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Audrey Gelman
Audrey Gelman (born June 2, 1987) is an American businessperson and political staffer. She is the founder of The Wing, a women's co-working space and social club founded in New York City in 2016. She was the inspiration for Allison Williams's character Marnie on Girls.[1][2] Early life and educationGelman is the daughter of microbiologist Irwin Gelman and psychologist Lisa Speigel. She was raised in the Upper West Side.[3] Gelman attended the Lab School and Bard High School in New York City.[1] She began studies at Oberlin College in 2005[4] and attended for two years before leaving to work for Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign for U.S. President.[1] She returned to New York after Clinton's primary defeat. She finished her bachelor's degree in political science at New York University.[4][5] During this time, she also appeared in the satirical web series Delusional Downtown Divas by Lena Dunham.[4] CareerIn 2008, Gelman worked as a press aide for Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.[6] She served as deputy communications director in Scott Stringer's successful campaign to win the position of New York City Comptroller in 2013.[7] During the 2012 presidential election, Gelman was involved with the revival of the political action committee Downtown for Democracy.[4] In 2013, Gelman joined the New York office of strategic consulting firm SKDKnickerbocker.[8] In October 2016, Gelman launched The Wing, a women's co-working space with her co-founder Lauren Kassan.[9] 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."[10] The first location was in the Flatiron District.[11] The club had a founding membership of 200 women.[4] 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.[12] On March 1, 2018, the New York City Commission on Human Rights started a "commission-initiated" investigation[13] 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.[14] In June 2019, the Wing's motion to dismiss the lawsuit was denied and as of September 2019, the lawsuit was pending.[15] 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.[16][17] The Series A funding came to $8 million.[10] By November 2017, the club had around 1,500 members.[4] That month, The Wing launched the magazine No Man's Land[4] 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.[18] In 2013, Politico listed Gelman as one of its 50 Politicos to Watch.[7] In the December 2014 issue of Forbes, 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.[19][20] In 2017, Fast Company named Gelman to their Most Creative People in Business list.[21] In December 2017, she was listed in a TechCrunch feature on 42 women succeeding in tech.[22] Gelman endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the run-up for the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[23] 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.[24] In June 2020, after complaints about how The Wing failed to address racist behavior of its members and an employee walkout, Gelman resigned from her position as CEO.[25] In April 2022, Gelman opened The Six Bells ("a new old country store") in Brooklyn.[26] On August 31, 2022, the Wing shut down permanently.[27] Personal lifeGelman dated photographer Terry Richardson from 2011 until 2013.[28] In April 2016, she married Genius co-founder Ilan Zechory[29] in Detroit.[30] Their first child was born in 2019. She is a childhood friend of Lena Dunham; they both went on to attend Oberlin College.[1][2] Dunham has stated that Gelman is the inspiration for the Girls character Marnie.[1][2] Gelman portrayed the character of Audrey, a free-spirited new girlfriend of Marnie’s on-and-off boyfriend, in the early seasons of the show. [1] See alsoReferences
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