Accepting Gay Employees Is ‘Commercial Imperative, Bloomberg News
Seth Waugh, chief executive officer for Deutsche Bank AG (DBK)’s Americas division, said it’s a “commercial imperative” for Wall Street to accept openly gay employees.
“All types of diversity make complete economic sense and serve our shareholders over the long run,” Waugh said today at “Out on the Street,” a conference hosted by Deutsche Bank AG to explore how financial institutions can be more accepting of gays. “It creates a richer mosaic of perspectives.”
The end game is a sense of obliviousness and indifference to an employee’s sexuality, Waugh said. The goal is to make Wall Street an “attractive and welcoming” place to work, he said.
“The amount of time and energy and brain function that one expends on just hiding is incredible,” Mark Stephanz, a vice chairman at Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America Corp. (BAC), told the audience in New York.
Three years ago, he told his clients, wife and three children he’s gay, Stephanz said in an interview.
“I thought it would destroy my career, that my clients would want to deal with the straight guy on the golf course instead of a gay guy,” said Stephanz, who joined Bank of America in 1984. “I know there are people who live with the same fear.”
The key to changing an office environment is having openly gay senior-level employees in a firm, said Todd Sears, founder of “Out on the Street,” which is in its inaugural year.
“I want to start a dialogue with senior business managers around how we can actually move things forward,” Sears told the audience.
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