communities into the financial mainstream. For his work, he was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship, the Ashoka Fellowship, and the Aspen Institute Fellowship. He also received the James Irvine Leadership Award, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs’ Distinguished Alumni Award, and the San Francisco Business Times Most Admired CEO Award, among others.

José is a visionary leader, highly regarded in the consumer finance field. Currently, he serves in Consumer Advisory Boards for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, US Bank, Experian, and Capital One. In 2012, the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appointed him as the inaugural Chair of the Consumer Advisory Board. In 2014, CA Governor Brown enacted legislation recognizing MAF’s Lending Circles program, making California the first state to lift credit building as a force for good. And in 2019, CA Governor Newsom enacted SB 455, MAF-sponsored legislation to create the CA Money Smart program to support nonprofit organizations that deliver effective financial education to low-income communitie

CYPLAN 290A, Race and the City