Alex Flachsbart is the Founder and CEO of Opportunity Alabama (OPAL), a family of companies dedicated to building a more prosperous Alabama through creative investments and strategic collaborations that benefit our underserved urban and rural communities. Founded in 2018, the OPAL corporate family has facilitated hundreds of millions in new investment in Alabama through technical assistance and introductions to capital, including over $50M raised and deployed to more than a dozen deals through OPAL’s own managed investment funds. Alex is a recovering attorney who practiced for several years with Balch & Bingham LLP in Birmingham, Alabama, specializing in tax credit and economic development-related work. Alex was a member of Teach for America’s charter corps in Alabama, where he taught high school mathematics in one of the most impoverished rural counties in the US. A native of Northern California (but a naturalized Alabamian), Alex received undergraduate and masters degrees in economics from The University of Alabama and a J.D. from Washington and Lee University School of Law.