Kat Taylor’s life has been dedicated to serving social justice and environmental health. Kat is active in a variety of social business, public benefit and philanthropic ventures in the San Francisco Bay Area. Currently, she serves as CEO of Beneficial State Bank, a Community Development Financial Institution whose mission is to bring beneficial banking to low-income communities in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner. Beneficial State Bank is the result of a merger between OneCalifornia Bank, which Kat and her husband, Tom Steyer, founded in Oakland, CA, and ShoreBank Pacific, with offices in Oregon and Washington. The bank’s revolutionary ownership design means that its profits be invested in the communities it serves.
Kat is also a Founding Director of TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation (TKREF) dedicated to sustainable food production through ranching, tours, research, and school lunch and garden programs. TKREF owns the social business LeftCoast GrassFed, which raises cattle in ways good for people and planet. Kat serves and has served on many non-profit boards including the Harvard Board of Overseers, Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, Insight Prison Project, KQED, Co-Chair of “Building the New CuriOdyssey Campaign”, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. She graduated from Harvard College and earned a JD/MBA from Stanford.