Richard Gere

Richard Gere is an internationally renowned actor, activist, and philanthropist. For more than 30 years, he has worked to draw attention and practical resolutions to humanitarian crises rooted in injustice, inequality, and intolerance. Through his private foundation, the Gere Foundation, he has served as a long time rights advocate whose humanitarian efforts have taken him to Tibet, India, Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan, Kosovo, Central America and the Middle East.

Since the early 1980s, Gere has vigorously advocated for the rights of Tibetan people and the preservation of Tibetan culture. He was the cofounder and chairman of Tibet House US in 1987 and joined the International Campaign for Tibet’s Board of Directors where he has served as its chairman since 1995.

Gere has addressed the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, the US House of Representatives, European Parliament, and the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. He has sponsored numerous US visits, teachings, and publications by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Richard Gere also has been an HIV/AIDS activist for more than 30 years, launching the Heroes Project in partnership with the Avahan AIDS Initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to raise awareness and galvanize societal leaders and media to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India.

In 1991, Richard Gere founded the Gere Foundation, a private organization focused on civil and human rights, public health, and Tibetan advocacy and cultural preservation. He has received honors from amfAR, Amnesty International, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation,
Hadassah International, The Tibet Fund, and the Harvard AIDS Institute.

Richard Gere is also the recipient of CARE’s Humanitarian Award for Global Change, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, the Marian Anderson Award, and Freedom House’s Raising Awareness Award.