The San Franciscan of the Year Awards

We received an overwhelming response. In only the first few days of the application process, you, our readers, gave us hundreds of submissions. After narrowing those names down to the top 40 nominees, we let you vote on who our 12 winners should be.

After thousands of votes, the results are in.

These are the 12 San Franciscans you selected whose innovative work and leadership have left an indelible mark on our city and inspire us all to be better San Franciscans.

Join us in celebrating these icons and their tireless commitment to San Francisco. The winners will be honored in a ceremony in the Julia Morgan Ballroom on November 20.

Joe Betz

Whether it’s at a table at his restaurant on Van Ness or in a church hall, Betz has been keeping San Francisco well fed for decades. Only the second owner of the 75-year-old House of Prime Rib, Betz took over in 1985 from founder Lou Balaski, and he’s kept things just as they were — perfectly marbled prime rib, chilled martinis and a side of tradition. In a city that loves to reinvent itself, that’s a rare — or medium rare, depending on how you like your steak cooked — and welcome accomplishment.

Betz is the quintessential restaurateur. After waiting tables at Hoffman’s Grill on Market Street, he bought the restaurant in 1968, becoming the youngest restaurateur in the City at 28 years old. He purchased House of Prime Rib 17 years later, guiding it to become the legendary San Francisco institution it is today.

It speaks to Betz’s commitment to the City and the restaurant that, after all these years, he’s been able to maintain House of Prime Rib’s status as the pinnacle culinary destination in the City. He told SFGATE in 2022 that when he took over the restaurant it cooked 75 dinners per night. Now, it roasts at least 600 meals each evening — on a slow night.

But Betz’s hospitality extends far beyond the restaurant. For nearly 30 years, he’s made Christmas Eve special at Glide Memorial Church, donating and serving 3,000 pounds of prime rib to feed 1,500 people — seniors, the unhoused and food-insecure individuals — plus another 300 meals boxed up and delivered across the City. “He is so generous, and it’s genuinely from his heart,” says Jean Cooper, Glide’s chief impact and strategy officer.

Prime rib is a traditional Christmas meal, and for many at Glide, it’s an opportunity to celebrate the holidays like other families — being seen, recognized and treated with care, says Cooper. Joe has retired and his son, Steven, has taken over, but the tradition continues. This year is the first Christmas Eve without the Rev. Cecil Williams, who died in April, but the Betz family remains committed to making sure everyone can enjoy a special meal.

As he told SFGATE, “We’re not just donating it, but my sons and I and my grandchildren are there serving it because I want my grandchildren to see there are two sides of the world — and people work very hard.”

— D.W.

Willie Brown

Brown is not just the face of San Francisco politics. He’s also a symbol of the City’s ageless wonder.

The esteemed former mayor — or “Da Mayor” as he’s often affectionately called — celebrated his 90th birthday earlier this year. His presence in the City is almost as powerful now as it was when he held office for eight years at the turn of the millennium.

Mayor London Breed, who interned in Brown’s administration, told the San Francisco Examiner that he’s a “pillar of the community” and a “true icon here of San Francisco.”

U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi described him as a “a champion of justice and progress” whose public service in the City was “barrier-breaking” — Brown was the first Black mayor in the City’s history and hired more minority, LGBTQ+ and female staffers than any who had held office before him.

His list of accomplishments as mayor is as long and as dense as anyone elected to the powerful office in San Francisco. He presided over the City during the dot-com boom, as the City’s economy boomed with it.

But Brown is far more than simply a politician, wearing many more hats throughout his life — figuratively and literally, when it comes to the many luxury fedoras that often top his head. He is one of the rare San Franciscans whose celebrity extends beyond the political realm and the confines of the City’s seven-by-seven grid.

He was a weekly columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He’s had multiple roles in big-budget Hollywood films including Godfather III, the Princess Diaries and the Hulk. Esquire magazine once named him the best-dressed man in San Francisco. He was even an analyst on TV during the San Francisco 49ers’ pre- and post-game shows.

