LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA / ACCESS Newswire / May 1, 2025 / Gold House, the home of collective power where leaders unite to change culture, proudly unveils its annual A100 List - the definitive honor for the 100 most impactful Asian Pacific leaders across industries, curated by top Asian Pacific organizations, creative and business leaders, and multicultural allies. The A100 List also features special Gold Legend honors for lifetime achievements and 10 New Gold honorees for the next generation of Asian Pacific trailblazers. Gold House will celebrate the honorees through a slate of events from May 9 to May 10, 2025, including the A100 Celebratory Reception co-hosted with the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and East West Bank, the A100 Honorees Dinner exclusively for past and present A100 Honorees and Judges, and the Gold Gala, the most prestigious and widely watched Asian Pacific celebration.
This year's A100 honorees have shattered records and redefined standards across culture. In entertainment, Wicked, directed by Jon M. Chu with Bowen Yang and Michelle Yeoh, became the highest-grossing Broadway musical adaptation globally, while Squid Games Season 2 dominated Netflix viewership. APT's music video featuring ROSÉ and Bruno Mars broke K-pop records with 500 million views in record time, and Laufey made history as the youngest Grammy winner for "Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album." In fashion and lifestyle, Drew Afualo became the first Samoan woman on The New York Times bestseller list, Anita Dongre became Barbie's first Indian designer, and Asian Pacific-led brands (e.g., Coach, REVOLVE, Maybelline, Rare Beauty, and Aritzia) captured consumer attention worldwide. In sports and gaming, Torri Huske became the most decorated Asian American Olympian at the Paris Games, Jordan Mailata was the first Samoan Australian Super Bowl winner, Shohei Ohtani achieved the unprecedented 50/50 MLB milestone, and FAKER was crowned as 2024 Esports World Cup MVP and first League of Legends player in the Hall of Legends.
In addition, A100 honorees continue to shape transformative technologies and global policies, with leaders such as Demis Hassabis (CEO and Co-Founder, Google DeepMind); Sridhar Ramaswamy (CEO, Snowflake); Mark Chen (Chief Research Officer, OpenAI); Liang Wenfeng (CEO, Deepseek); and Jay Graber and Rose Wang (CEO and COO, Bluesky) at the helm of companies defining our future. Necessarily, honorees including Chris Leong (Chief Sustainability Officer, Schneider Electric); Vedika Bhandarkar (President and COO, Water.org); Malala Yousafzai (Nobel Laureate); and Don Chen (President, Surdna Foundation) are ensuring that change is coupled with investments in sustainability and underserved populations.
"The A100 List illuminates the profound cultural imprint of the Asian Pacific community. With this year's honorees, we celebrate more than achievement - we honor the courage of those who take first steps when no clear solutions exist, becoming the First Lights that guide us all forward," said Bing Chen and Jeremy Tran, CEO and COO of Gold House.
Selected as the most impactful in their respective categories, this year's "A1s" in each industry category are:
Business & Technology: Aravind Srinivas (CEO and Co-Founder, Perplexity AI)
Entertainment & Media: Jon M. Chu (Filmmaker)
Fashion & Lifestyle: Sabyasachi Mukherjee (Founder and Creative Director)
Social Impact: Los Angeles Wildfire Heroes
Sports & Gaming: Suni Lee, Lee Kiefer, Torri Huske, and Chuck Aoki (Record-Breaking Team USA Athletes of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games)
Three individuals are honored as Gold Legends for their lifetime of achievement in the Asian Pacific community:
Ang Lee (Academy Award-Winning Filmmaker)
Min Jin Lee (New York Times Best-Selling Author)
Tsunekazu Ishihara (CEO, The Pokémon Company)
Additionally, three individuals who have been selected for 3+ years on the A100 List are inducted into the Hall of Fame:
Eric Kim (Co-Founder, Managing Partner, Goodwater Capital)
Melanie Perkins (Co-Founder and CEO, Canva)
Ronny Chieng (Stand-Up Comedian, Actor)
Finally, 10 rising leaders are named as A100 New Gold honorees, including K-pop sensation aespa, investor and entrepreneur Ankur Jain, football player Nikko Remigio, fashion designer Sohee Park, and climate activist Sophia Kinna.
The weekend celebrating the A100 honorees will begin with the A100 Celebratory Reception, co-hosted by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and East West Bank. The reception will feature remarks by A100 Icon Judge and President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Janet Yang, honoring the 25th anniversary of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Academy Award-winning director and Gold Legend Ang Lee. The film's leading actor and global icon Zhang Ziyi will receive the Gold House Gold Bridge Legacy Award for her pioneering leadership in uniting the East and West through media.
Past and present A100 Honorees and Judges will then gather at the exclusive A100 Honoree Dinner, presented by global restaurant technology leader OpenTable. The dinner will feature bespoke cocktails presented by Hennessy and hydration provided by Smartwater. This evening is made possible with generous support from the Pop Culture Collaborative and Walter and Shirley Wang Foundation. The weekend will culminate with the Gold Gala, with special on-stage award presentations, followed immediately by the Billboard x Gold House Founders Party with headliner DJ Anderson .Paak.
Across North America, iconic landmarks will light up in Gold Lights as a celebration of the A100 List and the Asian Pacific community. Participating cities and landmarks include: Atlanta (Mercedes-Benz Stadium); Chicago (Willis Tower); Honolulu (City Hall); Los Angeles (City Hall and Paramount Tower); Las Vegas (LV City Sign); Ontario (Niagara Falls); New York City (Nasdaq Tower and The Edge); Seattle (Columbia Center Tower); Toronto (CN Tower); and Vancouver (BC Place and Olympic Cauldron). The honorees will also be featured in billboards across the United States, generously donated by Big Outdoor, Branded Cities, Intersection, Outfront Media, and Orange Barrel Media.
Digitally, the A100 Honorees will be feted in a powerful video entitled "Tiny Hopes," which highlights how seemingly insignificant "firsts," when nurtured with resilience and conviction, can transform into world-changing forces that defy all expectations. The video, produced by creative agency Team One, features narration by 2025 A100 Honoree and multi-hyphenate talent Darren Criss and an original score by Carol Kuswanto.
The full A100 List and Selection Committee can be found at a100list.com.
Contact Information
Rose Yan
VP of Marketing
press@goldhouse.org
SOURCE: Gold House
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire