Jonathan T. M. Reckford is an American businessman and chief executive officer of Habitat for Humanity International. In 2017, The NonProfit Times named him the most influential nonprofit leader in America.

Early life

Reckford grew up in

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...

. He is the grandson of former New Jersey congresswoman Millicent Fenwick. He attended the St. Paul's School in New Hampshire. He was awarded a Morehead Scholarship to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he graduated with a degree in political science in 1984. In 1984, he joined

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

, then was awarded the

Henry Luce Henry Robinson Luce (April 3, 1898 – February 28, 1967) was an American magazine magnate who founded ''Time'', ''Life'', ''Fortune'', and ''Sports Illustrated'' magazine. He has been called "the most influential private citizen in the America ...

Foundation Scholarship for Young American Leaders. With that, he traveled to South Korea to work with the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee on marketing sponsorships. He also coached the Korean national rowing team. He graduated in 1989 from the

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...

with a master's degree in

business administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

. At Stanford he was struck by a professor's admonition that the same skills that will make you a success in the for-profit world also are desperately needed in the not-for-profit world.

Career

Reckford started his career in finance, working for Goldman Sachs. He also was an executive with Marriott, president of stores for the Musicland division of

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

, senior vice president of corporate planning and communications for

Circuit City Circuit City is an American consumer electronics retail company, which was founded in 1949 by Samuel Wurtzel as the Wards Company, operated stores across the United States, and pioneered the electronics superstore format in the 1970s. After m ...

, and director of strategic planning at the Walt Disney Company. Reckford then became executive pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, Minnesota. He became CEO of Habitat for Humanity International in 2005. He is the author of ''Creating a Habitat for Humanity: No Hands But Yours'' (2007) and ''Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World'' (2019).

Professional affiliations

Reckford serves on the board of InterAction, the

, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the Duke

Fuqua School Fuqua School is a private primary and secondary school located in Farmville, Virginia. It was founded as Prince Edward Academy in 1959 as a ( Whites only) segregation academy and renamed after businessman J. B. Fuqua made a large contributio ...

Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE). He is also a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

and the Urban Steering Committee for the World Economic Forum.

Personal life

Reckford and his wife, Ashley, have three children and live in Atlanta.

References

External links

Chief Executive Officer profile
at Habitat for Humanity {{DEFAULTSORT:Reckford, Jonathan Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni American nonprofit chief executives Habitat for Humanity people