His firm cultural foothold in the City is a testament to his energy, charisma and loyalty — as evidenced by his earning reelection for 14 years in the California legislature before ascending to San Francisco mayor.

“I have never, ever abandoned a friend. Never. Period,” he told the Gazette in an interview in 2020. “I don’t support my friend’s conduct, I don’t approve of my friend’s conduct, but I don’t leave the friend in need of a blood transfusion if I can find a way to get it to him.”

Former San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier, who is good friends with Brown and still appears alongside him for a weekly interview on the San Francisco radio station KCBS, told the Examiner that his legacy will be defined by his longevity.

“The beaches are littered with the bones of people that thought they were going to bury him,” Matier told the Examiner earlier this year.

Need another sign of Brown’s celebrity? Look no further than the star-studded guest list for his 90th birthday celebration at Harris’ Restaurant in March, which featured a who’s who of San Francisco politics, including Breed, Governor Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, former mayor Art Agnos, San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer and former San Francisco 49ers executive Carmen Policy.

What does Brown’s ever-evolving and timeless future look like now?

“At 90? Ninety-one,” Brown told the Examiner.

“And then 92, 93?” the Examiner asked.

“You got it,” he said.

— G.W.

Dr. Susan Ehrlich

As chief executive of the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, Ehrlich oversees one of the essential cornerstones of the City’s public health system.

The sprawling multiblock campus, the City’s only Level 1 trauma center, continues to be a vital monument for ensuring a healthy San Francisco, serving roughly 5,000 people daily, many of whom are among the most vulnerable San Franciscans.

Health care and helping others have always been a part of Ehrlich’s life. Her dad, S. Paul, had a long career in public health, including serving as the acting U.S. Surgeon General during the Nixon and Ford administrations and later as U.S. representative to the World Health Organization. Her mother, Geraldine, worked for years in health care contract management.

But Ehrlich wasn’t sure she wanted to follow in the field. When she moved to California she worked in Sacramento at the state legislative office, where she said she studied every health state budget she could.

Then former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos appointed her as a health budget analyst in 1989. After spending a few years working for the City, she made a rare

midcareer change by enrolling in medical school at UCSF at 35.

“My parents thought it was crazy,” she told the Gazette in 2019. But the decision forever changed the course of her career for the better.

After receiving her degree, Ehrlich spent her residency in Boston before returning to the Bay Area to be the head of the San Mateo Medical Center. In 2016, she came back to where her medical career began, appointed as the new head of San Francisco General, the 146-year-old San Francisco public health institution in the heart of the City.

This year, the San Francisco Business Times named her to its annual list of the Most Admired CEOs program.

She has frequently touted her data-driven approach to medicine and bolstering the hospital medical database, a key reason why SF General was set up to respond accordingly during the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic. Ehrlich has long understood the connection between public health, mental health and the City’s ongoing homeless crisis — unhoused people account for a large portion of the hospital’s patient base.

“We, as an organization, have to be attentive to those things,” she told the Gazette in 2019. “We can’t take care of the medical problems without taking care of the social issues that patients present with.”

And through it all, Ehrlich acknowledges the privilege it is to work in the City and to provide a virtual resource for its residents. It’s what makes the often-70-hour workweeks worth it.

When asked by the Gazette what she loves about San Francisco, she responded, “everything.”

“I’ve been living here a long time. The physical beauty, the culture, the fact that I can find new things here all the time. The people. The politics. It’s a great place to be, and it’s also a great launching place,” she said. “I love being a part of this community.”

— G.W.

Kathy Fang

Fang’s stardom burns bright not just through her visionary cooking but in how she — with the enduring pride and love she has for her hometown, San Francisco — uses her platform to champion the causes that lie closest to her heart.

The City’s zestful restaurateur continues to blaze new food trails while staying grounded to her Bay Area roots.

Fang and her family showcase the very best of the City. Fang’s parents, Peter and Lily Fang, immigrated to San Francisco from Shanghai in 1980 with little money and barely knowing English. They started working as restaurant servers just to make ends meet. Eight years later, they founded what is now an iconic Kearny Street restaurant, House of Nanking, seeking to show Americans a different side of Chinese cooking by uniquely featuring cuisines from Shanghai. But the restaurant did not reach that prestige overnight.

Fang’s parents worked every day, weekends and nights, taking off only Christmas and Thanksgiving, to build it into the San Francisco institution it is today. That work ethic was ingrained in Fang, who practically grew up in the restaurant, spending her formative years learning what it takes to thrive in the culinary world.

Today, Fang owns not just House of Nanking, having inherited the restaurant from her parents, but has also opened an eatery of her own in SoMa, aptly named Fang. Like House of Nanking, Fang wanted it to be a new version of Chinese American cooking, billing it as an upscale fusion establishment that specializes in modern twists on traditional southern and northern Chinese favorites.

Fang has emerged as one of the City’s premier restaurateurs and celebrity chefs, appearing on Food Network TV programs like Guy’s Grocery Games, Cutthroat Kitchen and the cooking competition show Chopped — which she won twice.

And she continues to use that platform to enrich the lives of those in need while proudly wearing her San Francisco ties with a badge of honor, the only place she’s lived except for her college years at USC.

“People want to come to the City. The City is beautiful,” she told the San Francisco Examiner earlier this year. “It’s highly concentrated with a lot of things that you can do. There’s art, there’s food, there’s culture, there’s so much.”

That also extends to her advocacy for Chinatown — where Fang was born and raised — an especially important role following the pandemic, which decimated the historic neighborhood’s economy. “I’ve been in SF my whole life,” she told the Gazette in 2022. “We’ve come back stronger than ever after disasters and economic collapses. We will get there at some point. We just all have to have faith in our beautiful city and keep pushing.”

— G.W.

Sergeant Joelle Harrell

Harrell may not have the name recognition of the other San Franciscan of the Year candidates but her heroism places her in a unique stratosphere of her own.

Harrell, a 25-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department, was working her regular foot patrol duty in Union Square on August 31 when she suddenly heard three gunshots about a block south of her.

She rushed to the scene and saw a shirtless man covered in blood. The victim was San Francisco 49ers rookie wide receiver Ricky Pearsall.

The team’s 2024 first-round pick, fresh off an autograph signing outside of the City, was returning to his vehicle after purchasing new luggage to prepare for the 49ers’ upcoming road trip. Suddenly, a man approached him, stole his watch, and shot him in the chest.

When Harrell got to Pearsall she immediately recognized the severity of his injury. Her next actions — grabbing the 24-year-old’s shirt and pressing it against his chest to apply pressure to the wound and stem the volume of blood oozing out of him — may have saved his life.

Amid the chaos, Harrell ordered an ambulance and was able to get a description of the shooter from Pearsall, who described a young man with curly hair wearing all black and running barefoot down Geary Boulevard.

Harrell yelled to a nearby officer to radio in the description to the rest of the force — she could not do it herself because she was tending to Pearsall’s wound.

Harrell then told Pearsall that he was going to be OK and to be strong like he is out on the field. He even asked her if he was going to die. She assured him he would not.

“And he listened,” she told KTVU. “I said thank you, because I needed him to be calm.”

Pearsall held onto Harrell while the ambulance sped toward them. She continued to do so as paramedics bandaged him up and loaded him into the emergency vehicle. Meanwhile, down the street, officers had detained a teenager, and an officer asked if he was the one. She looked up, saw he matched the description and yelled to them, “keep him there!”

The bullet, amazingly, passed through Pearsall’s chest without hitting any of his vital organs. Pearsall was hospitalized in stable condition and was released within days. He is now fully healthy and back on the field, debuting for the 49ers on October 20, less than two months after he was shot.

49ers executive John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan called his recovery a miracle. Lynch specifically praised Harrell for her response. “I think we’ve all seen the measures she went to to make Ricky comfortable,” he told reporters at a press conference a few days later. “She was there for him in a real rough time, and I know how appreciative Ricky is of that.”

