Alan Okagaki

Alan’s work on the “inside” of Craft3 gives him a unique perspective. He was the ShoreBank Corporation lead on a project assessing the opportunity to create a development finance institution in Willapa Bay in 1993 – the results of which led to the Chicago-based community bank co-founding Craft3. “Even with such a long history with the organization, I am still excited to be involved with Craft3. The thoughtfulness of the work, the incredibly high quality of the staff, the tireless effort to be strategic in a transaction-driven business – all of these things drive my own interests.”

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Alan’s has always focused on sustainability and access to opportunity. “Growing up in a lower-income neighborhood in San Jose, California I had classmates who could have done more but whose life trajectories were constrained by lack of opportunity. Opportunity is not an abstract concept for me.” Alan started working on environmental sustainability, then shifted toward economic development and anti-poverty efforts when he concluded that the underlying economy needed to change before social and environmental goals could be reached.

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Alan is a former Senior Consultant to the Aspen Institute Microenterprise Fund for Innovation, and has held positions with ShoreBank Corporation, Prosperity Now, The California Energy Commission and the California State Legislature. He holds an MA in Political Science from UC Berkeley and a BA in English from Pomona College.