Local Veteran Helps Others Find Their Calling

Chris Byrne is a veteran who served in Iraq with the Army, and then spent three years with the National Guard. After transitioning back into civilian life, he was lucky enough to find a job with JPMorgan Chase earlier this year. Now, he works to help fellow veterans find fulfilling work.

Byrne, 36, is a Long Island native. He spent his early years in Port Washington, but his family moved often. Now he lives in Rockville Centre with his wife, and is a vice president in JPMorgan’s Military and Veteran Affairs department. Specifically, he works on the Veterans Job Mission, which is seeking to get 1 million veterans employed.

“We are helping to support veteran employment across the country by having a number of companies join the Veterans Jobs Mission,” Byrne said. “We have 235 members, and we're expanding that on a regular basis.”

The members are companies across the nation that are striving to hire veterans. The VJM helps them find vets in their areas that are looking for jobs and have applicable skills. Since 2011, the VJM has helped more than 365,000 veterans find jobs.

On a larger scale, the Veteran Affairs department helps veterans across the country who are starting or running small businesses. It helps them to get their businesses started and keep them running, and helps with entrepreneurship as well.

Any veteran can apply for assistance with the Veteran Affairs office. “We want to support veterans as a whole,” Byrne said. “There are more tailored programs to the post-9/11 generation, because that's where we saw a lot of the employment issues. But we are inclusive of all veterans, regardless if they served in a wartime conflict.”

Byrne joined JPMorgan specifically because of the opportunity it gave him to work with his fellow veterans.

“The firm really has been at the forefront of veterans’ affairs across the country,” said Byrne. “I could blend some of the work experience I garnered in the military and use that experience to help veterans who might be looking for employment opportunities. It was a blend of both worlds for me, and I'm extremely lucky to be working with the military and veterans team here on behalf of veterans across the country.”

The VJM is expanding, and Byrne is helping to lead the way. The mission is branching out and trying to reach smaller companies to help them employ vets.

“We're trying to develop regional coalitions that would employ veterans,” Byrne said. “We're trying to target middle-market organizations of all different shapes and sizes that may want to get involved, but may not have the resources or may not know where to source veterans.”

The goal, Byrne explained, is to help employers that want to hire veterans find them, and vice versa.

It’s easy for businesses to join the mission. They can just go to www.jobsmission.com and sign up to be a part of helping veterans get hired.

Photo: Chris Byrne