Welcome to another #FabulousOver40 Fireside Chat 🔥 featuring my conversation with social impact leader — Byron Auguste.
Byron is the CEO and co-founder of Opportunity@Work, a non-profit social enterprise on a mission to rewire the labor market, so that everyone Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs) can work, learn, and earn to their full potential.
Opportunity@Work focuses on helping employers build more “skills” based talent pipelines, while expanding career opportunities for over 70 million talented U.S. workers, who are often “screened out” because they lack a four-year college degree.
And Byron also happens to be one of the phenomenal leaders featured in the #FabulousOver40 Spotlight Series on LinkedIn.
During our chat, Byron and I unpacked his professional journey, including serving in the White House as Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, and also spending 20 years at McKinsey & Company as a Senior Partner.
Byron and I spent much of our time discussing the vision and current initiatives his team at Opportunity@Work are developing to enable at least 1 million working adults in America to translate their learning into earning — and help create a world that elevates a skills and experience-based economy.
Watch the Fireside Chat:
About Byron (#FabulousOver40 Spotlight)
Byron is the CEO and co-founder of Opportunity@Work, a non-profit social enterprise on a mission to rewire the labor market, so that everyone Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs) can work, learn, and earn to their full potential.
Opportunity@Work focuses on helping employers build more “skills” based talent pipelines, while expanding career opportunities for over 70 million talented U.S. workers, who are often “screened out” because they lack a four-year degree.
Bryon’s vision for Opportunity@Work is to enable at least 1 million working adults in America to translate their learning into earning – generating a $20 billion boost in annual earnings in the next decade.
The organization’s landmark research on STARs has been cited by the Federal Reserve, MIT, Brookings, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg, WIRED and more.
Prior to co-founding Opportunity@Work, Byron served for 2 years in the White House as Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council.
His policy portfolio during his White House tenure included job creation and labor markets, skills and workforce policies, innovation, investment, infrastructure, transportation and goods movement.
Before his appointment at the White House in 2013, Byron was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company in Washington, D.C., and in Los Angeles.
During his 20 years at McKinsey, Byron worked in the fields of technology & communications, information & media, services-based businesses, education, economic development, and innovation.
He was also co-author of several McKinsey Global Institute reports, including Changing the Fortunes of America’s Workforce (2009), An Economy That Works: Job Creation and America’s Future (2011), and Help Wanted: the Future of Work in Advanced Economies (2012).
Prior to McKinsey, Bryon was as an economist at LMC International, Oxford University, and the African Development Bank.
Bryon is very active within a number of not-for-profit organizations, including serving as a member of the boards of trustees of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Yale University.
Throughout his seasoned career, Byron has been able to coalesce his passion, credentials, and relationships into a purpose-driven path of fighting the good fight against exclusionary hiring and degree discrimination.
And he is continuously committed to illuminate the treasures of talent and STARs, who have the potential, and the skills to shine in workplaces all over the world.
Byron’s Personal Theme Song
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