Harrell and the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center surgeon who operated on Pearsall were honored by the 49ers during their opening game on September 10. They received a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd, and Pearsall presented both with personalized team jerseys.

He then wrapped Harrell in a big hug.

— G.W.

Dr. Sam Hawgood

UCSF has long been one of the nation’s most revered and acclaimed medical institutions. The man at the helm of the hospital is no different. Under Hawgood’s direction for the last decade, the City’s premier health research center and hospital has kept its hard-earned status as a leader in medical innovation worldwide.

The Australian has been a mainstay at UCSF for more than 40 years. He started at the hospital as a research fellow in 1982, working for John Clements and William Tooley, a pair of pioneers in the discovery and uses of pulmonary surfactants, a fluid that allows lungs to expand, which has helped save millions of infant lives.

That experience set the foundation for Hawgood’s forte as a neonatologist, a doctor who specializes in the care of newborns. Prior to being named UCSF’s chancellor, he served as physician-in-chief of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, chief of neonatology, chair of pediatrics and dean of the UCSF School of Medicine, which, under his leadership, became the top medical school in the nation in research funding from the National Institutes of Health, raising $439.6 million in 2013.

As head of UCSF, Hawgood oversees a $9.5 billion institution, which encompasses four nationally ranked professional schools (dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy), and the top adult hospital in California and number three hospital nationwide in neurology and geriatric care, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

In Hawgood’s 10-year stint as chancellor he has expanded partnerships with the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, public health and community groups, and other health care organizations. UCSF revenues have also increased 50 percent. But it isn’t just its revenue that has doubled; the institution has also doubled down on San Francisco.

While other companies have been leaving, UCSF not only sustained our community through COVID-19 but also invested in the City when we needed it most: developing the plan for the Dogpatch Power Station Project, upgrading its Parnassus location, adding St. Mary’s and other San Francisco hospitals to its primary care offerings to serve the City, opening the new Mission Bay campus, and even expanding beyond the City’s borders with facilities in the East Bay, North Bay and beyond.

In 2017, he launched what would become one of the largest fundraising efforts ever set by a U.S. university. Almost 160,000 donors contributed to UCSF: The Campaign, raising nearly $6.2 billion to support the center’s mission to advance human health worldwide over the course of only 15 months.

As he said in a statement, “Our donors helped fortify UCSF’s future by investing in our people, ensuring the work we all do each day will continue to advance human health in the Bay Area, in our nation and around the world.”

— G.W.

Chris Larsen

Larsen is a Silicon Valley legend. He’s most well known for first being the cofounder of the $1 billion online mortgage lender E-Loan in the 1990s and later the cryptocurrency giant Ripple.

But Larsen has become far more than simply someone with a net worth you can Google. He’s used his wealth as a means to provide unstinting support to causes including climate advocacy, politics and the City itself. Sometimes, like this year, those interests intersect.

Larsen has been one of the key San Francisco funders of Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, helping lead the effort to push the Bay Area native and the City’s former district attorney and California’s former attorney general to the nation’s most powerful office.

At the Democratic National Convention in August, Larsen hosted a fundraiser for Harris, welcoming well-known local and national politicians alike, including Mayor London Breed, who lauded Larsen for putting his money where his mouth is both in regards to politics and when it comes to San Francisco.

“Chris Larsen believes in San Francisco,” Breed told attendees at the event. “Yes, he’s a businessman, and he wants his business to thrive. But at the same time, if he is told no, he is not going to punish San Francisco for it.”

Despite ascending to the highest levels of tech, Larsen has always stayed grounded to his Bay Area, and San Francisco, roots.

Larsen was born and raised in Cupertino before attending San Francisco State University, a relationship that he has sustained and nurtured long since his final day on campus. Larsen has invested an unprecedented amount of money in his alma mater through the years, highlighted by a $25 million donation to its business school from both him and his wife, Lyna Lam, in 2019. It’s one of the largest philanthropic gifts in the school’s history.

That’s on top of more than $800,000 he’s donated to scholarships, education, science and business initiatives at the university. He was named the school’s alumnus of the year in 2004.

