Brian Gott

Brian Gott leads the Burkle Global Impact Initiative at UCLA’s Burkle Center for International Relations to activate the entertainment industry, across all sectors, to engage more deeply and effectively with global policy, humanitarian, and advocacy issues. The program's mission is to promote and facilitate the treatment of critical international issues within the content creation community as a way to educate and inform the public about international affairs. The Global Impact Initiative works closely with the United Nations and its Creative Community Outreach Initiative.

Gott previously spent 12 years at Variety, serving as the media organization's publisher since 2009. In that time he conceived of, and launched, their " Power of " effort -- a philanthropic commitment across the Youth, Women, and Comedy sectors, which has generated more than $6M in charitable contributions benefitting more than 50 non-profit organizations. In October 2012, Gott accepted the United Nations Foundation's Global Leadership Award on behalf of Variety, for the organization's role in mobilizing the entertainment industry to use its collective resources to support UN and UN Foundation-related campaigns. In April 2012, Gott hosted the United Nation's World Malaria Day at UN headquarters in New York City, with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Malaria Special Envoy Ray Chambers, and the Special Representative of the Roll Back Malaria effort, Princess Astrid of Belgium. In May 2012, Gott travelled to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya with the UN Foundation and the UNHCR to experience first-hand the important work being done on the ground by the Foundation's Nothing But Nets anti-malaria campaign.

Gott is one of the 8 members of the United Nations Foundation's Global Entrepreneurs Council, a group of individuals, all under the age of 40, from industries including media, technology and finance, convened by the UN Foundation to advise the United Nations and UN Foundation on how to accelerate their philanthropic efforts, and further the mission of the UN's Millennium Development Goals. Other members include Randi Zuckerberg, former Director of Marketing for Facebook, Shervin Pishevar of Menlo Ventures and Palindrome Advisors founder Zaw Thet.

Gott also sits on the Global Board of Directors of the Starlight Children's Foundation, one of the world's preeminent youth health-focused non-profits, which provides ongoing support for children and their families from diagnosis through the entire course of medical treatment, and is a local board member of the American Heart Association (AHA), whose mission is building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.