The People Byron G. Auguste
Chairman
Byron is one of the original founders of Hope Street Group and Chairman of the Board of Directors. A co-creator of the "Building the Opportunity Economy" policy package, he also co-authored the opinion piece in the Boston Globe entitled "The Biggest Tax is Debt", and has represented Hope Street Group in coalition-building discussions with political and business leaders and the media.Byron is the Director of McKinsey’s Social Sector Office, which houses McKinsey & Company’s worldwide practices in Global Public Health, Economic Development & Opportunity Creation, Education, and Philanthropy. McKinsey’s Social Sector works with leading intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, philanthropic foundations, and private companies to develop and implement solutions to pressing societal challenges, globally.
Based in Washington DC since 2007, Byron spent 14 years in McKinsey’s Los Angeles Office, where he was elected Principal in 1999 and Director in 2005. His work focused on helping technology and services companies to achieve faster growth, greater productivity, and higher profitability, and on designing and building information and services businesses. He founded and led globally McKinsey’s High Tech Services Sector, served on the firm’s global committees that elect and evaluate new partners, and leads its diversity initiative globally.
Byron is an active writer and speaker on education, economic development, and the impact of globalization, deregulation, and technology changes on industry structure, corporate strategy, and public policy at universities, industry roundtables, and public policy forums including the Aspen Institute, Dialog, Renaissance Weekend, Center for American Progress, New Schools Venture Fund, and Hope Street Group’s Opportunity Economics Colloquium. He has been published or quoted in the McKinsey Quarterly, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Global Telecom Business, The Economist, Education Week, New Perspectives Quarterly, Time, National Public Radio, and N.TV in Germany.
Byron serves on the Board of Directors of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, one of the world’s largest and most innovative philanthropies;
the Board of Directors of the Pacific Council on International Policy; the Board of Trustees of the Center for American Progress. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Economic Growth and Development Council, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Yale University Council, a Senior Fellow of the UCLA School of Public Affairs, and serves on advisory boards for the African Center for Economic Transformation and the International Center for Research on Women.
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He has served with other senior business leaders as a Mayoral advisor on the Los Angeles Economy and Jobs Committee, and participated in the 2009 White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth. He is a co-founder and board chairman of Hope Street Group, a nationwide, nonpartisan, volunteer organization of professionals, executives, and entrepreneurs to develop and promote Opportunity Economics public policies for the United States.
Byron received a B.A. in economics and political science summa cum laude from Yale College, where he was awarded the Hart Lyman Prize as the outstanding member of Yale’s junior class, the James Gordon Bennett Prize for the outstanding thesis in international relations, and the Yale President’s Public Service Award, and the Harry S Truman Scholarship. He was awarded a M. Phil. and D.Phil. (doctorate)
in economics from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar. Before joining McKinsey & Company in 1993, Byron worked as a research economist in international trade, finance, and economic development, at the African Development Bank, at LMC International, and at Oxford University’s Foreign Service Program for mid-career diplomats. He authored The Economics of International Payments Unions and Clearing Houses, published by MacMillan Press in 1997.
Byron received a B.A. in economics and political science summa cum laude from Yale College, where he was awarded the Hart Lyman Prize as the outstanding member of Yale’s junior class, the James Gordon Bennett Prize for the outstanding thesis in international relations, and the Yale President’s Public Service Award, and the Harry S Truman Scholarship. He was awarded a M. Phil. and D.Phil. (doctorate)
in economics from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar. Before joining McKinsey & Company in 1993, Byron worked as a research economist in international trade, finance, and economic development, at the African Development Bank, at LMC International, and at Oxford University’s Foreign Service Program for mid-career diplomats. He authored The Economics of International Payments Unions and Clearing Houses, published by MacMillan Press in 1997.
