Professional Summary
C. Everett Wallace is a nationally recognized expert in the areas of financial services, franchise development, housing, small business finance and community economic development. Over the past two decades, Mr. Wallace has been instrumental in establishing several of the nation’s largest minority businesses in the areas of franchising and product distribution. He has successfully developed national programs, initiatives and tools using franchise systems as a tool to build wealth and revitalize underserved communities.
Mr. Wallace is President of Wallace Enterprises, a Consulting firm located in Durham, North Carolina. He has, most recently, worked as a consultant for the NC Department of Transportation Business Opportunity and Workforce Development (“BOWD”). Immediately prior to that, he served as the Director of Operations for Access Mental Health Agency (“AMHA”) in Atlanta, Georgia.
From 2009 through 2013, Mr. Wallace was retained by the North Carolina Credit and Personal Finance Council (NCCPFC) to serve as its lead spokesperson and legislative strategist for public policy discussions related to the installment lending industry in North Carolina. He lead the industry’s efforts during the deliberations of the North Carolina House of Representatives’ Study Committee on Unbanked and Underbanked Consumers, the Joint Committee Study on the Modernization of the NC Consumer Finance Act and the Commissioner of Banks Forums on Modernizing the NC Consumer Finance Act. The North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation that resulted in the first major reform for this industry in more than 30 years.
He moved to the Triangle area of North Carolina to serve as President of North Carolina Community Development Initiative Capital (Initiative Capital), Since becoming President of Initiative Capital in 2004, Mr. Wallace secured more than $22 million dollars in new financing to support the work of community development corporations across the state of North Carolina. This represents a 5-fold increase in the lending capacity of this community development financial institution and has been restructured to enable the successful deployment of these new resources. Of particular note was the $10 million, 10-year commitment from State Farm Insurance Company and the $11 million dollar commitment from a syndicate of national, regional and local banks that include: Wachovia Bank, BB&T Bank, First Citizens Bank, SunTrust Bank, Mechanics and Farms Bank, Lumbee Guaranty Bank and Mutual Savings Bank. This is the first time in the history of North Carolina that all of the state’s minority banks joined with the large majority banks to create a common lending facility.
In addition to representing national associations and corporate clients, Mr. Wallace takes exceptional pride in the accomplishments, leadership and service he has provided to some of the most distinguished minority organizations at the national level. Mr. Wallace has worked over twenty years with the leadership of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, the Corporate Roundtable and the National Urban League to take a lead role in elevating the discussion of credit, credit scoring and credit methodologies.
In 2003, he was retained to serve as senior consultant to the newly formed, National Black Caucus of States Institute. Mr. Wallace propelled the organization’s standing on several major issues of public policy, aggressively addressing the issue of financial services, credit scoring, payday lending, asset building, tax credits and other key creative financing tools. He has been recognized for his ability to collaborate and develop unique partnerships with corporate and non-profit organizations to advance “thinking outside of the box” as a means of removing many of the barriers that were plaguing low-resources communities access to affordable and equitable financial products.
During his tenure, Mr. Wallace lead a team consisting of members of the National Black Caucus of legislators and corporate financial representatives in developing strategies and legislation to mandate personal financial education in the public schools. By 2006, this effort resulted in having more than thirteen states that had passed or were considering legislation or administrative measures to address this issue. Mr. Wallace also is credited with the development and implementation of key meetings, seminars and symposiums that would bring together a cadre of policy makers to begin to craft solutions to some of these major issues related to credit and asset building. For three consecutive years, Mr. Wallace designed and convened the strategy for a national symposium on Financial Literacy. The symposium was held in Washington, DC at the National Press Club and explored the policy, programs and challenges in strengthening financial literacy and access to financial products and services in the African American community. While the core results of Mr. Wallace’s efforts working with state legislators continues to strengthen the policies and financial viability of African American families and communities—that was not enough. Mr. Wallace quickly identified that at the core of the lack of financial knowledge was an even greater significant barrier to building assets—and that obstacle was credit. Mr. Wallace recognized the need for additional data to substantiate the concerns that were surfacing and, working with the Brookings Institute, conducted additional research to assess the disparities in credit. As a result of the data, Mr. Wallace presented the analysis and convened several statewide forums for Black State legislators in Missouri, Illinois, and North Carolina.
Utilizing this key data, he worked successfully to convene in conjunction with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York the first East Coast Regional Conference on Credit—bringing together fourteen states and representatives of the financial community to address the impact credit was having on underserved communities. Following that regional conference he led an effort to host the first national hearing on Credit convened by NBCSI and the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Wallace brought together Fair Isaac’s, the Consumer Federation of America, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, CFED, Trans Union, Experian and Equifax.
Mr. Wallace has an extensive career in providing services in underserved markets and seeking change by addressing a myriad of public policy issues. He has successfully developed an economic development model to revitalize underserved and inner city communities utilizing franchising concepts—and has provided opportunities for business ownership to advance minorities in building assets.
He is the Co-founder of the National Minority Franchise Initiative and served as Chairman of the Minorities in Franchising Committee of the International Franchise Association (IFA) and on the Board of Trustees for the IFA Educational Foundation. He has served on numerous local and national boards. He is a frequently requested public speaker and has been sited in many publications for his expertise in franchising, business formation, finance and economic development. Mr. Wallace writes a feature column on franchising for Turning Point Magazine and he has written numerous articles for national publications like, USA Today, Black Enterprise, Franchising World, and Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Wallace received his JD with honors in Taxation and Corporate Law from Northwestern University and completed his formal legal education in the LLM Program at the University of Chicago, School Of Law (Taxation). He has served in a number of senior positions in the federal government including: General Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Senior Legislative Assistant to the U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Counsel and Analyst for the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, staff member of the President’s Transition Team on Environment and Natural Resources and Head of Transition and Chief of Staff for the Department of Health and Human Services.
Mr. Wallace’s record in the private sector has been equally impressive. His business experience includes the ownership and operation of one of the nations’ top 20 minority owned companies. He has also held business interests have been in the areas of: computer software, telecommunications, real estate development and the specialty retail business. Mr. Wallace’s business acumen and civic contributions have been acknowledged in a variety of national and local publications including: Crains’ Chicago Business, list of “Who’s Who in Chicago Business” and “Chicago’s Top Minority-Owned Businesses”, Black Enterprise magazine’s “Top 100 Black Businesses”, and the 43rd edition of Who’s Who in America.
In 1998, at the request of the Governor of the State of Tennessee, he relocated to Nashville, to design and implement a new statewide collaborative program – Tennessee’s Strategically Targeted Area Redevelopment (TN-STAR). TN-STAR was designed to improve systems integration and service delivery between various departments of state government and the four (4) largest population centers in Tennessee. The program results in measurable improvement in the interaction between these entities and brought in more than $70 million in addition federal money over a 3-year period.
As President of Wallace Enterprises, he has amassed an impressive list of clients included: American Bankers Association, Countrywide Mortgage, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, G.E. Capital Mortgage Corporation, International Franchising Association, National Association of Investment Companies, National Bankers Association, National Congress for Community Economic Development and many local and state governments and agencies.
