Mr. Hopton is a lifelong cooperative innovator whose work has helped shape cooperative housing, finance, and community-based economic development for more than five decades. His involvement with cooperatives began in 1970, when at the age of 24, he joined the Mutual Ownership Development Foundation (MODF) as Assistant Project Director in charge of Consumer Education for a groundbreaking $6.4 million development in Pasadena, California. The 22-acre project included 255 cooperative townhouses and a five-acre shopping center and was fittingly named Co-op Village, a concept that would later become the foundation for this book.

MODF was among the nation’s leading cooperative housing developers at the time, and Mr. Hopton’s early work placed him at the center of a growing movement focused on shared ownership and community wealth. He later became business partners with MODF founder and CEO Paul Golz and had the privilege of working alongside Jerry Voorhis, a nationally recognized Co-op Hall of Famer and one of MODF’s board members.

From 1972 through 1981, Mr. Hopton worked as a public relations and marketing consultant for many of the most prominent cooperatives in the United States, including co-ops in Berkeley, Oakland, and Palo Alto, California, as well as the well-known Greenbelt Cooperative in Maryland. These experiences gave him a rare, ground-level understanding of how cooperative enterprises succeed and where they struggle across different regions and industries.

Recognizing his expertise, California Congressman Don Edwards recommended Mr. Hopton as a consultant to the National Consumer Cooperative Bank (NCCB), a federally created institution designed to expand cooperative economic development nationwide. As part of that effort, Mr. Hopton conducted public hearings in thirteen U.S. cities to help establish policies and procedures tailored to the unique needs of cooperatively owned businesses that traditional banks often fail to understand. In 1985, NCCB became the National Cooperative Bank (NCB), which continues to support cooperatives across the country.

In 2000, working with NCB’s retail banking subsidiary, Mr. Hopton helped create the world’s first affinity and co-branded MasterCard debit card that was capable of returning cash rewards of up to 40 percent. This breakthrough led to the development of the Prosperity Card and, later, the Prosperity Cash Reward Digital Wallet, a fintech platform that enables “Smart Spending” and delivers cash rewards directly through mobile devices.

Today, as Founder and Board Chairman of the Global Village Co-op, Mr. Hopton continues his mission to help communities build lasting wealth through cooperative ownership and innovation.