{"id":27925,"date":"2019-01-09T09:50:28","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T14:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=27925"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:10:20","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:10:20","slug":"jonathan-reckford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=27925","title":{"rendered":"225 years of Tar Heels: Jonathan Reckford"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carolina alumnus Jonathan Reckford is helping to eliminate barriers to affordable housing worldwide as the CEO of Habitat for Humanity.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Jonathan<\/p>\n

No matter where you live, you\u2019ve probably heard of Habitat for Humanity, the international nonprofit that builds and improves affordable housing in partnership with people in need of a safe and decent place to call home. The organization has helped over 22 million people improve their living conditions in every U.S. state and in 70 countries since its founding in 1976.<\/p>\n

The man behind the mission started his own journey right here at Carolina.<\/p>\n

Before he was the CEO of Habitat for Humanity, Jonathan Reckford was a political science student in UNC-Chapel Hill\u2019s College of Arts & Sciences<\/a>. A Morehead-Cain Scholar<\/a>, he graduated in 1984 with a world of opportunities ahead of him, but his road to becoming a C-suite executive was anything but predictable.<\/p>\n

Reckford started his career on Wall Street, logging long hours in corporate finance. But something didn\u2019t feel right about it, so he decided to make a change.<\/p>\n

He moved to Korea on a Luce Scholarship and lent his marketing talents to the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee, even coaching the Korean rowing team. Later, he\u2019d take up management positions at companies ranging from Best Buy to The Walt Disney Company. He even spent two years as executive pastor of a local church. He never spent more than two years in one role or more than four years at one company \u2014 until now.<\/p>\n

Reckford has now served as CEO of Habitat for Humanity for nearly 14 years, helping to eliminate barriers to affordable housing worldwide. Since arriving, Habitat has increased from partnering with 125,000 people per year to 8.7 million last year. Their mission is to one day create a world where everyone has a decent place to live.<\/p>\n

During a visit to UNC-Chapel Hill in 2016, Reckford offered advice to current students and young professionals who want to chart their own course.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re often bombarded with messages about the right resume, titles and next steps in finding the perfect job,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead, find a place where your gifts and skillset line up with something that matters in the world. Try as many things as you can. Learn as many things as you can. In doing so, you\u2019ll find your purpose \u2013 and a career that will provide a sense of fulfillment long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n

In honor of the University\u2019s 225th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary, University Communications will be sharing profiles throughout the academic year of some of the many Tar Heels who have left their heelprint on the campus, their communities, the state, the nation and the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

Visit <\/em>https:\/\/www.unc.edu\/<\/a> and https:\/\/www.unc.edu\/category\/225\/ <\/em>for periodic profiles on Carolina alumni as part of the \u201c225 Years of Tar Heels\u201d ongoing series.<\/i><\/p>\n

By University Communications<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carolina alumnus Jonathan Reckford is helping to eliminate barriers to affordable housing worldwide as the CEO of Habitat for Humanity. No matter where you live, you\u2019ve probably heard of Habitat for Humanity, the international nonprofit that builds and improves affordable housing in partnership with people in need of a safe and decent place to call […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":27926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,33,21,34],"tags":[59,24,60,25,26,61,36,37,38,39,40],"class_list":["post-27925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-media-news","category-news","category-news-archive","tag-225-years","tag-carolina","tag-carolina-225","tag-college-of-arts-sciences","tag-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-public-service","tag-unc","tag-unc-arts-and-sciences","tag-unc-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-unc-chapel-hill","tag-university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27925"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49082,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27925\/revisions\/49082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}