Impact Investing and the Public Sector
Creating Jobs, Driving Profits
October 7, 2010
Don Graves
Don Graves is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Small Business, Housing and Community Development at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In this role, Mr. Graves manages a portfolio of policy issues including business and small business finance and development, housing finance policy, community and economic development, capital access, job creation and issues related to underserved and minority communities. Previously, he served as a partner with Graves, Horton, Askew & Johns, LLC, where his practice included government relations and public affairs, corporate representation, corporate and commercial transactions, non-profit management and public and private finance. He is the former Director of Public Policy for the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of the world’s leading companies, with a combined workforce of more than 11 million employees in the United States and $4 trillion in revenues. As the Director of Public Policy, Mr. Graves managed legislative and lobbying activities on all major Health Care and Retirement issues pending before Congress and the Administration. Prior to joining the Roundtable, Mr. Graves was a Policy Advisor for the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Domestic Finance where he provided guidance and direction on domestic policy issues and community development policy, and represented the Department on the Community Empowerment Board, the National Economic Council’s New Markets Working Group, the White House Task Force on Livable Communities, the White House Task Force on Insular Areas, the Coordinating Committee of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and the White House Native American Issues Working Group. Mr. Graves was also the Vice President and Director of the Washington Office for the Organization for a New Equality, a 25-year old, national civil rights organization, focusing on expanding economic opportunity. Mr. Graves holds degrees of Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History from Williams College and Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center where he was President of the Student Bar and received the Dean’s Award.
