Jonathan Reckford, CEO of the global nonprofit housing organization Habitat for Humanity, will engage in a public conversation at Yale Divinity School on Friday, February 24. On campus to teach in the School’s program in Transformational Leadership for Church and Society, this onetime business executive and pastor will discuss his unlikely journey to Habitat and keys to faith-based leadership.
The event, a conversation between Reckford and Associate Dean Bill Goettler, will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Common Room. Audience members will participate with their own questions to Reckford, and a reception will follow.
Starting his career on Wall Street, Reckford held executive and managerial positions at Goldman Sachs, Marriott, the Walt Disney Co., and Best Buy. His volunteer leadership at his Presbyterian church in the Minneapolis area eventually led to his appointment as the church’s executive pastor. From there, he was recruited to become Habitat’s CEO, a position that Reckford describes as the dream job for which his entire life and career had prepared him.
Habitat for Humanity works in nearly 1,400 U.S. communities and approximately 70 countries around the world.
“With a little help,” Reckford says, “we all have the potential to stand on our own. It is an incredible experience to help homeowners build or improve a place to live and see how they are then able to build a better life for themselves and their families.”
A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Reckford has an M.B.A. from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
In addition to leading Habitat, Reckford serves on the boards of InterAction, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the Duke Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Urban Steering Committee for the World Economic Forum.