“SF State gave me the foundation to start a career, originally in accounting, and those were just really concrete tools,” he told SF State Magazine earlier this year. “Nothing flashy or fancy. It was just, ‘OK — got a job to do, and I’m going to get that job.’ And I did, by the tools that they gave me.”

Beyond SF State, he’s been one of the City’s most vocal proponents and defenders, fighting back against the “doom loop” narrative that has placed San Francisco at the center of many national political conversations.

He’s recently poured millions of dollars into beefing up security technology for small businesses and other organizations in the City to alleviate crime concerns.

And last year, he spearheaded a

$4 million marketing campaign to promote San Francisco as a worldwide leader in creativity and innovation and a welcome spot for tourists from around the globe. The campaign shined a spotlight on the unrelenting beauty that residents see every day, but out-of-towners might miss amid swirling political rhetoric.

The campaign’s tagline is “It All Starts Here.”

“There’s nothing like San Francisco, and you can’t replicate it,” Larsen told the Gazette last year. “It’s such a mix of things. You’d never come up with anything like this place again. I love it. The weather, the food, the views. ... So we’ve got our problems, but it’s an awesome place.”

— G.W.

Larry Nibbi

As chairman of the board of Nibbi Brothers General Contractors, Nibbi doesn’t just build structures — he helps San Francisco stand taller. Since starting part time with his family’s business during high school in 1965, and later taking the helm with his brother, Sergio, in 1973, Nibbi has left an indelible mark on the City. From affordable housing to iconic landmarks, his work has shaped San Francisco’s skyline and its communities.

Favorite projects include the Cliff House remodel about 15 years ago and the Exploratorium’s move to the waterfront. “That was interesting, with all the pier work,” Nibbi recalls. “But honestly, what gets me most excited is affordable housing. I still get goosebumps when I see tenants moving into their new homes — people coming from tough situations or even the streets. Their joy is unforgettable.”

His most recent affordable housing project is Islais Place in the Excelsior, built on the site of the old Valente Marini Perata & Co. funeral home. Alongside that, he’s proud of the remodel of Clinic by the Bay’s new home, also in the Excelsior, which started operating last year — and held a grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony in October to celebrate its dental clinic. The health care clinic (cofounded by Gazette co-owner Janet Reilly) serves low-income and uninsured San Franciscans.

But Nibbi’s work extends far beyond construction. He has served on the boards of several charities, including the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco, where he was chairman for five years. He’s equally proud of being a member of the Giants ownership group in 1992. “We helped keep the team in the City,” he says. “San Francisco deserves a baseball team.”

He was instrumental in both keeping the team in San Francisco and building out the area around its waterfront baseball cathedral, Oracle Park. Nibbi’s company headed up construction of a pair of high-rise office buildings, which serve as two of the anchors of the Mission Rock Development, part of the City’s and the Giants’ efforts to create a vibrant community and sprawling neighborhood around the ballpark.

If Nibbi is a construction king, as he’s been described, then he’s one who rules with charity and benevolence.

In 2012, the San Francisco Bay Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America awarded Nibbi their annual Good Scout Award, bestowed to the member of the construction industry who best provides leadership to their company, the construction industry and the local community. “Larry really leads with his heart,” Giants President and CEO Larry Baer said during the presentation of the award.

It’s just another example of how Nibbi continues to build up San Francisco.

— D.W.

Roselyne C. “Cissie” Swig

Swig is a name synonymous with San Francisco philanthropy. After all, how many San Francisco philanthropists can say they have a day named after them?

Swig has maintained her unwavering support for the City’s most disadvantaged communities and the arts. But like any great humanitarian, Swig has been reticent to make herself the core of her story, instead letting her donations and foundations speak for themselves.

On May 17, 2012, the same day she received the lifetime achievement award from the San Francisco Arts Commission, Mayor Ed Lee proclaimed the day “Roselyne C. Swig Day” in the City.

