User:Larry hales/sandbox

Larry Hales (Born September 18, 1948) was the first African-American Director for a Vietnam Era veterans jobs program mandated from the White House under President Gerald Ford and reappointed by President Jimmy Carter.

Hales acted as a liaison between the Veterans Administration headquarters and the National Alliance of Business a business and labor organization both headquarted in Washington. As the liaison Hales interfaced with the Chairman's of Fortune 500 companies to set up programs so they could hire Vietnam Era veterans and get government contracts for doing so.

Hales himself is a Vietnam Era veteran who served aboard the USS John F. Kennedy as an Administrative officer.

He is also one of the first ever to help coordinate the initial White House Conference for Small Business under the Carter administration.

Following the 911 attacks on America, Hales relationship with President George Bush lead to an advisor role with Dr. Robert Pohanka the Under Secretary of Defense (Science & Technology) human capital strategy for DeVenci. The mission of DeVenci was to find and qualify emerging technologies that could help the Department of Defense in biotechnology, nanotechnology, cybersecurity,energy and space.

In January of 2013 Larry Hales was invited to the White House to visit with Valerie Jarrett the senior advisor to President Obama and Todd Park the United States Chief Technology Officer and assistant to the President. During this private session briefing the discussion was on how the White House could best spend the remaining $3.5 billion dollars on broadband technology. The funds were left over from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Fund.

Early Life

Hales spent most of his early years in New Orleans, where he was born, growing up in the 9th ward neighborhood.

In high school he played basketball, football, baseball and ran on the track team.

Following high school he was recruited by many major colleges to play football. He did play college football at Stephen F. Austin and the school won its first bowl game. Larry's college mentor and coach, John Levra awarded Larry with tickets including super bowl tickets to many NFL games.

Larry was recruited by the United States Navy Recruiting Command to attend the United States Navy Nuclear Engineering School.

Career

Hales held position on Capitol Hill, including Director of Vietnam Era Veterans JOBS program for the White House under President Ford and Carter.

In 1975, he founded Larry Hales Consultancy, a Washington,DC "government relations and business development" firm. Now known as the Hales Global Group LLC, the firm has close ties to both the Democratic and Republican Party and the Obama administration (and) has been retained by some of the biggest corporations in the country, including www.halesglobal.com AT&T, Boeing, Ford, GE, General Motors, HP, ITT, IBM, Northrop Grumman, Pitney Bowes, Raytheon, Texas Instruments and many other companies including foreign companies.

Williams Contracting Services, based in Virginia, needed emergency funding help and Larry Hales was able to help them get factoring in place in less than five days and the company met their payroll funding deadline.

Recent Years

Hales founded and is currently Chair of the Center for Wall Street Reform, a progressive Think Tank in Washington, DC and Advisor to the Center for American Investment Progress Action Committee. He is also a member of the Wall Street Project Bipartisan Committee. He has served as a director on the Iraqi Association For Building Opportunities In Iraq.

During the BP oil spill crisis Larry Hales briefed BP chairman Tony Blair during the Congressional hearing. He also held discussion with BP leadership at the BP office in London.

In early 2013 Larry Hales had a budget conversation with House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan. www.halesglobal.com

In 2009, Hales authored his book Understanding Stimulus Opportunities. In it, he articulates a vision of progressive values based on relationship building.

In March of 2009, Hales was invited to a VIP dinner hosted by President Obama. The discussion was centered on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Fund.

Most recently Hales has held talks at the White House with the Chief Technology Officer Todd Parks on cybersecurity, digital technology, cloud, and FedRamp.