Portraits of Legacy: a conversation with David Bohnett

KATY KNOX: Welcome and thank you for joining our Pride Month Portraits of Legacy conversation with David Bohnett. One of the most important conversations we have with our clients is about legacy and the lasting impact that they can have on the world. They want to use their voice to help future generations overcome barriers, social biases and racial injustice. We are extremely fortunate to have clients that are willing to share their uplifting personal stories. Stories of hard work, ingenuity, perseverance and overcoming significant challenges to achieve their personal and professional goals. They are truly a testament to the human spirit. In celebration of these stories,  we created Portraits of Legacy to bring these amazing experiences to life. Through these conversations, we leverage the power of storytelling to gain insights and drive awareness. We also discuss how they're using their influence to change the world and make a lasting impact. Today, I am honored to bring an intimate conversation with David Bohnett. David has an extraordinary story and I am honored to have him join us today. David founded the pioneering social networking site GeoCities and later founded the early stage technology fund Baroda Ventures, where he now serves as a lead partner. Today, David is living his legacy and purpose through significant philanthropy. His foundation supports LGBTQ+ causes and works to improve society through social activism and importantly, support of the arts. David will talk to us about the importance of inclusion and what it really means to be an ally. David's legacy is still being written, but we know that it will shape the lives of countless individuals for generations to come. Tiffany Eubanks-Saunders, our head of Diverse Segments at the Private Bank, is joining David for today's insightful and inspiring conversation. David, thank you for your partnership and for sharing your story.

TIFFANY EUBANKS-SAUNDERS: Thank you, Katy, for such a wonderful introduction and thank you, David, for being our guest this evening. When we thought about our Portraits of Legacy event for celebrating National Pride Month, we could not think of a more appropriate guest than you to talk about your career, your accomplishments and all that you've given to the community in general. As Katy mentioned, you've had such a tremendous career and you've been a trailblazer in so many regards. Let's start off with the early part of your career. Now, you're originally from Chicago, but you chose to move to the West Coast to attend college. Tell us what drove that decision and how do you feel it has shaped who you have become as a businessman?

DAVID BOHNETT: Well, thank you, Tiffany. It's such an honor to be here. I very much admire Bank of America's commitment to diversity and Bank of America's commitment to the LGBT community. It's quite impressive and I'm very pleased to participate in this discussion. You're right. Moving from Chicago to the West Coast was a defining moment, A defining event, ultimately in my personal and professional life. I enrolled, I applied and I enrolled in the University of Southern California, USC, as a freshman and I first walked on campus as an 18-year -old. I had never been to Los Angeles. I had never seen the school. But USC had a very early computer science program, and I was interested in studying both computer science and business. And I had some sense growing up in the Midwest and growing up in Chicago that, you know, maybe Los Angeles on the West Coast was, you know, a place that I would be comfortable, a place where I could feel that

I'd be able to make my own way. And I ended up in Los Angeles and other than two years from my graduate degree at the University of Michigan, I have been in Los Angeles ever since.

TIFFANY EUBANKS-SAUNDERS: Excellent, excellent. Well, you wear Los Angeles very well, might I add. Now from the outside looking in, it appears that you've always had a successful career. However, being an openly gay man in corporate America was a bit trailblazing to begin with and could not have been easy. Can you share with us a little bit of insight and perspective regarding some of the challenges that you've had to overcome when you were growing your career? And what, if any, parallels do you feel gay men today in corporate America are still facing?

DAVID BOHNETT: Well, this is a pivotal question. I started my career, as I mentioned, I went to the University of Michigan for my MBA and I came back to Los Angeles to work for a company called Arthur Andersen, which was a big eight accounting firm at the time, and they had a systems consulting division called Andersen Consulting. And that subsequently became Accenture, which is a very successful and well regarded company to this day. But I started my career with Andersen Consulting and I loved it. I was doing system design and implementation work. I helped design and implement general ledger systems, financial reporting systems for a variety of clients in Southern California. And I loved the work. I appreciated all the training I got in business systems and business information systems. And then as I was progressing in my career at Andersen Consulting, I wanted to bring a same-sex partner to the Christmas party. And I was told no. I was told they weren't welcome. And I was told that that would be uncomfortable. And it's something that the clients would not be comfortable with. And so my career, my corporate career at that point ended because I faced a decision whether or not I would stay closeted and continue to pursue my career at Andersen Consulting or would I have to go out, make my own way. And there was only one choice that I could make, which was to go off, leave a job that I loved, leave a company that I loved. And by the way, Accenture has turned into a fabulous company and they very much welcome and embrace their LGBTQ community within the organization. But at the time, in the 1980s, I was not welcome as an openly gay man and I chose to leave. And this is a company that I loved and this was a company that I thought I could make my career. So I went to work with a startup software company, system software company, started by a friend of mine. And that started the beginning of the next phase of of my career. So the question is what what parallels you feel gay men in corporate America face today? You know, we have to come out every day when we have opportunities for social engagement, when we have, when we will have again, water cooler conversations. It's just natural that people want to know about each other's personal and family lives. And for me and for the other lesbians and gay men that I'm friends with, it's just been important to be yourself. And to let people know that you have a partner, you have a family, you're about to have a family and that you live open and proud as a lesbian or gay man.

TIFFANY EUBANKS-SAUNDERS: Wow, that is truly inspirational. And as you mentioned, it was you know, it was a defining moment. It was where you as a up-and-coming professional that had a thriving career, had to make a decision about who you were going to be and the life you were going to live. And I'm, for one, grateful that you made the decision and that you had the courage, because that's such a hard thing for people to do. And it's just a wonderful testament to the power of the human spirit and purpose. So thank you for your leadership. Thank you for your courage. Thank you for sharing that. So let's pull the thread a little bit further to the time when you started GeoCities. Another trailblazing move, another pivotal moment in how social media was going to play a role in society. I mean, this was truly revolutionary at the time. And as part of the genesis of what we now know as social media, as a precursor to MySpace, which I remember so I'm clearly dating myself, and Facebook. What was the spark? I mean, how did you come up with this concept and what were you hoping to achieve whenever you had this brainstorm around this platform and this format?

DAVID BOHNETT: As I mentioned, after Andersen Consulting, I moved on to a software company started by a friend of mine, And I stayed at that company for quite a long time and held a variety of positions going up the ladder. There were successive acquisitions and mergers. And so I was in the tech world. And I was fascinated by the early online service, CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy, and even before that, when you could connect the modem to a computer and dial up to proprietary bulletin boards. So I was really interested in how you could sit at your laptop, fire up the modem and all of a sudden you'd be in AOL or you'd be in CompuServe and you would be communicating with other people within those services. And I just thought that was fascinating. And then I started reading about the World Wide Web and I thought, you know, this seems to have the potential of being this global AOL. Like this enormous online service. Like I had known through these other services. And I thought, you know, there's a tremendous amount of potential there, primarily because it was built on open source and it was not built on proprietary technology. Anybody could set up a website, anybody could set up a Web server. So I thought, this is, you know, I really want to be a part of this. And I thought this was fascinating. And I had an early fascination with webcams, as a matter of fact. And so a friend of mine had an office at the corner of Hollywood and Vine, in Hollywood, and we set up our own webcam in his window and we pointed it out the window. And because there were so few webcams at the time, we started to get some traction. And my initial idea was to build up a series of webcams around the world that would generate traffic. But, you know, I thought this really isn't enough. There needs to be something more that gives people a sense of participation and contribution. So I decided to build a series of communities of interest and create templates for people to set up their own free web pages. And you would join one of these communities of interest that would be about sports, it would be about finance. It would be about music, lesbian and gay life. It would be any number of communities of interest. And you could you could share your knowledge. You could share, you can meet other people, you could upload pictures, you could tell your story. And it just took off because it was giving everybody the opportunity to contribute and participate in this brand new medium of the Internet. And so it wasn't, it wasn't necessarily a revolutionary idea to create free web pages, but it was a good idea to create a neighborhood context so that you felt you were joining a neighborhood of people that were interested in the same subject matter you were. Maybe it was science fiction, maybe it was theater, maybe it was cooking. And you were encouraged, and we built the tools so that people could share their knowledge and then meet other people of similar interest. And it became incredibly successful. Now, that comes from my own experience in life in terms of understanding the power of sharing who you are. Understanding, the power of sharing your own interests and meeting other people of similar interests, including being a gay man. And that's how GeoCities first began. And that's what really helped to take off to what it became.

TIFFANY EUBANKS-SAUNDERS: Wow. That is extraordinary. And it just must be fun and pretty cool to step back, especially where we are today, and look just where social media has come. And when you think about the legacy that you created, as you mentioned, really trying to bring like-minded people together in a forum that allowed them to express themselves and really be supported as a community. I mean, how does that make you feel, just when you see all of the different communities that come together today and think about the fact that it was really your brainchild that started it all?

