Richard Klein

Motivated by the burgeoning design culture of the West Coast, Richard relocated to San Francisco to further explore his interest in design and lifestyle philosophies that were taking root there in the early 90's. Settling in San Francisco, Richard was an Art Director of Macy’s West, specifically working with Macy’s magazine. He also began to develop numerous relationships within the design community working with such companies as Wells Fargo, Levi’s and Esprit. Merging his innate ability to cultivate and curate pioneering local talent Richard created the Surface Gallery in the South of Market area of San Francisco. The gallery morphed into a publication and Surface Magazine was born in 1993. Surface became lauded by national media and organically evolved into a global style icon by late 1995. RK conceived, developed and launched several brand programs including the collaboration with the Hotel on Rivington in New York City's Lower East Side. After initially launching the first issue, Surface became the focal point for a loyal community of design enthusiasts and opinion-leading readers that reside in well over 200 countries. In 2008, Richard oversaw the licensing of the Surface brand to a Beijing publishing company - and Surface China was born.

Since 2010, Richard’s focus has been building dot429 and is currently operating as the CEO. Called a linkedin for the LGBT community by the WSJ, dot429 has attracted a membership of over 55,000 people since its launch.

Richard participates on the leadership council of GLAAD, and is on the advisory board of MCF. Richard was the Co-chair of the San Francisco Glaad media awards in June 2010.