Each year, the IBA honors an influential LGBT individual who has achieved great acclaim in their field, and used their platform to advance the national dialogue around issues impacting the LGBTQ business community.
The IBA is thrilled to present the 2018 honor to someone who exceeds these qualifications: Entrepreneur and LGBTQ+ rights activist, Mitchell Gold.
Mitchell Gold, Co-Founder and Chairman of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, is a different kind of man running a very different kind of business. In every aspect of his personal and business life, he strives to make a difference.
Founded in 1989, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams based its manufacturing in Taylorsville, NC, and remains there today, with a modern factory, warehouse, and distribution center spanning close to one million square feet of space to support the brand’s growing retail, wholesale and contract/hospitality sectors.
At the company headquarters, Mitchell and Bob established a not-for-profit, education-based daycare center (first in the residential furniture industry) and a health-conscious gourmet café run by the company’s corporate chef. The company also provides health fairs, an on-site nurse, and college scholarships for children of employees.
In addition to running a multi-million-dollar company, Mitchell serves on the Board of Directors for The Tyler Clementi Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to ending online and offline bullying in schools, workplaces, and faith communities. He also served on the Board of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) for seven years.
Everyone who knows Mitchell, a longtime advocate for LGBTQ equality, knows he wears his personal beliefs for all to see. Recently, he gave a powerful TEDx Talk encouraging others to take a stand against bullying. Watch Mitchell’s Talk “What’s Next? NO Bullying from Anyone” here.
Mitchell is also a published author. His first book, co-authored with Bob Williams, “Let’s Get Comfortable: How to Furnish and Decorate a Welcoming Home,” was published in March 2007. In honor of the companies 20thanniversary Mitchell and Bob published a second decorating book in 2009, “The Comfortable Home.” In 2014, “Who We Are” was released as a 25thanniversary coffee table book. Mitchell is also the editor of “Youth in Crisis: What Everyone Should Know about Growing Up Gay,” published in 2011.
Mitchell, along with Bob, also introduced a home furnishings collection inspired by CBS’s Emmy-winning legal drama The Good Wife. The first license for a television series, it was developed in collaboration with set decorator Beth Kushnick, and was expanded through the seventh and final season in 2016. A second collaboration with Kushnick – The Good Fight Collection – debuts in Spring, 2018 with designs that reflect the sophisticated aesthetic and warm styling created for the sets of The Good Fight, shown exclusively on CBS All Access.
Mitchell has been widely featured in the media, from CBS This Morning and CBS Sunday Morning to the New York Times, Time, Wall Street Journal, Library of Congress and Architectural Digest.
Mitchell resides in North Carolina with his husband, Tim Gold, and their incredibly sweet Doberman, Zola. (Follow Zola on Instagram at @AmazingZola.)