PERSONAL
Harold was born at Highland Hospital to two less than prepared but amazing teenagers who lived in Oakland at a time where they worked hard and were able to buy a home in East Oakland’s Melrose community. Harold’s father was a 2nd generation Oakland union worker, who tragically drowned at the age of 25, when Harold was just 6 years old, leaving behind his wife and two children. Even as their lives spiraled into poverty, the Oakland Harold knew offered him opportunities to thrive in public school, to participate in the church and youth organizations, and to freely explore every corner of the city.
Harold graduated from Oakland Tech and majored in African American Studies at UC Berkeley (where he met his Oakland raised, Skyline High grad wife Andrea) and embarked on a quest to work in five corporate industries in 15 years, so that he could be of value to his community. In addition, he joined the American Contract Compliance Association, a network of national policy leaders in Local, Municipal, State, and Federal departments, to gain a greater sense of best development, construction, and management practices. While Harold has never left The Town, he has spent almost 3 years on the road outside of Oakland, engaging and leading business activities in 43 states and in 75 of the largest 100 cities in America, giving him a national perspective, and what the potential for Oakland should be.
Thirty-five years later, Harold has been a representative, manager, Vice President, and Director in 9 different industries, ranging from Education to Financial Services, to Consumer Healthcare and Technology, and he was able to mentor hundreds of underserved youth along the way. Harold most appreciates that he never stopped giving back, and you would be hard pressed to find anyone in Oakland who has worked in more varied community roles than him. Harold has tackled leadership roles in every aspect of Oakland; Mental Health, Education, Youth, Business Leadership, Policy, Diversity.
Harold lives less than a mile and a half from where he was born, in the Cleveland Heights neighborhood, with his wife of 27 years and their two college students (Georgetown and Howard universities), and his OUSD 7th grader….oh, and Wesley, the 2 ½ year old Maltese Poodle who is the boss of the house. Harold is an historian and foodie and a wine enthusiast most of the year, but for two weeks, he is taking Oakland teens camping in the scouts, as his father and his father once did. And his favorite celebrity is William Shatner, who he finally met in 2022, and is looking forward to seeing again this summer, almost as much as seeing his daughter graduate from Georgetown in May.