Crystal German

Crystal German is Executive Vice President of Self-Help and President of the Center for Community Self-Help. At Self-Help, she co-leads the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative and serves on Self-Help Ventures Fund’s Finance, Investment, and Credit Committees as well as Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Steering Committee. Additionally, she supervises Self-Helps Mortgage Credit Administration; Development, Policy, and Impact; and Communications teams. Prior to being appointed President of the Center, Crystal served as Executive Staff at Self-Help, leading the Supplier Diversity Initiative. Results from the program led to spending 15% of discretionary dollars with businesses owned by women and people of color.

Before coming to Self-Help, German founded Prosperity Labs to develop approaches and tools for people of color and women to build healthy and sustainable communities. Key projects included work for J.P. Morgan Chase on addressing barriers and resource gaps to growing minority and women owned firms across the U.S. Previously, she served as VP of Minority Business Accelerator and Economic Inclusion at the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber and as VP of the National Institute of Minority Economic Development. At the Institute, her team delivered high quality entrepreneurial development services to over 150 companies annually and managed a $500k annual grant from the US Dept. of Commerce.

She holds an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill and a B.S., Summa Cum Laude, from Florida A&M University. German serves on the Finance Committee of the Triangle Community Foundation, and has received awards from Next City, Balle, and American Express Leadership Academy.