Economic Development: MAURICE A. JONES

Since 2021, Jones has led OneTen, a coalition of Fortune 500 corporations and CEOs focused on training, hiring and promoting 1 million Black Americans without four-year college degrees in the next decade.

The former president and CEO of Local Initiatives Support Corp. and deputy secretary of housing and urban development under President Barack Obama, Jones has focused on launching working groups for OneTen’s apprenticeship, skills and market leads, and he’s notched 17,000 hires and 4,000 promotions during his first year.

A Rhodes scholar and former publisher of The Virginian-Pilot newspaper, he also served as Virginia’s secretary of commerce under Gov. Terry McAuliffe. He received his master’s degree from St. John’s College at Oxford University and his law degree from the University of Virginia.

Jones, who grew up on his grandparents’ Lunenberg County tobacco farm, is a trustee at Hampden-Sydney College, his undergraduate alma mater, and a commissioner for the Virginia Port Authority.

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