Sakura Takano is the Chief Executive Officer of Rotary Charities of Traverse City, a place-based foundation in Northwest Lower Michigan. Previously, she worked with the foundation as Director of Community Assets and Impact Investing.

Prior to her work at Rotary Charities, she led the housing and workforce development programs at Goodwill Northern Michigan for seven years, securing strong local partnerships to leverage new state and federal funding for rural initiatives.

She laid her groundwork for leveraging financial tools to support community change at JPMorgan in the investment banking and capital markets divisions. Sakura holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Finance and Economics from Boston College, and an MBA in Social Enterprise from Columbia Business School.

Board memberships include; IFF, a large regional CDFI headquartered in Chicago; Venture North Funding and Development, a regional small business CDFI based in Traverse City; Munson Healthcare, northern Michigan’s regional healthcare system. She also served on the Grand Traverse County American Rescue Plan Funding Advisory board.