Gold House, the leading Asian and Pacific Islander (API) changemaker organization, is partnering with top multicultural funds to launch the Multicultural Leadership Coalition (the “MLC”) to accelerate the placements of leaders from underrepresented communities as Board Directors and Advisors of privately held and newly listed companies. MLC co-founders represent more than $1.5 billion in AUM and include BBG Ventures, Gaingels, Gold House, Golden Seeds, Harlem Capital, Halogen Ventures, Kapor Capital, MaC Venture Capital, Multitudes, the NAACP, SoGal Ventures, and VamosVentures.
The MLC announced their placement of four leaders with seven additional active searches at Gold House’s Multicultural Family Banquet during Advertising Week New York 2022 for 200 multicultural investors, founders, executives, and cultural leaders, in partnership with Advertising Week, Meta, Dentsu, SeeHer, Morgan Stanley, 3AF, Lowenstein Sandler, and the Working Assembly.
Boardrooms remain generally homogenous in the United States. For Fortune 500 companies, 83% of board seats are held by White members. A recent study of the most heavily funded private companies found that women hold only 14% of board seats and only 3% of all directors are women of color. Less than 1% of board seats among recently listed companies that have received funding from the nation’s top firms have been held by Black directors. Simultaneously, the benefits of increased diversity on boards are similarly clear. Diverse board members are more likely to bring experience with corporate sustainability and socially responsible investing, government, sales and marketing, and technology in the workplace.
“Sustained, society-wide economic growth can only come with investment in, employment for, and the elevation of all multicultural communities. Accelerating these systemic improvements requires change in the boardrooms that decide the trajectory of companies,” said Bing Chen, Gold House President.
Over dim sum and multiculturally owned champagne Armand de Brignac, the Banquet featured Gold House’s signature interactive “give/get” game; updates on Gold House Ventures’ early successes; and remarks from community partners like 3AF.
Multicultural communities have a history of investing capital and talent in each other, recognizing that solutions to systemic biases against each are often universal. Today, in the face of a complex and often-divided history, underrepresented communities are reckoning with the structural roots of their histories (e.g., the perpetuation of the “model minority” myth), but are once again finding new ways for a more united path forward.
The MLC continues a series of endeavors by Gold House to unite multicultural communities through affirming creative and commercial opportunities. The MLC joins creative unity, investment, and promotional efforts like the Reimagine Coalition announced at this year’s Golden Globes; One Open movement supporting the box office successes of multicultural films; and Meta Gold Talks exploring the intricacies of cross-cultural solidarity.
For more information on the MLC, visit MulticulturalLeadershipCoalition.com.
