Rafael Castellanos

Port of San Diego

Rafael Castellanos is trustee on the Board of Port Commissioners of the Port of San Diego. He also chair’s the Port’s Environmental Advisory Committee. In January, he concluded a busy year as Chairman of the Board. In keeping with San Diego’s status as a center for innovative water-dependent businesses, his theme for the year was “Ocean Optimism” – a belief that the 21st century is a time of sweeping growth in aquaculture and other blue technology ventures. His year as chairman saw advances in the Port’s Blue Economy Incubator projects, a groundbreaking Port-Navy agreement to study sea-level rise, and the joining by the Port in a federal lawsuit to stem sewage flows from Mexico. Rafael is a partner with the law firm Solomon Minton Cardinal Doyle & Smith LLP, where he specializes in commercial transactional law. His professional affiliations include service on the Board of Directors of the California Latino Economic Institute, the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, MANA de San Diego, and the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association. Rafael graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and he earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Chicago Law School as a Cornerstone Scholar where he was a student of then law lecturer and Illinois State Senator Barack Obama.