Audrey Gelman

Born to Irwin Gelman (a microbiologist) and Lisa Speigel (a psychologist), she was raised in the Upper West Side, an affluent neighbourhood in Manhattan.[4] Gelman attended the Lab School and Bard High School in New York City.[2] She began Oberlin College in 2005[5] and attended for two years before leaving to work for Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign for U.S. President.[2] She returned to New York after Clinton's primary defeat. She finished her bachelor's degree in political science at New York University.[5][6] During this time, she also appeared in the satirical web series Delusional Downtown Divas by Lena Dunham.[5]

In 2008, Gelman worked as a press aide for Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.[7] She served as deputy communications director in Scott Stringer's successful campaign to win the position of New York City Comptroller in 2013.[8] During the 2012 presidential election, Gelman was involved with the revival of the political action committee Downtown for Democracy.[5] In 2013, Gelman joined the New York office of strategic consulting firm SKDKnickerbocker.[9]

In October 2016, Gelman launched The Wing, a women's co-working space with her co-founder Lauren Kassan.[10] Initially, she and Kassan raised $2.4 million to create the club, with "aspirations to resurrect the atmosphere of the women’s clubs of the late 19th and early 20th century suffrage movement."[11] The first location was in the Flatiron District.[12] The club had a founding membership of 200 women.[5]

In its first two years operations, the Wing did not have a formal membership policy and its practice was to only admit women and non-binary individuals.[13] On March 1, 2018, the New York City Commission on Human Rights started a "commission-initiated" investigation[14] into how The Wing membership system operates. In August 2018, a male applicant who was denied admission filed a lawsuit against The Wing for gender discrimination. Shortly afterwards, the company instituted its first formal membership policy which went into effect on September 24, 2018.[15] In June 2019, the Wing's motion to dismiss the lawsuit was denied and as of September 2019, the lawsuit was pending.[16]

In April 2017, The Wing announced it had raised a Series A led by venture capital fund New Enterprise Associates with support from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and an expansion to three new locations.[17][18] The Series A funding came to $8 million.[11] By November 2017, the club had around 1,500 members.[5] That month, The Wing launched the magazine No Man's Land[5] and also raised $32 million in a series B funding round, led by WeWork. By December 2017, The Wing had a second location in New York's Soho.[19]

In 2013, Politico listed Gelman as one of its 50 Politicos to Watch.[8] In the December 2014 issue of Forbes, Audrey Gelman was named one of its 30 Under 30: Corporate Climbers, and was previously named in the magazine's 30 Under 30: Law and Policy list.[20][21] In 2017, Fast Company named Gelman to their Most Creative People in Business list.[22] In December 2017, she was listed in a TechCrunch feature on 42 women succeeding in tech.[23]

Gelman endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the run-up for the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[24]

In 2019, Gelman was featured on the cover of Inc. magazine, marking the first time a visibly pregnant woman appeared on the cover of a business magazine.[25]

In June 2020, Gelman resigned from her position as CEO of The Wing, in response to complaints from staff regarding the treatment of employees of color.[26]

Gelman dated photographer Terry Richardson from 2011 until 2013.[27] In April 2016, she married Genius co-founder Ilan Zechory[28] in Detroit.[29] Their first child was born on September 24, 2019.

She is a childhood friend of Lena Dunham, who has called her the inspiration for the Girls character Marnie. The two also attended Oberlin College together.[2][3]

• List of New York University alumni

• "Vanity Fair's Best-Dressed 2014". Vanity Fair.
• Abramovitch, Ingrid. "Stick 'Em Up: Brookyln dweller Audrey Gelman talks about her New York digs as a haven, a home, and a hot spot". The Aesthete. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
• Lagorio-Chafkin, Christine (September 16, 2019). "The Wing Has $118 Million in Funding, Superfans Like Meryl Streep, and Plenty of Skeptics. It's Just Getting Started". Inc.com. Retrieved September 22, 2019.