Todd G. Sears

Todd G. Sears
Nationality American
Education Duke University ('98)[1][2]
Occupation Entrepreneur
Organization Out Leadership
Awards Paula L. Ettelbrick Award (2015)[3][4]

Todd G. Sears is an American businessman and an advocate for LGBT equality. He founded Out Leadership, a strategic advisory firm that works to extend equality for LGBT people worldwide,[5] and served as head of diversity at Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse.[6]

Career

Sears began working at Merrill Lynch in 2001, where he created the first national team of financial advisors on Wall Street to focus on the LGBT community.[6][7] While at Merrill Lynch, he produced seminars that addressed the challenges LGBT clients face in estate-planning and his team expanded to include 10 financial advisors in six cities. Under Sears, the team generated $1.4 billion dollars over four years.[8] Sears worked at Credit Suisse after Merrill Lynch, and became the head of diversity and inclusion.[6][5][9] While at Credit Suisse, Sears created the first Veteran's Network on Wall Street.[2]

Sears founded Out on the Street, a group which works to increase LGBT awareness at financial firms. The organization holds an annual summit for LGBT and straight ally leaders of the biggest banks in New York City.[6][10] In 2011, Sears founded Out Leadership, a strategic advisory firm that advises multinational corporations on LGBT issues.[11] The firm holds business conferences and summits. Out on the Street became part of Out Leadership.[4][11][5][12]

Additionally, he started similar initiatives including Out in Law which focuses on the legal industry, OutNEXT focused on young professionals, and Quorum, a professional network that aims to increase LGBT representation on corporate boards.[4][3] He is principal of Out Leadership LLC, formerly known as Coda Leadership Consulting LLC.[13] Sears is also the founding co-chair of Jeffrey Fashion Cares.[2]

References

  1. ↑ D.M. Levine (May 18, 2012). "Todd Sears, Out On The Street Founder, Has Wall Street's Attention". Huffington Post. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Susanna Kim (April 1, 2011). "Wall Street Bans Come Out in Support Gay Employees". ABC News. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  3. 1 2 Jillian Melero (June 25, 2015). "Out Leadership's Todd Sears to receive Ettelbrick Award". South Florida Gay News. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 John Riley (June 5, 2015). "Minority Corporate Counsel Association to award local business leader Todd Sears". Metro Weekly. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 Dorie Clark (August 21, 2014). "Making The Business Case For Diversity". Forbes. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Tris Reid-Smith (December 14, 2012). "Todd Sears: The gay business guru Out on the Street". Gay Star News. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  7. ↑ Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Karen Sumberg (July 2011). "For LGBT Workers, Being "Out" Brings Advantages". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  8. ↑ Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Kenji Yoshino (February 2, 2016). "LGBT-Inclusive Companies Are Better at 3 Big Things". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  9. ↑ Lisa Kassenaar (November 30, 2006). "Gays no longer miss best jobs at Citigroup, Goldman, Merrill". San Diego Source. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  10. ↑ Joshua Green (January 14, 2016). "Wall Street's Straight Man in Washington". Bloomberg News. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  11. 1 2 Maria Gallucci (October 31, 2014). "For LGBT Workforce, Apple CEO Tim Cook Identifying As Gay Is A Monumental Shift, Activists Say". International Business Times. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  12. ↑ Grace Wong (October 30, 2014). "One job, two lives: LGBT in the American workplace". CNN. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Maximizing LGBT Opportunity in the Workplace". Bloomberg. Retrieved February 25, 2016.


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