American businessman and leading fashion designer Kenneth Cole was appointed as a UNAIDS International Goodwill Ambassador at the 2016 United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting on Ending AIDS in recognition of his outstanding commitment to the AIDS response.
Mr Cole has been a leading voice in the global response to HIV for more than 30 years and continues to be a passionate champion for people living with HIV. As well as managing his business interests, Mr Cole has been chairman of amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, since 2005. He was instrumental in the launch of amfAR’s Countdown to a Cure campaign, which supports amfAR’s recently opened Institute for HIV Research, based at the University of California, San Francisco. The mission of the institute is to accelerate progress towards developing a cure for HIV.
In his new role as an International Goodwill Ambassador for UNAIDS, Mr Cole will work to rally the global community by continuing his longstanding role as an advocate for an inclusive response to the AIDS epidemic. He will help fundraise and through his creative skills and network support the communication of clear benchmarks and goals in the AIDS response, including amfAR’s mission of finding a cure for HIV by 2020, in order to realize UNAIDS’ vision of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Mr Cole is married to Maria Cuomo and is the father of three children.