Swig’s expansive trophy case includes the Philanthropy in the Arts Award from Americans for the Arts’ 2016 National Arts Awards, the GirlSource WAVE Award, and honorary degrees from Mills College, Santa Clara University, University of San Francisco and the San Francisco Art Institute.

While Swig’s list of accolades is long, the number of art institutes she supports or is on the board of — nearly every major institution in Berkeley and San Francisco — is even longer. “I’m very curious,” she told J. The Jewish News of Northern California. “I like to feel that I am involved in life — and hopefully improving it, or bringing others in to improve it. And I enjoy it. It keeps me busy.”

Her devotion to the City’s art scene traces back to 1966, when she was invited to join “the Women’s Board” at the San Francisco Art Institute, which paved the way for her tenure at a series of art boards throughout San Francisco and the creation of the Roselyne C. Swig Artsource, a unique office space in a Financial District alleyway dedicated to bringing artists and collectors together.

The space is still active today, though Swig sold it to her assistants when President Bill Clinton named her director of the Art in the Embassies program in 1992.

But it’s not just the art space that Swig has uplifted and championed — she’s also been at the forefront of advocating for domestic violence victims and residents of the Bay View neighborhood, one of San Francisco’s most historically underserved communities.

She is founder of the advocacy group Partners Ending Domestic Abuse and founder and member of Bayview Alliance. The latter is a network of research universities that collaborate to improve the City’s poorest areas.

“It is immeasurable, her help with art and artists and schools and women,” the late renowned funk artist William T. Wiley told the San Francisco Chronicle of Swig’s work. “Her support is unwavering and broad and deep.”

— G.W.

Diane B. “Dede” Wilsey

Wilsey is the preeminent San Francisco grande dame. As the City’s “queen of philanthropy” she has brought in millions to organizations ranging from UCSF medical facilities to Immaculate Conception Academy to Grace Cathedral and beyond. But perhaps none have benefited from Wilsey’s generosity more than San Francisco’s vibrant arts community.

Among her many achievements, Wilsey has brought in more than $200 million for the rebuild of the de Young Museum — some people dub it the DeDeYoung Museum because of how much she has invested in the famed institute. For the past 18 years, she’s underwritten the opening night of the Opera, the flowers in the Opera House and Opera in the Park. She’s also contributed to San Francisco Ballet.

Wilsey was a leading force for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco for more than 20 years, including as board chair, before stepping up to be chair emerita in 2016. “I don’t think it’s a philosophy, but I think the thing that makes me happiest is to think that I could change somebody’s life. Because that’s really special,” she told the Gazette about why she’s made philanthropy so central in her life.

One of her greatest contributions came in 2019, when she helped the Fine Arts Museums vastly expand their Free Saturdays program. When the promotion first started, only San Francisco residents could enter the de Young and Legion of Honor museums for free every Saturday. But after a packed first six months of the program, the museum extended the offer to all Bay Area residents. That was all made possible by Wilsey, who single-handedly paid the admission costs for the Bay Area–wide version of the program. Because of Wilsey, all 7 million Bay Area residents now have access to two of the most decorated art institutions in the world, and more than 600,000 people have gone through the museums as a result.

Wilsey’s parties in the City have also become the stuff of legend, bringing together the most well-known celebrities and politicos from San Francisco and beyond. Arguably the most sought-after invite is to her annual Christmas party, a 300-person glittering gathering of San Francisco elites at her Pacific Heights home.

“If you ever get an invitation, you have to go. If you don’t get invited, that is even worse,” former mayor Willie Brown told The New York Times.

Still, her commitment to San Francisco is defined by her never-ending spirit of giving. “It would be nice to be known that you were a character — that’s OK,” she told the Gazette in a 2021 interview. “But that you really cared about your community. And if you don’t care about it, go get another community.”

— G.W.

Jim Wunderman

Wunderman remains “the Bay Area’s most connected man.” This moniker, bestowed on him by the Gazette in 2018, rings just as true today. In fact, Wunderman’s fingerprints are all over the region’s politics and every sector of its dense and thriving economy.