DAVID BOHNETT: Well, there were. Thank you. There were online communities before GeoCities. There was The Well, there were others. We occupied a certain continuum in the evolution of social media. We occupied a certain space in the continuum of social media. And as you mentioned before, Friendster, MySpace, Facebook came after us. So we were part of the legacy of social media companies. And there will be others beyond the ones there are today. The thing that surprises me is the narrowness of many of the... That it's become much more narrow. It's become much more self-referential, and it's an observation and not a criticism such that what GeoCities was about and even though it was called MySpace and Friendster, what it was about was connecting with others of similar interest and sharing your own knowledge and passion, not really in the political arena at all. It was really about music and, you know, dogs and cats and as I say, cooking. And so what's happened today is, the tremendous polarization and the tremendous sort of echo chamber that social media primarily has evolved. Now, I'm a big believer that the pendulum tends to swing. So I think that we will see a swing in social media toward a more inclusive, you know, people perhaps being more open to others who have a different opinion of themselves. But something I couldn't have predicted. And as I say that there's a long continuum of social media companies. We were a part of it. And there will be others that will continue on beyond the ones we have today.

TIFFANY EUBANKS-SAUNDERS: Sure. And you're right. Now that you say that, the point about the perspectives getting more focused and more more narrow versus being more broad is certainly where we're headed today. And I agree with you. I hope that at some point in the near future, or not too distant future, we begin to broaden our horizons through these forums and formats versus continuing to narrow them. And so, David, when we think about the month that we're in today, celebrating National Pride Month in the US and across the world, and when you think about social media and some of the positive impacts and influence that having social media has allowed in terms of public attitudes towards our LGBT+ community helping to drive awareness and the need for equality, do you feel as though social media has been a benefit towards that end? And where would you like to see it go in the future?

DAVID BOHNETT: Social media has been key and social media has been instrumental in the one thing that makes the most difference beyond all others in the quest for LGBT equality, which is coming out, that there's nothing more powerful than individual stories of someone who says, I'm gay,

I'm bi, I'm trans, I'm transitioning. And so social media has provided the opportunity and the platform and the ability for people to tell their stories and talk about who they are. And for that, I'm very, very grateful. And that's the most powerful thing that any of us can do in the LGBT community is come out. And come out to friends and family. And social media has been a powerful way to do that.

TIFFANY EUBANKS-SAUNDERS: Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I agree, and even when I think about some of our colleagues, some of our teammates that we've had who have evolved and found a place, a safe space to be able to come out, oftentimes to your point, it is the first step is through social media to really kind of test the waters, so to speak, and to have a community ready-made of support that can help them through that process. So, again, kudos to you for having the vision and for having the purpose and for putting your passion into something that we can all benefit from today. So let's shift for a moment to what is critically key in any progress that is going to be made, regardless of the community, regardless of the struggle, regardless of the challenges, you know, the power of allyship is just so tremendously important. And over the last few years, the business world has really focused on this more and more. Many companies and corporations have a platform within their organization to really allow for that support for the different diverse communities that they have within their own, represented within their own organization. Back in February, our Portraits of Legacy guest was successful media entrepreneur Don Cornwell, who talked about the importance of allyship during his career as one of the first Black investment bankers on Wall Street. Then in Women's History Month in March, we had a Joan Zimmerman who founded Southern Shows and the Southern Living brand during a time when women were not even able to open their own bank account or have their own credit card. And Joan expressed how important, having strong allies for women's equality was not only to her success, but to that progress. And then just last month, for Asian American Heritage Month, we had Connie Chung Joe, who is the CEO of the Asian Americans Advancing Justice in LA, passionately imploring all of our teammates and folks within Bank of America to not only be an ally, but to stand up and speak out against acts of hate and racism. So when you reflect on the major points of evolution and break through within your own career, do you feel that allyship has played an important role? And if so, how? I've thought about this and I think back to very early days in my career as an activist, and I was one of the co-founders of the Los Angeles chapter of GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. And I was sitting at a table in our offices and I was helping stuff envelopes. These were letters to producers and directors. What GLAAD does is promote the positive and balanced portrayals of lesbians and gays in the media. So we were stuffing envelopes and I was there with other volunteers and Lesbian friends and volunteers, they were telling, we were telling our stories and I was telling mine. And a couple of these women friends were telling their story and I realized, I thought, oh my God, I'm a feminist. That it occurred to me by listening to their stories and hearing them in a way that were very personal. That it was the struggle that I've had that I was going through to be accepted as an openly gay man was so intertwined with Feminism, as they were describing it. That it was a defining moment of allyship to me, which is, We are all bound and bonded together in this common struggle of acceptance, of equality, of opportunity. And all of our struggles are shared among all of us. And so I think, and I was fortunate to benefit from that awareness early on. That we need, the only way for our individual goals to be achieved is to work and embrace the collective goals of equality and fairness in our society and really across the world. And so there is all sorts of ways to do that, but I think it starts with this awareness that there is no one struggle that's greater than any others and all struggles are one. And so when when you have that, when I have that sense, you naturally reach out to others within your own community and within other communities to not only see if they can help you, but how you can help them. And that's been a critical component of my own personal and professional success and career has been to embrace that oneness in all of our struggles. And again, getting back to this interview, I very much appreciate Bank of America's commitment to these profiles, because I think if you were to look across all of them, you'd see all the common themes of what people are talking about. And it's our responsibility to support one another in that quest.

