20 for the Next 20: Sterling Higa, Policy Compass

The founder and CEO of a new policy-focused consulting venture helped push forward major legislative wins in affordable housing.

About six years ago, Sterling Higa’s life shifted dramatically.

At the time, he was a lecturer and debate coach at Hawai‘i Pacific University and a columnist for Honolulu Civil Beat. Then an unexpected email arrived from Tradewind Group Chair Colbert Matsumoto: Could he help write Troubled Waters, a 2019 report about the state’s worsening financial problems, and present the findings at the annual Hawai‘i Executive Conference?

Higa jumped at the chance. Still in his 20s, the attendees were surprised when a “kid” took the stage, says Matsumoto. “But by the end of the speech, he got a standing ovation,” a response that only Nainoa Thompson had previously received at the conference, he says.

That event opened opportunities for Higa, and eventually led to his next career move as co-founder and executive director of Housing Hawai‘i’s Future, a young-adult-centered nonprofit that works to combat NIMBYism and promote affordable housing policies.

In the 2024 Hawai‘i legislative session, the group and other housing advocates helped pass two landmark bills to increase the local housing stock, including one that allows multifamily housing in commercial zones and simplifies office-to-apartment conversions.

“Our coalition helped pass what is probably the most significant housing reforms in the last 40 years,” he says. In 2025, the nonprofit plans to push for more housing to be set aside for local people, more density and better infrastructure.

Hawai‘i has long invested in the suburban dream of a house and yard, says Higa, while young people are often interested in city life and public transportation. “What we really haven’t tried is building great urban environments,” he says.

Ready for his next career move, Higa announced plans to step down from the housing organization this spring and launch Policy Compass, an entrepreneurial venture that will give executives insights on how state and local policies impact their businesses.

He says he makes big decisions such as this after much thought, research and prayer, and that once he decides to do something, he commits to it. The formula extends to his personal life, such as when he married in 2022 and became stepfather to his wife’s three children. The couple also now have a toddler.

A voracious reader who averages about 56 books a year, Higa’s thirst for knowledge “feels really core to who he is,” says Matsumoto. “He’s learning things that have nothing to do with furthering his career, but about understanding the world.”

That knowledge undergirds Higa’s ambitious, abiding goal, which he says is “to solve the big, complex problems that face Hawai‘i.”