Internet entrepreneur and best selling author Gurbaksh Chahal is financing the BeProud Foundation movement to end hate crimes.
The inspiration for BeProud sprung from the massacre of Sikhs that took place on August 5, 2012 in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. The events of that day shook the Sikh community in particular and the broader global society more generally. In response, an incredible rush of support for the victims, their families and the Sikh community began to flood in from various parts of the world. In this moment, BeProud was born with the idea that awareness could help minimize the rash of hate crimes in our society. The BeProud movement is currently scheduled to launch in the next two weeks with a simultaneous television and social media component.
Chahal, founder of the BeProud Foundation, notes that “the purpose of the BeProud Foundation isn’t just to raise awareness of Sikhs; it’s greater than any religion, culture, nationality, or appearance. It’s about embracing humanity. It’s about sharing a message, a vision – the undeniable, unifying truth that we are all a little different and that we should be proud of what makes us unique.”
Deepak Chopra, Ben Kingsley, Lisa Ray, Jay Sean and Gurinder Chadha are among the high profile individuals that are lending their support and will be instrumental in helping Gurbaksh in rallying Americans to join in the movement. To get involved go to www.beproud.org. Tweet the Movement @BeProud #EndHate or find it on Facebook.
Gurbaksh Chahal was born in India and moved to San Jose, CA at a young age where he experienced immense racism growing up. Taunted for wearing a turban and being different from the kids in his suburban town, the incident in Wisconsin struck a nerve with him in particular.
In January 1999 he started his first company, ClickAgents, at the age of 16. It was one of the first ad networks focused around performance based advertising. Eighteen months later he sold it for $40 million to ValueClick. In January 2004, he launched his second company, BlueLithium. The company focused on data, optimization and analytics and became a pioneer in behavioral targeting. BlueLithium was named one of the top 100 private companies in America for three years in a row by AlwaysOn and, in 2006, the company received the highest honor of Top Innovator of the Year. On September 4th, 2007, Yahoo! announced that it was acquiring BlueLithium for $300 million in cash. Chahal is also an international best-selling author of “The Dream,” the true inspirational tale of his entrepreneurial journey. In September 2009, Chahal launched RadiumOne, an advertising platform focused on social advertising across the open-web.
