Jonathan Greene

Location: Asheville, N.C.

Jonathan Greene, an area manager for SunTrust Banks (No. 327), isn’t big on the idea of a quiet home. He grew up with 13 siblings, and with only three biological children of his own, he knew there was room for more. In 1995, Greene and his wife opened their Florida home to foster children, hosting one girl with special needs for four years and another dozen children for several weeks at a time. When the family moved to Virginia about six years later, Bedford County asked the Greenes to serve as an assessment home—a place that hosts each new child that enters the system and helps to determine their needs. In that capacity, the Greenes fostered more than 175 children over a ten-year period. Meanwhile, the family also served as a haven for rescue dogs. “It was a good mix to have the dogs being rescued with the foster children,” Greene says. “The dogs have a way of helping children that go through trauma.” In the past 14 years, he and his wife have fostered more than 200 children and rescued and placed over 300 animals. As for their first foster child, he says, “that’s one of our proudest things to talk about.” She graduated from college and now works as a social worker.