Tim Gill (born October 18, 1953) is an American computer software programmer, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and LGBTQ rights activist.
[1] He is the founder and co-chair of the Gill Foundation, a private Denver-based philanthropic organization supporting efforts to secure nationwide civil rights for LGBTQ Americans.
[2] As of 2019, he was the single largest individual donor to the LGBTQ rights movement in U.S. history, having personally committed more than $500 million since the early 1990s.
Following the sale of his stake in Quark, Inc., Gill set aside sixty percent of his assets – more than $300 million – to fight for LGBTQ rights.
[7] He is widely credited as a visionary strategist and mega-donor who has made significant contributions to virtually every major LGBTQ rights victory in the United States, from the 2003 Goodridge v. Dept.
[6] The foundation established the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado in 1996, which provides financial support to a variety of non-profit organizations in the state.
[4][15] In addition to LGBTQ equality, the foundation focuses on providing STEM education to every Colorado student,[16][17] curbing predatory lending and increasing financial literacy,[18][3] and supporting public media.
[4] Gill prioritized unseating McCrory after he championed and passed the anti-LGBTQ HB2 "bathroom bill," which forced transgender people to use public restrooms corresponding with their sex at birth rather than their gender identity.
[6] In 2015, Gill, Paul Singer and Daniel Loeb, helped fund Freedom for All Americans to advocate for non-discrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in states and local communities across the country.
[24][25] Freedom for All Americans has successfully enlisted the support of businesses and corporations to work with Republican-held state legislatures to reject or overturn anti-LGBTQ legislation.
With the introduction of Fred Ebrahimi as CEO in 1986, and the launch of the company's flagship page layout software, QuarkXPress, in 1987, Gill became a multi-millionaire.
[35] Gill sold his fifty percent interest in Quark in 1999 for a reported $500 million, citing his growing involvement in philanthropic and activist endeavors.
[40] In July 2017, JStar announced an additional $8 million in private investment to create original hardware to compete with Google Home, Amazon Echo, and other devices with intelligent assistants inside.