Announcing Chad Nico Hiu, Senior Vice President for Strategy, Innovation and Impact

We are excited to share that Chad Nico Hiu will be joining the YMCA of San Francisco team as our Senior Vice President for Strategy, Innovation and Impact.

Emerging from what has been one of the most challenging years our Y and community has faced, our efforts to align all we do with the impact we aim to have for all whom we serve has never been more crucial. In this pivotal role, Chad will partner with board members, staff, and volunteers across all levels of our organization with a focus on the following: 

• Connecting emerging community needs and resources toward a compelling and co-created 2030 Vision: Formalize the Y’s strategic-planning processes, helping to translate it with people across functions, and driving organizational change through enhancing existing efforts towards greater transparency, innovation and equity for all. 
• Collaborating with community partners to ensure deeper, more relevant and sustainable impact: Assess existing efforts across the Bay Area and explore the Ys potential role in supporting, engaging, and when appropriate, leading efforts toward increased collaboration, philanthropy and impact in addressing evolving community needs and inequities. 
• Further aligning organizational culture, helping us make progress in becoming an anti-racist, anti-oppressive and equitable organization: Serve as a catalyst in ensuring continuous strategic alignment across all areas of our Ys enduring work in innovatively, equitably and nimbly responding to the needs of the diverse communities we serve.

A Hawaii-born New Yorker and student of the world having served for ten years with the YMCA of the USA (Y-USA) Diversity, Inclusion, Global & Multicultural Development (DIGMD) team, Chad most recently was Senior Director for Diversity & Inclusion. Before that, he served as Director of International Operations & Youth Exchanges for the YMCA of Greater New York. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Human Services Administration & Youth Development, a master’s degree in Organizational Management and Leadership, both from Springfield College in Massachusetts, and a Global Studies Certificate from the University of Pittsburgh. 
 
Chad serves on the Board of Directors for Howard Brown, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ health care networks, the Board of Trustees for the Tyler Clementi Foundation, an organization dedicated to ending bullying in all forms, the Chicago Fair Trade Board of Directors supporting workers’ rights and global social responsibility, has traveled to 40 countries on almost every continent of the world, participated in the globally recognized Semester at Sea study abroad program, volunteered with the CASA YMCA youth shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, and represented Y-USA in global settings and the World YMCA at the United Nations. He helped launch the Ys inaugural partnership with the Biden Foundation advancing LGBTQ+ inclusion and equity across 19 states and served as a policy volunteer with the Biden/Harris 2020 Campaign. He has lived in Hong Kong for two years, provided voter engagement support to various political campaigns, and served as Youth Director with the YMCA of Honolulu.  

We will undoubtedly benefit from the experience, thoughtfulness, and national and global relationships Chad brings as we continue our work delivering on our mission in service to youth, families and communities for years to come.