Explorers Club

Alan Nichols is the President of The Explorers Club, elected by the Board of Directors on March 18, 2012. He is an explorer, by nature a problem solver, and a captivating public speaker.

Alan has been a member of The Explorers Club since 1984. He has served as Northern California Chapter Chair, Vice Chair, Membership, Programs; he initiated and expanded special activities including Sirdars, field trips, membership contest, award programs and special events (Story Night, Academy of Science Gala), Hawaii outreach program, sponsor relations, and others. He has prepared special reports and plans for The Explorers Club and the Board relating to Exploration Products, Chapter Support, Nominations Revisions, Board Collegiality Recommendations, and Ethics Accusations Resolution.He was Ombudsman and has served on the Legal, Management, and Nomination Committees.He was the finalist in an early Explorers Club Photo Contest.

• Seven Flag Expeditions with reports in our Archives and one pending.
• Thirty publications including books (To Climb a Sacred Mountain, Journey
• A Bicycle Odyssey Through Central Asia), five articles in the Journal.
• Innumerable presentations and lectures.
• Scores of other expeditions relating especially to sacred mountains, spiritual site layering, altitude and stress lipid research, comparative religions, cycling extremes, indigenous survivors of totalitarian oppression...on mountains and mountain ranges all over the world.
• First person to bicycle the entire Silk Web (10,300 miles)
• First person to bicycle from Ueumchi, Xingjiag to Lhasa, Tibet, and the
• First westerner to circumambulate Mt. Kailas in Tibet and climb the sacred mountains of China when those areas were opened to foreigners.
  

Business

Founder and CEO of full-service business law firm in San Francisco specializing in finance, water law, nonprofit corporations, and special assessment bonds. His law firm merged, and he continued part-time practice in nonprofit corporations and special assessments.

As President of San Francisco Unified School District and City College, Alan was interim head while a national search for Superintendent of Schools was completed. He also led the California College of Medicine, and served on the boards of several private schools. He has served our Board to facilitate our issues.

Alan chaired several political campaigns in California, including a run for the U.S. Congress and managing a statewide gubernatorial effort. He was also San Francisco County Chair for his party.

He is President of 3 Bar A Ranch, a cattle and real estate company

Community service

This has been integral to all business and non profit experiences including the law firm, political campaigns, and special projects. He has chaired successful campaigns for Stanford earthquake libraries restoration, school drives, California College building projects, political campaigns, and the Ewald Foundation (education) and Sacred Mountain Foundation.

He led the San Francisco schools through tumultuous times of court-enforced integration. He served as liaison officer in the Korean war to ameliorate differences between American and Korean forces. He served many years as American Bar Association volunteer arbitrator and mediator.

As Ombudsman, in response to a need to change a completely dysfunctional Board, he led the Board to adopt an almost unanimous collegiality policy and an Moratorium Policy to resolve conflicts that would have destroyed TEC. He held a day-long Facilitation Session of the whole Board.

Personal

Alan resides in Belvedere, California (San Francisco Bay Area), with his wife Becky.