Tim Gill
An American software entrepreneur and philanthropist, Tim Gill started the Denver, Colorado-based Gill Foundation in 1994. The foundation is dedicated to advancing equality by supporting nonprofit organizations that serve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and allied individuals, as well as people with HIV/AIDS. Since its inception, the Gill Foundation has invested more than $162 million in nonprofit organizations throughout the country.
Tim has always been an advocate for civil rights. In addition to funding the gay and lesbian movement for equal rights, he is also a strong supporter of social justice organizations and educational institutions. Tim was one of the first major contributors to the Colorado AIDS Project and has long supported local public radio and television through program underwriting. Through the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado, a project of the Gill Foundation, Tim has provided financial support to numerous organizations which serve the general public, including nearly $1 million to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina disaster relief.
Tim is founder and former chairman of Quark, Incorporated. He is recognized for revolutionizing the publishing industry with innovative, affordable, page-layout software. Tim founded Quark, Inc. in 1981 with a $2,000 loan from his parents and worked to build Quark, Inc. into a leading developer of page-layout software.
Tim and his husband, Scott Miller, live in Denver, Colorado.
Urvashi Vaid
Urvashi Vaid was elected to the board of directors in September 2004. Widely recognized for her work as a gay rights activist and leader, she brings a wealth of knowledge, insight and experience to the foundation’s mission and to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights movement.
Urvashi is executive director of the Arcus Foundation, a funder of the LGBT movement and a major international funder of the conservation of Great Apes and their natural habitat.
She is an attorney and community organizer who has worked in the LGBT movement for more than two decades. From 2001-2005, Urvashi worked at the Ford Foundation where she served as the deputy director of the Governance and Civil Society Unit of the Peace and Social Justice Program. She worked for many years with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) in different roles, including media director, executive director and director of the NGLTF Policy Institute.
She is also a former staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Prison Project and a former columnist for The Advocate. She is the author of Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay & Lesbian Liberation (Anchor, 1996), co-editor of Creating Change: Public Policy, Sexuality and Civil Rights (St. Martin’s Press, 2000), and has penned numerous articles on gay and lesbian rights.
As a board member, Urvashi is deeply involved in the board’s role as an advisor to the foundation, as well as in the development of long-term strategies and objectives.