Chris Bailey ’08

Chris Bailey is senior business advisor with the Portland Mercado, a Latinx market hall and culturally inclusive business incubator, and project director with Community Co-Pack, a manufacturing startup supporting the scaling of BIPOC- and women-owned consumer products. Chris also serves on the board of directors of Built Oregon, board of trustees of James Beard Public Market, and advisory board of the Good Food Foundation. Through his work, Chris is committed to supporting a more diverse and equitable ecosystem for entrepreneurs across the Pacific Northwest.

Chris was born in Oahu, Hawaiʻi, the son of an immigrant entrepreneur. It was at his mother’s restaurant where his love of food and passion for seeing small business thrive took shape. He attended Punahou School in Honolulu for high school, then studied English with a focus in creative writing while at Lewis & Clark. Chris also played football, rowed on the crew team, and served as a resident advisor. Upon graduation he returned to Oahu to focus on a career in writing as a magazine editor for HAWAIʻI Magazine. A desire to explore new opportunities in food entrepreneurship pulled Chris back to Portland where he opened restaurants, helped launch production hubs across the country for a national food startup, worked in product development as a research chef, and launched his own line of award-winning food products that can be found in stores across Portland.