Gilbert Mohtes-Chan

Freelance writer

Gilbert Mohtes-Chan is an award-winning journalist and freelance writer based in Northern California. His experience and knowledge covers the spectrum of business, political and community issues throughout California and includes such diverse assignments as covering President Ronald Reagan’s Western White House in Santa Barbara, massive wild fires in Ventura County, bank mega-mergers in San Francisco and multi-million-dollar real estate investments in California’s Central Valley. A veteran journalist, he is a recognized expert in business-related state government issues in California such as workers’ compensation insurance and the state’s two powerful public pension funds. He has appeared on NPR radio in Los Angeles and KCBS news radio in San Francisco and given numerous speeches to civic and professional organizations, discussing topics ranging from the business of professional basketball to liability insurance to his first-hand accounts of the nation’s oldest nuclear-powered Navy cruiser launching unarmed missiles off the Southern California Coast.
He has been as a reporter and a business desk editor at the Camarillo (Calif.) Daily News, Marin (Calif.) Independent Journal, Oakland Tribune and Sacramento Bee. His freelance work has appeared in Inman News, Veterinary Information Network News, community publications and corporate journals for companies such as Fireman’s Fund.
During his career, Mohtes-Chan has won writing awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the Gannett Co. and the U.S. Small Business Administration, twice receiving the Media Advocate of the Year award for exemplary coverage of small business issues. He is a founding member of the national Asian American Journalist Association and served as its national treasurer. He also is a founding board member of the Angel Island State Park Association in Marin County.