Clara Wu Tsai - Honorees - The Gordon Parks Foundation

VICE CHAIRMAN, BSE GLOBAL | FOUNDER, THE JOE AND CLARA TSAI FOUNDATION | GOVERNOR, NEW YORK LIBERTY

Clara Wu Tsai is a businesswoman, investor, and philanthropist with a lifelong interest in advancing knowledge, culture, and the arts for the benefit of society. As Founder of the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation, Ms. Wu Tsai pursues philanthropic investments that advance knowledge, innovation, creativity in the arts, and equality by working with global partners to focus on the translation of new knowledge into practical applications with human, environmental, or social impact.  

In 2020 the Foundation established a Social Justice Fund focused on economic mobility and racial justice in Brooklyn, New York. Ms. Wu Tsai is a founding partner of the REFORM Alliance, which seeks to reform the criminal justice system. In 2021, she was recognized as a “Champion of Justice” by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for her work on social and racial justice.  

In science and technology, the Foundation supports the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University and the Wu Tsai Institute at Yale University for understanding human cognition.  

Ms. Wu Tsai serves on the Boards of Trustees for Stanford University, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and New York Presbyterian Hospital. She serves on the Advisory Board for the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington. She was an executive producer of Into the Okavango, a 2018 conservation documentary, Blue Bayou, a 2021 drama, and, Unfinished Business, a 2022 documentary about the WNBA.  

Ms. Wu Tsai is the Governor of the WNBA's New York Liberty and, along with her husband, is an owner of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets and the NLL's San Diego Seals. Previously, Ms. Wu Tsai was General Manager of the Hong Kong operations of Taobao, China’s largest online shopping website, and a Vice President at American Express in New York and Hong Kong. Ms. Wu Tsai holds a B.A. in International Relations and a M.A. in International Policy Studies from Stanford University, and a M.B.A. from Harvard University.