Howard Dayton

CEO of Compass Ministries

Howard was challenged by his business partner in 1974 to study the Scriptures to discover what God's Word teaches about handling money. What he found profoundly changed his life; and the Lord gave him a passion to share these life-changing principles with others. He wrote Your Money: Frustration or Freedom, and for 10 years he invested about 30 percent of his time doing further research, writing, and conducting financial seminars for churches. He also is the author of Your Money Counts and How to Get Out of Debt.

Howard founded Crown Ministries in 1985 and developed a remarkably effective small group financial study. Howard has served full time as president of Crown and as an unpaid volunteer since its inception.

Crown Ministries merged with Christian Financial Concepts in September 2000 to form Crown Financial Ministries, the world's largest financial ministry. Through the combined strengths and resources of these two ministries, the merged organization is having a major worldwide impact. In 2009, Howard founded a new financial ministry called Compass—finances God’s Way, and serves as the CEO as a full-time volunteer. By 2014, Compass had expanded to 48 countries.

Howard and his late wife, Beverly, have two children: Matthew and Danielle. Howard lives in Sanford, Georgia.