He holds a variety of titles, but his most prominent one is president and CEO of the Bay Area Council.

In his 20 years at the helm of the almost 80-year-old San Francisco institution, Wunderman has transformed it from a run-of-the-mill good-governance group into arguably the most influential advocacy organization in the Bay Area. Wunderman bulked up the council’s membership to more than 325 organizations encompassing a diverse range of industries including housing, transportation, homelessness, workforce development and early education.

Anybody who knows Wunderman gushes about his unwavering belief in the City and its Bay Area neighbors. “Jim’s commitment to making a real difference and ability to marshal a range of stakeholders effectively sets him apart as a leader,” Kausik Rajgopal, Paypal’s executive vice president of strategy, corporate development and partnerships, told the Gazette.

Wunderman has had a front-row seat to some of the Bay Area’s most important political and economic moments of the past four decades. His first job after graduating from San Francisco State University was as a staffer on acting mayor Dianne Feinstein’s election campaign, motivated to help a City reeling in the wake of the assassinations of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone.

Ten years later, he was chief of staff for Mayor Frank Jordan, a position often regarded as nearly as powerful as the mayoral seat itself. He then worked as an executive at the San Francisco–based credit card firm Providian before taking his current job as head of the Bay Area Council.

And Wunderman has made sure the Bay Area Council evolves just as the region does.

This year, he announced plans to join forces with one of the only other Bay Area business groups that could match the council’s stature — San Jose’s Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Part of the motivation: to allow his group to represent more AI firms as the industry explodes across Silicon Valley.

“Bringing together the combined resources of these two great organizations would create an unparalleled platform from which to advocate for our region’s interest, overcome our biggest challenges and provide the visionary leadership needed to grow and prosper,” he said in a statement.

— G.W.

Manny Yekutiel

If you’re a politico searching for somewhere to host an event in San Francisco, Manny’s is a great place to start. That means talking to the venue’s founder, owner and namesake, the vivacious and eclectic Yekutiel. In just seven years, San Francisco’s ultimate extrovert has cultivated his quaint Mission District cafe into one of the City’s premier civic gathering spaces. The venue — which is also a restaurant, bar and bookstore — has become a go-to destination for book talks, conferences, concerts and galas.

Of course, most famously, Manny’s is a political fundraising machine, hosting the likes of Mayor London Breed, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Governor Gavin Newsom, first lady Jill Biden and, this year, Vice President Kamala Harris while she was still campaigning for President Joe Biden’s now-defunct reelection bid.

This year Yekutiel also put on a live San Francisco mayoral debate and a pair of simultaneous presidential debate watch parties. Despite all the attention his space — and, by extension, he — receives, Yuketial is reticent to take credit for being the force behind its success and goals.

“I don’t want it to feel like ‘this is a place for Manny, and what Manny believes in, and what Manny cares about,’” he told the San Francisco Examiner in 2021. “I want people who work in civic, political, nonprofit and social justice to feel ownership over this space.”

The venue’s constant energy reflects Yekutiel’s nonstop social life. As the Examiner wrote, his weekends are filled with dancing at clubs like Powerhouse and Casements, sharing a bottle of rosé or a joint with friends at Dolores Park, or taking himself out to a movie at Alamo Drafthouse.

But don’t let his appreciation of a good time cover up his distinguished professional résumé and diligent work ethic. He’s worked at the White House Office of Public Engagement during the Obama administration, as chief of staff at

FWD.us — the immigration-focused political advocacy group — and served as deputy finance director of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Yekutiel even flirted with a mayoral run during this election cycle, but decided against it at the start of 2024.

“I have a passion for life that trickles down to everything I do and how I spend my time,” he told the Gazette in 2022. “That’s probably my best quality: my urgency to live fully and purposefully.”

That passion surfaces in his pride for his Jewish heritage, LGBTQ+ identity and love for the City. “I love how open-hearted we are,” Yekutiel told the Gazette. “This is the best city in America to be a queer person, in my opinion, between the amazing art, culture, music and community. I love being gay in San Francisco.”

— G.W.