Danny Wan

Danny Wan is the executive director for the Port of Oakland. He is also president of the California Association of Port Authorities. He came to the Port of Oakland in the 1990s as external legal counsel to the port’s aviation division. In 2012, he became port attorney, advising the port board and staff on a broad range of issues in the conduct of the port’s maritime, aviation, and commercial real estate businesses. He was appointed to the executive director position in 2019. He has been a longtime public servant, community leader and policy maker. In the late 1980s he was a public-school teacher in Oakland and San Francisco. In 2000, he was appointed to the Oakland City Council to represent the Chinatown/Grand Lake district, and was elected to the position by voters two years later. From 2008 to 2012, he was city attorney and risk manager for the City of Morgan Hill. In 2017, Governor Jerry Brown appointed him to the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, which promotes economic development and environmental stewardship of the Sierra Nevada region. He received a BA in rhetoric and an MA in education from the University of California, Berkeley, and a JD from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.