Posted by Carrie Condran LaBriola on Oct 28, 2020
Brian Lan says what he loves about Rotary “is the mission of doing service beyond just going through the motions, the ability to serve in a structured and meaningful way. I like the networking, but the real drive is service.” He had done what he calls “one-off” service projects like stints at the food bank, “but I hadn’t had the opportunity to be part of the community, to serve, to give back.” 

He says Rotary “is a good fit for what I believe in. I have a day job, but I want to be part of the community, service above self. . .Everyone wants to give back to the community they’re a part of, but Rotarians are dedicated, inspired, trying to make the world a better place. It feels great to be part of people trying to do good.”
 
Brian was born in the Chicago area and grew up in Ohio, first in Dayton, then in Dublin near Columbus. At the University of Notre Dame, he started out with a goal of becoming a medical doctor, then became interested in business and changed his major to science/business, a curriculum that combined both. After graduation, he worked for Fifth Third Bank, first in Cincinnati, then in Chicago, initially in commercial banking, then in health care banking because of his science background.
 
Pursuing an interest in investment management, he accepted a job as a portfolio manager with Nelson Capital, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo, first in Mountain View, then in Foster City. He also earned his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 2014. Later, he began working for Merrill Lynch in San Francisco, and then last year, he made another career change into tech and is now the Senior Manager of Investor Relations at DocuSign.
 
Brian’s love of singing led him to become a member of the Notre Dame Glee Club and to co-found the Love Notes, an a cappella group of young professionals from around the Bay Area who sing “popular stuff, a lot of love songs,” performing mostly in San Francisco. He’s also a hip-hop dancer, and loves movies, reading and writing fiction, including a short story and a novella in progress. He lives in San Bruno and is engaged to Rose, who lives in Charleston, SC, where his parents also live. Before the pandemic, he and Rose traveled to New Orleans and to Vietnam to visit her parents, but wedding plans are on hold until at least next year.
 
A mentor at Merrill Lynch suggested Rotary as “a great organization,” so in August 2018, Brian reached out to the Rotary Club of San Francisco. When he didn’t get a response, he took the initiative and attended a lunch meeting, where he met Dan Joraanstad and Carrie Condran LaBriola, “and that’s how it started,” he says. 
 
At first, he got involved by taking minutes at the weekly lunch meetings and publishing summaries in Grindings, then he volunteered for the Bike Build and Thanksgiving at The Arc. More recently, he’s chaired the Interact Leadership Awards, which grants scholarships to two students from each of the Club’s Interact clubs, including Lowell, Washington, and, this year, St. Ignatius. The committee collects and screens applications, then selects the winners, who receive the award at a Club lunch meeting, which happened virtually this year because of COVID.
 
Brian recently joined the Club Board as Vice President of PR and Communications with the goal of “continuing to promote our activities to the public and really to help inspire and build a better sense of community among the members and to help attract new members through our actions.”