David Bohnett

Joined the amfAR board in December 2006. Serves on board development committee.
Expertise in technology and information services. Was honored with an amfAR
Award of Courage at the 2006 Honoring with Pride benefit. For more than 25
years has been an advocate of advancements in HIV research and treatment and of
equal rights for gays and lesbians. Mr. Bohnett has a B.S. in business administration
from the University of Southern California and an M.B.A. in finance from the
University of Michigan. He founded GeoCities, an Internet-based media and
e-commerce company that was cited as one of the top four most trafficked web
sites. He pioneered the concept of providing free home pages to web users and
has been named the Los Angeles Business Journal’s
Technology Leader of the Year and, by Ernst and Young, the Entrepreneur of the
Year for Southern California. He has also been recognized as one of Upside magazine’s Elite 100 and of Newsweek’s 100 People to Watch in the
Next Millennium.
As chair of the nonprofit David Bohnett Foundation, he has focused the organization’s
grant-making on projects and programs to improve society through social activism,
including support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender service
organizations. In 2012 he was appointed by President Obama to the board of the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is also a trustee of the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art and serves on the board of the Los Angeles
Philharmonic Association.
Chair, David Bohnett Foundation; Head, Baroda Ventures. He maintains residences in Los
Angeles and New York.