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Secretary Margaret Spellings named Charles M. Greene as the executive director for the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) on April 19, 2006. In his post, he advises the secretary on HBCUs and serves as the Executive Branch's liaison to these institutions. He also works closely with the president's board of advisers on HBCUs and with the more than 30 federal agencies that award grants and contracts to these institutions to support their operations.

The nation's HBCUs include more than 100 public and private two- and four-year postsecondary institutions from 20 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In the fall of 2003, total enrollment at these schools was 306,727 students, about 2 percent of all postsecondary students nationwide and about 15 percent of all African-Americans enrolled in postsecondary education. During 2003-04, HBCUs awarded 30,194 bachelors' degrees or 23 percent of the bachelors' degrees earned by African-Americans nationwide. During 2003-04, these schools also awarded 8,679 masters', doctoral and first-professional degrees, about 15 percent of these degrees earned by African-American students.

For nearly four years prior to his appointment, Greene served as the director of community and economic development for Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), working out of the senator's Philadelphia office. From 1999 to 2002, he was president and chief executive officer of the Partnership for the Advancement of Self-Sufficiency Inc., a Philadelphia workforce development agency that provided recruitment and training for private industry call centers.

From 1996 to 1999, Greene worked as a regional vice president for a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin that supported the operations of state and local governments.

In 1994, Greene ran for Pennsylvania's 198th district state house seat. Though he didn't win, he said the experience was enlightening, and, after the election, he worked as a consultant for another year before joining Lockheed Martin.

From 1992 to 1994, he served as Philadelphia's deputy mayor for intergovernmental relations during Mayor Ed Rendell's administration. In this post, in addition to coordinating the city's efforts with the state legislature in Harrisburg and with the Pennsylvania congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., he coordinated the mayor's efforts to win passage of key initiatives regarding the city's finances and the airport before the city council.

In 1973, he was hired as a second-level manager by Bell of Pennsylvania (later known both as Bell Atlantic and Verizon), starting a nearly 20-year career with the company. He was promoted twice and managed the operations division, a 2,700-person unit responsible for customer relations in the Philadelphia market. His division handled everything from installing and repairing phones to call center operations.

From 1971 to 1973, Greene was the assistant vice president for development in Howard University's development office, where he planned and ran a $300 million capital campaign. Prior to the Howard post, Greene worked for four years as the chief development officer for the Philadelphia office of the Rev. Leon Sullivan's Opportunities Industrialization Centers.

Greene got his start after college as a case worker for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare and the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority.

A Philadelphia native, Greene attended both public and parochial schools, before graduating from Northeast Catholic High School in 1957. After working for a year as a clerk for the Veterans Administration, he earned his B.A. degree in sociology in 1962 from Virginia Union University, an HBCU in Richmond. He later did graduate work in both business and public administration at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pennsylvania.

Throughout his career Greene has served on many boards and committees for a variety of organizations, including the Philadelphia Tribune and Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. He maintains residences in both the Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia areas. He has two daughters who reside in suburban Philadelphia along with two grandchildren.