Van Jones

Van Jones is widely known as a U.S. media personality, an entrepreneur and a world-class change maker. Outside of his roles as a CNN contributor and host of Amazon Music Podcast, Uncommon Ground, Jones has a rare track record in the modern era of bringing people together to do hard things — in areas as diverse as clean energy solutions, criminal justice reform and racial inclusion in the tech sector.

In 2007, Van was the primary champion of the Green Jobs Act, signed into law by George W. Bush. In 2009, he worked in the Obama White House as the Special Advisor for Green Jobs. In 2018, he helped pass the FIRST STEP Act – which the New York Times calls the most substantial breakthrough in criminal justice in a generation. In 2021, Jones was one of the first two recipients of Jeff Bezos’ Courage & Civility Award.

Over the past 25 years, Van has founded and led many successful social enterprises, including REFORM Alliance, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, Green For All and the Dream Corps. He worked with Prince to launch #YesWeCode (now called Dream Corps TECH) to get jobs in the tech sector for scores of low-opportunity young people. A world-class communicator of world-class ideas, Van is also a CNN host, an Emmy Award-winning producer and a 3X New York Times best-selling author.