Former FHFA official seeks to empower local leaders

August 22, 2025 6:00 AM

Antonio White built his career in high-level Washington-related posts he held at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Treasury, Bank of America and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. But he got there through the work and connections he built growing up around Route 480 in Cleveland.

That's why White is starting a business called 480 Advisors, which allows him to share his knowledge of government policy and finance with local leaders so that they can chart their own course in their communities.

"I am a first-generation college graduate. When I got to Washington I had all of these questions. I got the equivalent of master classes from the leaders I worked with. I always thought, 'What if I could bring this knowledge back to the people who need it?" White said.

In the following interview, the former director of the FHFA's Office of Congressional Affairs and Communications, deputy assistant secretary in Treasury's Office of Community Engagement and policy executive at B of A shares more about his past and how it informs his future.

His remarks have been edited for length and clarity.

The types of local leaders 480 Advisors seeks to serve

White: I run an executive brand development agency in Washington. I don't do lobbying. My target client is someone whom an investment bank would normally serve, but in circumstances that are more equitable. These are people seeking investment advice and financial knowledge.

When you become a private banking client, you get access to the institution's investment analysis and insights from the experts. They invite you to events. If you go to a meeting like the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual conference, they'll have an NFL player who's talking about, say, Opportunity Zone investment in a particular area, and they'll put them on the stage or ask him to be part of the capital stack for a project.

These people know their communities. They know the partners they have, other high net worth individuals that they can also bring in and they could actually create more wealth in their localized networks if they understood not just how to execute their programs and their policies, but the tools, terminology and the right networks and access points that wealth is revolving in. They could then place themselves there and they could be part of the conversation, and create their own capital flows.

To use an investment term, typically they're more downstream, and I want them to be upstream when it comes to real estate development or investment in cryptocurrencies.

New investors are too downstream now. They weren't there 10 years ago when we were talking about Bitcoin at the Treasury Department as something that is emerging. I want to serve them because I've worked at an investment bank. I've worked for a government agency as well. I've seen what's delivered to clients and I want to be able to provide that so that they can understand that they're more than just their money, they are thought leaders, and their money could be powerful and contribute to wealth creation all around them.

I'm trying to get them to be more centered as investors and not just investment partners. I want clients to be able to invest in their own communities, make their own deals, and know when they get to the table how to talk about local zoning with the mayor or with the governor. They should know what questions to ask, why, and how to navigate that before, and they're not getting that. They're not valued, they're not served, and I want to be the person that serves them, because I know that they want the information.

You can look around at all of the major podcasts that are frequented by first generation world creators, celebrities and athletes. All they talk about is getting more investment knowledge and advice to grow their communities. But, you know, have you seen that, that movie about the Robin Hood deal and the meme stocks? That movie accuses some private-equity investors of looking at outsiders as dumb money. Some outsiders lost money on GameStop investments in that movie but others made it. Some people won.

I have been in the room with the boards of banks and major development agencies. I think they would be in a better position if they had people who come into first-time wealth and want to bring it back to their community at the table. Just as an example, consider someone like LeBron James who is involved with Promise Homes in Akron, Ohio. He is a thought leader for community investment and how to work with cities to achieve it.

We know LeBron as a basketball player. He may only see himself as a basketball player, but you have to learn an awful lot to get involved with a multi-unit housing development project. I want to help people like him. My guess is he's probably going to follow other community leaders like Serena Williams and start his own private equity or venture capital firm. Serena, by way of another example, has invested in Esusu. They've offered positive rent payment with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A focus on first-generation wealth

White: I talked to my former barber in Baltimore recently. He's a community leader who buys single family homes, and then he flips them or places them with a nonprofit who buys homes for people in need. I talked to him about how he could diversify his portfolio in real estate and explained terms like capital stack.

When I was in graduate school, I mentioned to him that I wanted to work at the White House and he had clients with powerful connections in Washington who gave me advice that helped me secure an internship.

He had never heard of terms like first loss capital. Those were new concepts to him. But he's first generation wealth.

