BING CHEN

Bing Chen started at Google as a product marketing manager in 2009. He moved over to YouTube the following year, where he ascended to global head of creator development and management. In June 2014, Chen left the Google universe to join AU Holdings—a holding company that invests in multicultural creators, companies, and communities— as managing director in June 2014. From there Chen went on to found Gold House in May 2019, which he described as “a family of companies devoted to harnessing the global majority, the Asia-Pacific diaspora, 5 billion of the 8 billion people around the world.”

“The biggest misconception about DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) work is that it’s just for charity,” Chen told ADWEEK for its Leadership Voices series. “That is just not the case. Authenticity and cultural imperative are the strongest business strategies.”

Chen said he founded Gold House, an organization that invests in and champions Asian-Pacific leaders, from power and pain. The power comes from being the majority in the world but not having a “single apparatus across identities, industries, and generations” to productively and share it with the world. As for the pain, “A lot of our community were being attacked due to longstanding xenophobia, sexism, and more.”

Gold House prioritizes four issues: the lack of intrinsic unity within the Asian diaspora; the media’s portrayal of Asians; the fact that Asians are the least likely demographic to be promoted in corporate management; and a lack of interest among Asians in voting, despite representing the fastest-growing bloc in several U.S. swing states.

He said that because doing this type of work can be challenging, he encourages the Gold House team to have fun with it. “Being able to laugh, smile, and stretch your muscles in different ways is a good thing,” Chen told ADWEEK.