Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Lance Hastings

No. 58 Lance Hastings

This has without question been a challenging year for California’s manufacturing sector, which also means it has been a tough one for Lance Hastings, President and CEO of the California Manufacturers & Technology Association. CMTA directly represents 400 businesses from the manufacturing community while also advocating for policies to benefit the sector as a whole. That would be a tough ask any year, but it has been made exponentially harder by President Trump’s on again/off again tariff policies that have cast a thundercloud of uncertainty over the industry. And while California remains the top manufacturing state by both output and total employment, the industry often faces significant opposition to its agenda in the Legislature. Navigating these conditions requires someone both parties can trust, if not always agree with. Hastings has for years proven to be that man. He is an innovative thinker who has also helped evolve the industry’s public image from one of old school factories churning out smoke and waste to one of modern hubs of clean tech and innovation.

Updated Aug. 11, 2026