Lyell Sakaue
Partner, San FranciscoLyell Sakaue is a partner in Bridgespan’s San Francisco office. He joined Bridgespan in 2015 and leads the firm’s work with individual donors and family offices.
He has coauthored several publications, including "Inflection Points in Family Philanthropy” (Bridgespan.org, 2025), “Philanthropy for a Multiracial Democracy” (Bridgespan.org, 2025), “How America’s Most Generous Philanthropists Are Giving Big” (Bridgespan.org, 2024), "Endowment Funding as a Grantmaking Tool” (Bridgespan.org, 2024), “Philanthropic Sourcing, Diligence, and Decision-Making” (Bridgespan.org, 2023), “Overcoming the Racial Bias in Philanthropic Funding” (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2020), and “What Ambitious Donors Can Learn from The Atlantic Philanthropies’ Experience Making Big Bets” (Bridgespan.org, 2016).
Lyell holds a BA in political economy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. He also serves as chair of the Vesper Society, a healthcare conversion foundation focused on closing health disparities in California.