Cathy Adams Is Turning Oakland’s Recovery Into Black Business Power

Let me tell you about Cathy Adams.

In Oakland, an economic recovery doesn’t announce itself with a single ribbon cutting. It shows up as a lease signed, a contract won, a payroll that holds through a slow quarter. Adams measures the city’s comeback in exactly those units — and then goes looking for more.

The Work

Adams is the president and CEO of the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce, an organization working to strengthen Black-owned businesses across Oakland and the Bay Area. Its tools are concrete: advocacy, education and networking, plus deliberate connections to capital and contracting opportunities — the two things that most often decide whether a good business survives its growth years. The work is deliberately unglamorous. It means sitting with an owner through a loan application, demystifying how a city contract is bid, and building the rooms where a founder meets the banker, the buyer and the mentor they didn’t know. Under Adams, the chamber has become a hub for exactly that. In May 2026, the San Francisco Business Times profiled her leadership and the chamber’s push to support Black businesses. In September, she took the case to the airwaves, joining KRON4 to talk about building economic power, backing local entrepreneurs and the future of Black business in Oakland.

The Roots

The chamber sits at the center of one of the most storied Black commercial histories in the country. Adams leads from inside that tradition, connecting entrepreneurs to the resources, relationships and opportunities that help them scale. That means keeping the focus on businesses already rooted in Oakland — the ones that hire locally, mentor the next owner and stay when the cycle turns. That continuity is the point: a business that survives thirty years on the same block becomes a lender, a landlord, an employer and an example.

Why You Should Know Her

Because capital and contracts are where a recovery is won or lost. When Adams talks about the future of Black business in Oakland, she is talking about ownership: who holds the deed, who signs the payroll, who gets the city’s work. Her answer to the city’s critics — “For every negative thing, I can show you something positive” — is not a slogan. It is a standing invitation to keep building. Adams is working to make sure the Bay Area’s next decade of growth includes the people who were there long before the boom.

Quick facts

• President & CEO, Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce
• Chamber focus: advocacy, education, networking, and access to capital and contracting
• Profiled by the San Francisco Business Times (May 2026)
• Featured by KRON4 (Sept 2026) on building economic power in Oakland
• Champions Oakland’s economic recovery for Black-owned businesses

📸 Photo: KRON4 / AOL

*Black Future Year celebrates Black excellence all year long.*