TIFFANY EUBANKS-SAUNDERS: It's so true. It is so true, and I think what we have found as we've had more discussions with our phenomenal clients and teammates and to your point, just being willing to listen to someone's personal story and journey, There are several common threads and there's so much more that combines us than separates us. And so it's just thrilling to me and it's really inspiring to me to hear that that's a lesson you learned early on and in your career and in your journey and something that you clearly carry through as you have grown and just done so many so many extraordinary things for so many different people in different communities.

DAVID BOHNETT: Thank you.

TIFFANY EUBANKS-SAUNDERS: So let's shift a little speaking of some of your philanthropic work. It is quite simply extraordinary. You give selflessly and what appears to be at times tirelessly to improving the state of humankind. Those are my words, not yours, of course. But I'm curious, where does that strong spirit of giving come from and what motivates you? How will you know when you're done?

DAVID BOHNETT: Well, thank you for the question. It comes from growing up in a family that demonstrated and set an example that it was important to be a contributing member of your community. So I think for all of us, it's a we have a responsibility to set an example. Set an example for our family. Set an example for our friends. Set an example for our colleagues. And more you talk about and set the example, the more you give other people permission to do the same thing or to do it in their way. So if you say, gee, I spent I spent the weekend, there was a cleanup effort, you know, along the beach, And someone will hear that and I say, well, I'd love to do that. How do you get involved? And so question I get most often is How do you get involved? And then I ask, but what are you interested in, the environment? Are you interested in homelessness? Are you interested in, you know, sustainable agriculture? And you're helping other people get involved. I think is key. But to help other people get involved, you have to talk about how you're involved. And what it does in the sense of satisfaction that you gain from it. So I'm motivated because I think that that's our purpose here is in service and in service to our community and in turn that's in service to ourselves. And I'm very fortunate that that I grew up in a family, in an environment where that was just part of, I didn't know any different. And that's just what you did when you, when you grew up. And of course, you're never done. So I'm motivated by the sense of satisfaction with the contribution, the sense of satisfaction of trying my best to help, you know, help these organizations succeed. And, you know, you're done when you... You're done in certain goals. We have marriage equality in this country? So, you know, that's a goal that we achieve. Now, that's not the end goal. But I think that setting goals where you can have a sense of completion, then you're done with that and then you go on to the next set of goals. I think this is the best way to put it.

TIFFANY EUBANKS-SAUNDERS: Yeah, yeah. I think when you talk about marriage equality, I remember when the legislation was passed and I was in a former role, I was a Bank of America's supplier diversity and development executive. And one of the organizations that we worked with was NGLCC, the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, which is located in DC and just had a tremendous partnership with that organization. I was actually in DC the day that it passed. And there was such a tremendous amount of relief, quite candidly, as well as joy and accomplishment. And to your point, showing or setting the example and then allowing others to lean into the example based on whatever their passion or purpose is, is just priceless. So thank you for your leadership with that. So the work that you and your foundation do is quite candidly, what I call active allyship. In other words, regardless of the cause, as we mentioned before, it seems that you're not satisfied just providing traditional funding. What does active allyship mean to you? And why do you think this is so important for us to make progress?

DAVID BOHNETT: It means a couple of things for us in terms of Specifically, in terms of the foundation. We get many, many, many more grant requests that we have to turn down versus the ones that we accept. That's the case for any foundation. But in terms of active allyship, every time, unfortunately, we have to say this, this isn't either a fit with our grant areas or we've already committed our grant funding in this area. We try to provide value through introductions to others, introductions to other organizations. An indication of when we might be open to such funding, what other organizations might be doing similar things that they could partner with, so a no is always partnered with, Well, how can we help other than money? And so often that people will say, you know, that actually is more helpful than money because you've given us a path. You've given us the direction, you've given us some ideas we haven't thought of. You've made introductions for us that we wouldn't have had otherwise. So that's one component of an act of allyship. And then the other is, for those organizations that we do fund, we do get involved with, we try and bring our human capital to it. We try and work alongside the executive director and the senior leadership to help them achieve their goals within their organization. Not always and not with every organization, but very often. Quite often, we will not only write the check, but we will stay involved and we will help these organizations achieve their goals, given our own experience with similar organizations. In the same program area. So, I know allyship is much more than mentoring, but we mentor and we sponsor, and we actively promote the work of this organization in other areas. And that to us is what allyship means.

TIFFANY EUBANKS-SAUNDERS: Yeah, and it is, the combination of those that time, treasure and effort really creates that sustainable impact that allows these organizations to become better than they were before and continue to further their mission and accomplishment. All right, so a couple of last questions for you before we wrap up today's session. And it's been a great when I could talk to you all afternoon, quite candidly. But I recognize that we don't have time and I want to be respectful of your time. The first is given that this is National Pride Month, what does National Pride Month mean to you today versus what it may have meant to you in years past?

DAVID BOHNETT: I think it almost always means the same thing to someone who's discovering their own path in life. So what it meant to me in years past as a younger man, I think it means the same thing to people that same age today. I think it means a sense of community. I think it means a sense of validation. And so as much progress as we've made during my lifetime, I think that sense of of pride, validation, community means the same thing to younger people today as it has been to me. And what it means to me now is, I think a sense of reflection that I tend only look forward and I tend only to see what the next challenge is on the horizon, but I think we can also, every once in a while, look back and have a sense that, OK, you know, I can keep going because we've done this, this, this and this, and, you know, those are very substantial accomplishments. So as we look at the challenges going forward, you know, on the rare occasion, you look back, you can say, well, we can do this to, we can do the next thing and we can do the next thing after that, because look how far we've come and we're not done, but we'll get there. And it also means a tremendous amount to me to see younger people coming into the movement and having that same sense of passion and drive to ensure that there is opportunity ahead for all and equality for all.

TIFFANY EUBANKS-SAUNDERS: That's great, and so it's interesting, and I agree, sometimes you need the motivation of your past accomplishments in order to help you define and move forward in the journey ahead of you. So that was great. OK, so this series, as we've mentioned, is called Portraits of Legacy, and it was quite intentional for us to name it that. It's an opportunity for us to highlight the phenomenal careers and lives of our clients who many, most are not as familiar with. You have created a tremendous legacy, both professionally and personally, that will continue to benefit generations for centuries to come. In a few sentences, when it's all said and done, how would you describe the legacy that David Bohnett will leave?

DAVID BOHNETT: You know, I just finished this this this terrific new biography of Eleanor Roosevelt and what a remarkable woman and a remarkable career dedicated to civil rights and social justice. She said at the end of her life, "I hope that I might be remembered happily. And if not, I prefer not to be remembered at all," which, you know, of course, she's remembered very happy. But, you know, I relate to that because I hope to be remembered that I tried to help other people and lift up other people so that they would feel the same sense of achievement and accomplishment. And I hope that I provided opportunities for people to make their own way in the world. And if I could be remembered for that, I'm very grateful. And if I can't be, then perhaps I'll be forgot.

TIFFANY EUBANKS-SAUNDERS: Well, let me be the first to say, job well done, because I think you have certainly already accomplished those things, whether it was because you were raised and reared with a sense of giving or you had to continue with that purpose yourself. You had to make the decision as a conscious adult to continue to pour yourself into everything that you've done both professionally as well as personally. The contributions are just endless. And so I think you have already accomplished to date what you set out to accomplish. And I'm sure by the time it's all said and done, David Bohnett will certainly have a legacy worth remembering. And that has impact into the future. And for many, many generations to come. So thank you so much for your time this afternoon. Thank you for your business with Bank of America. Thank you for your partnership in so many different regards. And thank you for your commitment just to being a great human being and someone who sees purpose and value in giving to others and helping them realize who they can be and who they should be, and having the courage to move in that direction. So we are going to let you go for now, but it won't be the last time. We'll certainly want to have you back and continue the great dialog. But again, David, thank you so much for all that you do, all that you've done and for who you are as our portrait of legacy for the month of June, National Pride Month.

DAVID BOHNETT: Thank you, Tiffany, and thank you to you, and thank you to your colleagues at Bank of America for giving me this opportunity. I sincerely appreciate.

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