Ken Rich has spent 28 years in real estate development and city planning in San Francisco and the Bay Area. During that time, he has steered many complex projects and plans through San Francisco’s extremely challenging approval process as a senior level staff member in the City’s Planning Department and Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Since 2020, through his ongoing consulting practice, Ken has advised government, private and nonprofit sector clients around real estate entitlements and negotiations. Ken also is a part-time staff member of the Union Square Alliance where he serves as Director of Policy and Economic Development to do his part toward the recovery of downtown San Francisco.****Ken joined the San Francisco Planning Department in 1999, where he worked on a series of Area Plans including Balboa Park, Visitacion Valley, Japantown and most notably led the City’s initiative to adopt the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan, which rezoned a large portion of southeastern San Francisco in order to encourage more housing while protecting industrial businesses.From 2010 to 2020 Ken served as Director of Development for San Francisco Mayors Ed Lee and London Breed. He led the City’s team responsible for negotiating complex entitlements and development agreements for a series of large, transformational real estate development projects, encompassing more than 20,000 new residential units, 6 million square feet of commercial space and 40 acres of new open space for the City. Ken also served as a principal adviser to both mayors on planning and development issues. As Principal of Kenneth J. Rich Consulting, Ken has assisted clients including the City of Oakland, the City of Berkeley, BART, the San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market, the Union Square Alliance, MBC Biolabs and Kaiser Permanente. In his consulting practice, Ken focuses on creative public-private transactions to create value and public benefit.In 2023 Ken joined the staff of the Union Square Alliance, a Business Improvement District covering 27 blocks around Union Square to focus on post-Covid recovery efforts for Union Square as well as downtown San Francisco in general. As Director of Policy and Economic Development at the Alliance, Ken directs work related to public realm improvements, regulatory reform, tenant attraction and incentives to draw business back to the area.Ken holds a master’s degree in City Planning from UC Berkeley, as well as a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and master’s degree from Columbia University, both in History.