From the San Francisco Business Times: https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2025/12/16/bay-areanewsmakers-list-2026.html
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Who made our 2026 list of the biggest Bay Area newsmakers?
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, center, has made our Newsmaker 100 list again. Here, he appears in a City Arts and Lectures conversation with Steve Kerr, left, and Manny Yekutiel. ADAM PARDEE
By Simon Campbell – Special Projects Editor, San
Francisco Business Times Dec 16, 2025 Updated Feb 2, 2026 4:20pm PST
Listen to this article 6 min
When news breaks in the Bay Area, the results often reverberate around the world.
The people and companies doing business here matter far beyond the local economy, and the biggest stories in this region invariably set the global news agenda.
From AI innovation to eye-watering valuations and IPO market ignition, this is a bumper time for Bay Area news and celebrating the impact of the people behind the headlines is what our Newsmaker event is all about.
Our reporters and editors have compiled a list of the biggest newsmakers in the Bay Area across tech, finance, real estate, sports, culture, politics and philanthropy.
Not all news is good, but when the big fish of the Bay Area move, the ripples they make soon become waves that the rest of the world has to navigate.
This is the first year we’ve organized an event around our Newsmaker list. On Feb. 19, we’re organizing an event to convene the Newsmakers for a night of connection and conversation.
Our reporters will profile the Newsmakers in a special edition of the paper and online, but in the meantime it is our pleasure to introduce the San Francisco Business Times 2026 Newsmaker 100:
Isaac Abid, Lakeside Group
Cody Allen, Upper Fillmore Revitalization Project
Sam Altman, OpenAI
Dario Amodei, Anthropic
Max Armour, Compass
Lori Augustine, United Airlines
Jim Bachand, San Francisco Association of Realtors
David Balducci, Align
Marc Benioff, Salesforce
Simon Bertrang, SF New Deal
JoeBen Bevirt, Joby Aviation
Betsy Biern, Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area
Robert Blum, Cytokinetics
Catherine Bracy, TechEquity Collaborative
Marc Cadieux, Silicon Valley Bank
Joe Lucier and Stacey Caen, Sotheby’s International Realty
Claudio Cipollina, Bank of America
Sam Cobbs, Tipping Point Community
Patrick Collison, Stripe
Kay Cossington, Bay Collective, Sixth Street
Lisa Countryman-Quiroz, Jewish Vocational Service
Laura Crescimano, Sitelab Urban Studio
Mary Daly, San Francisco Fed
Sarah Dennis-Phillips, City of San Francisco
Jason Droege, Scale AI
Sean Elsbernd, SPUR
Joe Ernst, SRM Ernst
Aicha Evans, Zoox
Dave Ferguson, Nuro
Nasha Fitter, Citizen Health
Greg Flynn, Flynn Group LP
Chris and Jason Freise, Redco
Michelle Gass, Levi Strauss & Co.
Mike Ghielmetti, Signature Development
Ali Ghodsi, Databricks
Darlene Goins, Wells Fargo
Sara Grauf, San Francisco Giants
Milan Jezdimirovic snd Dunja Green, Compass
Andre Haddad, Turo
Alex Hong, Arquet, Parachute Bakery
Francine Melendez Hughes, San Francisco 49ers
Zaileen Janmohamed, Bay Area Host Committee
C.J. Johnson, Mechanics Bank
Alex Mehran Jr., Sunset Development Co.
Maggie Kadin, Tishman Speyer
Bill Keller, Bank of San Francisco
Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber
Dan Kingsley, San Francisco Recovery Fund
Larry Kwan, St. Anthony's Foundation
Enrique Landa, Fifth Space
Leticia Landa, La Cocina
Chris Larsen, Ripple
Mark Lehmann, Citizens Bank
Dan Letter, Prologis
Gregg Lynn, Sotheby’s International Realty
Rich Lyons, UC Berkeley
Ashley Magargee, Genentech
Nadir Mahmood, Nkarta
Tekedra Mawakana, Waymo
Kristi McKenney, Port of Oakland
Breonna Mcree, Transgender District
Karen Mendelsohn, Compass
Lena Miller, Urban Alchemy
Luis Moran, San Francisco Association of Realtors
Mike Nakornkhet, San Francisco International Airport
Nisha Nanda, Lilly Catalyze360
Frank Nolan, Vanguard Properties
Dan O'Day, Gilead Sciences
Shola Olatoye, Downtown Development Corp.
Geoff Otlmanns and Marc Roher, Golden City Football Club
Uptal Patel, Biogen
Kevin Patsel, Compass
Gregg Perloff, Another Planet Entertainment
Anna Marie Presutti, San Francisco Travel
Keith Rabois, Opendoor
David Risher, Lyft
Marisa Rodriguez, Union Square Alliance
Tamara Rojo, San Francisco Ballet
Omar Salah, TMC Financing
Cathy Sandeen, CSU East Bay
David Schaffer, Bakar Labs
Tina Self, Bayer
Brian Sheehy, Future Bars
Matthew Shilvock, SF Opera
Michael Shvo, Shvo
Fidji Simo, OpenAI
Craig Simon, Oakland San Francisco Bay International Airport
Jess Smith, Golden State Valkyries
Jan Sramek, California Forever
Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity
Kent Steinwert, F&M Bank
Bret Taylor, Sierra
Neil Thwaites, Alaska Airlines
Wayne Ting, Lime
Cari Tuna, Good Ventures
Ani Vartarian, Rubicon
Tony Vitello, San Francisco Giants
Ching-Hua Wang, Samuel Merritt University
Gerris Wilkinson, B3 Investors
Angie You, Architect Therapeutics