Malaki Amen

Background

About Malaki Amen

MALAKI AMEN (pronounced “ma-luck-eye / awe-men”) is Chief Executive Officer and founder of the California Urban Partnership (CUP). The CUP builds economic security in communities of color through policy research, education and organizing community action. Malaki is a 28 year veteran in the community economic development field. He has shaped policy and programs as an appointed advisor in California's Legislature, Office of the Governor, Fortune 500 corporations and the University of California Office of the President. In roles as partner of a public affairs and visual media firm (intermittently from 1995 to 2012), Governor’s appointee and staffer in California’s Legislature (2001 to 2007), and state lobbyist for the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization (2008 to 2011, NAACP), Malaki led and coordinated the development of numerous legislative proposals, negotiations and forums to shape economic justice and growth in California. This includes providing management support in a California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency division’s programs responsible for awarding $72 million in business and community support grants, which created and retained over jobs. More recently (in 2017-18), Malaki was the lead community organizer, negotiator and designer of the City of Sacramento’s Cannabis Opportunity, Reinvestment and Equity program (CORE - a national model for repairing the damages of racialized marijuana policy enforcement, and prioritizing Drug War Survivors for access to the new $73.6 billion dollar U.S. legal market). He is the architect of ARIZE.org, a mobile Black business search engine app, and the CUP's Community Investment Initiative to address racial wealth gaps through innovative social enterprises. Malaki is a fellow of the John F. Kennedy School’s Senior Executive program, and the Community Economic Development Institute, at Harvard University. SPECIALTIES: Economic and Policy Research and Development; Legislative Advocacy; Coalition Building; Public Affairs; Media Relations; Digital Communications; Business and Project Planning, Development, Management and Branding; Political Campaigns; Fund Development.