I think that the people who are more likely to see the value in 480 Advisors are first-generation wealth builders.

They haven't been served by other advisory firms because they are viewed as like capital that can be added or something that can be transacted off of rather than thought leaders.

We talk a lot about the wealth gap. Secretary Yellen used to have this in her stump speech, since she started studying economics in 1968,

the wealth gap between Black and white families

has not changed substantially. It's so true.

What usually happens if you're a first generation wealth builder is you probably grew up in a family robbing Peter to pay Paul. You probably have used cash advances. You probably had to spend more money a month than what you brought in, and you probably lived on credit. Your parents worked for hourly wages. You probably just needed more resources to get by, and you probably didn't have conversations around money because it was shameful, because you didn't have it.

So now you become this big entertainer or athlete, or maybe you sell your grandmother's recipe for hair care, and you're a billionaire but you don't know anything about money other than the spending. So you're starting at a baseline where now you finally have money to cover all your needs, and now you're just learning about the capital markets and debt-to-income ratios. These are the terms that people are coming to you with because they now see you as a form of capital. I want to make sure that when they come to you, you know what you're talking about and you're ready.

I think first generation wealth builders need more than financial attainment. They need a dedicated advisor that can help them parse through what's real and what's not and what's risky and what's not.

Artificial intelligence, for example, is a tool that can modernize business and make opportunity greater. But what it also allows for is for a lot of people to parade around like experts who are not really.

I am a consumer of financial entertainment, like the book "Liar's Poker." That book is the Holy Grail when you're talking about mortgage-backed securities, because it talks about how the industry came about. But not everyone is going to read that book. I'm not going to force "Liar's Poker" on anyone, I can explain it instead.

A small business owner can pay me for as little as a few hours to consult on business matters connected to policy such as a purchase from China at a time when we're in a trade war with them.

I'll work with any client who wants to do positive work, including those who want to develop individual executive brands, networks and executive project management, positioning them optimally for all of their stakeholders, so that their message and brand can be very clear.

Drawing on past experience in policy and banking

White: I'm trying to offer the support and executive advice I provided to former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen or Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan about what's going on in Washington and how to position themselves to be most effective.

I apply the same principles I learned in the White House and at the Treasury when it comes to client presentation. I've worked for three Treasury secretaries, at the Bank of America and in other high-level posts. I want to see if I can help make other people successful as thought leaders and as business leaders in their own way.

I've been very privileged. I worked at FHFA and understand Fannie, Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks. I was a senior vice president and public policy executive at Bank of America. I helped Janet Yellen build a campaign for the inflation Reduction Act, and get the American Rescue Plan out to as many people as possible. I helped Tim Geithner and Jack Lew establish relationships with CEOs on trade tax policy. I also worked with the Secret Service on the G20 Summit at the Davos World Economic Forum.

I have a photo from a time when I was working with Secretary Yellen and getting ready to go meet with 40 of the major CEOs as part of the Financial Services Forum at a private club in Washington. I was giving her a briefing on oil reserves. In that meeting, were CEOs at the largest 40 banks in the world.

How 480 Advisors works with the mortgage industry

White: Mortgage professionals could play a role in some of my clients' community development efforts but I can engage them as clients as well. Anyone can get taken advantage of, so in addition to advising first-time wealth builders, I'm an essential professional advisor for clients across the income spectrum and who may already have financial or policy experience.

I just want to see where clients want to go. What's your goal? Why are you in real estate? Are you looking to tap into more access points so every client would get a needs-based assessment? Are you looking to tap into more access points? Do you just want to meet more real-estate developers who can bring you into their network? Do you want to be known as someone who's a thought leader that should be invited to these round tables so you can influence real estate policy on a local level? If you are interested in real estate or are a local developer, you might come to me. I offer four services: strategic counsel, public relations support, event production and relationship development.

People in the mortgage industry have an opinion about what's happening locally. They experience pain points, and in some cases they may not understand the process involved in communicating with the governor and the mayor on, say, local zoning laws. I help them figure out how to do that in a way that's strategic and coordinated. It's a little more individualistic than what the trade groups are offering.