Port of Oakland Commercial Real Estate Director Pamela Kershaw and Chief Financial Officer Sara Lee have been selected as honorees for the 2015 Most Influential Women in Business awards for the San Francisco Bay Area business community. The annual awards program highlights women who hold significant positions of influence in the Bay Area and serve as outstanding role models in business.

Kershaw has served as the Port’s director of commercial real estate since 2010. She oversees the Port’s commercial real estate portfolio including Jack London Square, Embarcadero Cove, several properties in the Oakland Airport Business Park and significant areas of public access and open space.

Pamela Kershaw, Port of Oakland Commercial Real Estate Director.

Kershaw is also responsible for the recent closing of escrow of the Oak-to-Ninth district, a former underutilized industrial area on Port property. The land will be transformed into a new Oakland waterfront neighborhood—the $1.5 billion development known as Brooklyn Basin.

Kershaw has over 25 years of experience working for various public agencies in the Bay Area in the fields of land planning, real estate and development. She has a bachelor’s degree in geography from the University of California at Berkeley and a master’s degree in public administration.

Lee has led the Port’s finance division since 2009. She directs and administers the financial administration and accounting activities for the Port of Oakland. Lee reviews, recommends and implements financing strategies for the issuance of short and long term debt and is responsible for refinancing the Port’s bonds saving the organization approximately $100 million.

Lee has more than 15 years of investment banking experience, largely in public sector finance. She received her master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science degree in economics, magna cum laude, from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

The 2015 Most Influential Women in Business awards will be held June 4, 2015 at the Hilton San Francisco.