In 2018, Bing Chen launched Gold House to bring together creators, funders, entertainers, thinkers and other leaders across Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communities. The goal: to help and highlight each other’s work, and change perceptions about the impact of Asian Americans.
To do that, the former YouTube executive and entrepreneur also wanted to create a list of the 100 Asian Pacific leaders who’ve made the greatest impact impact on culture and society across a range of industries every year. Gold House has now released six A100 annual lists, created through a process of pubic nominations, expert judging and voting.
The 2023 list came out this morning. Among those highlighted:
- Activism & Journalism: Geena Rocero (Author, Producer, Director, and Trans Rights Advocate)
- Business & Technology: Neal Mohan (CEO, YouTube)
- Entertainment & Media: Bela Bajaria (Chief Content Officer, Netflix)
- Fashion & Lifestyle: Radhika Jones (Editor-in-Chief, Vanity Fair)
- Sports & Gaming: Shohei Ohtani (Professional Baseball Player, Anaheim Angels)
But where, you might ask, are the actors and executives involved in Everything Everywhere All At Once — which swept the Oscars and had unprecedented cultural clout? Actor Ke Huy Quan got a special “leading man award” this year while the entire cast got a “golden icon award.” Those will be distributed at a gala and celebratory weekend in Los Angeles that starts on May 5. Those honored in previous years ultimately make their way into the Hall of Fame. (Michelle Yeoh, so feted at this point that she’s an A100 Hall of Famer, noted in a press release that she was “proud to be part of past classes.”)
While Asians are making clear strides in Hollywood, studies show that the numbers remain low on corporate boards and C-suite roles. That may be a factor in why Asians are so well represented in entrepreneurial ventures — with about 40% of the Midas List and a similar percentage of IPOs since early last year having at least one Asian founder.
Click here for the full list, and we’ll bring you some interviews from the Milken Conference later this week. Here’s Eric Feng with a look at Gold House Ventures, too.
While Chen was inspired to start Gold House in part to counter negative stereotypes about Asians and Pacific Islanders, he feels the greatest impact is the vibrant ecosystem they’ve created for members: the 1,000 CEOs, A-Listers and other core members, a similar number of emerging members and the roughly 10,000 ‘movement’ members who buy out theaters for movie screenings or other events. Together, Chen says, “we drove $50 million in social impact last year, with those dollars directly deployed to communities.”