Richard Gilbert is a a member the Birchwood Advisory Board and served as the Board Chair until 2022.
He is a former media company CEO, with many additional years of service as an independent director on numerous corporate boards and as a chair for Vistage, a world–wide organization for CEOs. His career in active management spanned over 30 years, operating weekly and daily newspaper companies, both large and small, as well as a number of radio and television stations and magazines.
Gilbert’s career began as a community newspaper reporter, editor and owner in Iowa. Active also in politics, he was press secretary to an Iowa governor for seven years before joining the family-owned Des Moines Register as an executive. He led that company’s subsidiary properties of daily newspapers and broadcast outlets before becoming president of the entire company.
He left the Register after helping lead its sale to Gannett. He headed two other prominent media companies, first in New York state (Park Communications) and then Chicago (Pioneer Press suburban group) before joining the investment banking firm of Bulkley Capital. Dallas. He continues today as a Bulkley director/advisor.
Additionally, Richard has had significant involvement in banking and investing, having served as chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, and as lead independent director of the Principal Mutual Funds ($100 billion AUM), organized by the Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, and Calamos Asset Management ($33 billion AUM), Naperville,IL.
He currently is an independent director for the Horton Group, Orland Park, IL, a leading Chicagoland insurance agency, and Carroll Independent Fuels, Baltimore, both family-owned companies. At Carroll, he chairs the board.
He is a native Iowan, formerly served as a member of the board of trustees of his alma mater Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, and is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).