{"id":266008,"date":"2026-04-13T19:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/266008\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T19:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:24:07","slug":"former-oakland-mayor-libby-schaaf-to-helm-major-bay-area-business-group-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/266008\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to helm major Bay Area business group \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf has been named CEO and president of the Bay Area Council, a prominent business group<\/a> representing hundreds of companies including major Silicon Valley technology giants<\/a>, the ports of Oakland and San Francisco, and the San Francisco Giants, Golden State Warriors and San Francisco 49ers.<\/p>\n

Schaaf, a two-term Oakland mayor, from 2015 to 2023, will start the job May 4, the Bay Area Council said in a news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cLibby Schaaf is an exceptional leader with a deep understanding of the Bay Area\u2019s opportunities and challenges,\u201d said Kristina Lawson, chair of the Bay Area Council\u2019s board of directors. \u201cHer proven ability to bring people together, drive meaningful progress, and champion innovative solutions makes her uniquely suited to lead the Bay Area Council at this pivotal moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schaaf said she planned to focus on the Bay Area\u2019s \u201cgreatest needs\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0from restoring housing affordability and strengthening our economy to improving public safety and expanding opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schaaf in 2024 announced a campaign for California state treasurer<\/a> in this November\u2019s election, but last year withdrew<\/a> after Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis said she\u00a0would drop out of the governor\u2019s race and instead run for treasurer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Bay Area Council noted that Schaaf has been teaching at UC Berkeley<\/a> and holds a fellowship at\u00a0Harvard University<\/a>. She sits on the Bay Area\u2019s Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Bay Area Housing Finance Authority as an appointee of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.<\/p>\n

Schaaf worked as a lawyer, an aide to former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and public affairs director for the Port of Oakland before being elected to the Oakland City Council in 2010 and as Oakland mayor in 2014. She served two terms to 2023, at one point gaining national notoriety in a spat over immigration enforcement with President Donald Trump<\/a> during his first term.<\/p>\n

She also led talks with Major League Baseball\u2019s Oakland Athletics over a new stadium proposal<\/a> at Howard Terminal. The team abandoned that plan in 2023 shortly after Schaaf left office to pursue a new stadium in Las Vegas instead.<\/p>\n

Schaaf\u2019s time leading Oakland was marred by allegations she violated campaign-finance laws<\/a> through her influence on political committees that received donations above legal limits. In a 2024 settlement with the City of Oakland Public Ethics Commission, Schaaf admitted to breaking Oakland\u2019s municipal code and agreed to pay a $21,000 fine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Schaaf\u2019s predecessor at the Bay Area Council, Jim Wunderman, who had l<\/a>ed the organization from 2004 to the end of last year, also had some political background, having served as chief of staff to former San Francisco Mayor Frank M. Jordan and as an aide to former Mayor Dianne Feinstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John Grubb, the Bay Area Council\u2019s interim CEO and president, will switch to a role as chief strategy and growth officer for the group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf has been named CEO and president of the Bay Area Council, a prominent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,387,7,332,383,1011,1336,181,58652,23,100,143,145,144,385,1970],"class_list":{"0":"post-266008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-alameda-county","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-east-bay","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-housing","15":"tag-housing-crisis","16":"tag-latest-headlines","17":"tag-libby-schaaf","18":"tag-local-news","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-oakland","21":"tag-oakland-headlines","22":"tag-oakland-news","23":"tag-regional","24":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}