José is Mission Asset Fund’s founding CEO. Under his leadership, he quickly built MAF into an award-winning nonprofit with innovative nationwide models for integrating financially excluded, low-income communities into the financial mainstream. For his work, he was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship, the Ashoka Fellowship, and the Aspen Institute Fellowship. He also received the James Irvine Leadership Award, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs’ Distinguished Alumni Award, and the San Francisco Business Times Most Admired CEO Award, among others.

Currently, he serves on the U.S. Treasury Advisory Committee on Racial Equity, and on consumer advisory boards for the Federal Reserve Board, U.S. Bank, Experian, and Capital One. In 2012, the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appointed him as the inaugural Chair of the Consumer Advisory Board. In 2014, CA Governor Brown enacted legislation recognizing MAF’s Lending Circles program, making California the first state to lift credit building as a force for good. In 2019, CA Governor Newsom enacted MAF-led legislation creating the CA Money Smart program to support nonprofit organizations that deliver effective financial education to low-income communities.

José graduated from the University of California at Davis and the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.