Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Chris Hannan

No. 50 Chris Hannan

On the surface Chris Hannan doesn’t seem like the type to lead an often-feisty group like the State Building and Construction Trades Council. Hannan looks more like a high school chemistry teacher than a hardened union leader. But you underestimate him at your own peril because Hannan is hardly Walter White before he broke bad. SBCTC has long been one of the biggest players in California housing policy (see Robbie Hunter, Top 100 Hall of Fame, Class of 2026), and Hannan is the guy who leads the way. And they most certainly cut a wide path; SBCTC is the largest construction trade council in the nation, representing half a million members in more than a dozen crafts, including 70,000 apprentices. He took the helm in 2023 and has since been instrumental in efforts to reform CEQA as well as driving a handful of other major infrastructure projects in ways that protected labor interests, something some of his labor counterparts cannot say. Hannan previously spent years leading the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, which clearly prepared him for battles in Sacramento.

Updated August 11, 2026