Profile
Eric Hiraga was appointed by Mayor Michael B. Hancock to serve as Denver International Airport’s (DEN) Deputy Manager and Chief of Staff in January of 2012. Hiraga supports the Manager of Aviation for oversight over all of DEN’s divisions including Administration, Finance, Maintenance, Planning and Development, Operations, Information Technology, and Commercial. In addition, he is directly responsible for overseeing the airport’s Executive Office, Air Service Development, Government Affairs, and Strategic Planning sections. Since joining DEN in 2009, as Strategic Advisor, Hiraga has served in several “acting” capacities. Acting posts include Director of Business Management Services, Manager of Capital Improvement Program, and Director of Financial Planning and Analysis.
Prior to joining DEN, Hiraga served as Vice President of Development Finance for a Denver-based real estate development firm, Trademark Communities, LLC. At the Department of Finance for the City and County of Denver, he worked as Debt Administrator and was responsible for managing the issuance of municipal bonds, creating special taxing districts, and administering Denver’s private activity bond allocation. Before working for the Department of Finance, he was an International Trade Specialist for the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
Hiraga received a B.S. in International Affairs from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1997. In addition, he received the Peace and Friendship Fellowship from the Japanese Ministry of Education and studied foreign relations at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. In 2008, he was awarded the German Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a leadership development program for emerging leaders in the United States and Europe. In 2010, he completed the Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.