Todd G. Sears

Todd G. Sears (born 1976), American businessman and advocate for LGBTQ+ equality, is the founder and CEO of Out Leadership since 2010. A former investment banker and private banker, he has served as head of diversity strategy at Merrill Lynch from 2007 to 2008 and head of diversity and inclusion at Credit Suisse from 2008 to 2010. Due to the volatility of the textile industry, the family moved several times throughout Todd's youth and he attended 9 schools before the Woodberry Forest School where he would go on to receive his high school diploma.

Early career Sears started as an investment banker at Schroeders in 1998, working as a transportation analyst, before joining DeSilva & Phillips as the vice president of business development in 1999, working on over 65 transactions. In 2001, Sears moved to Merrill Lynch as a financial advisor – the first openly gay financial advisor in Merrill Lynch's history. Through that effort, he conducted domestic partner planning seminars across the United States, addressing challenges that LGBTQ clients faced in estate-planning. He was appointed division diversity manager for Merrill Lynch in 2007, and then was promoted to head of strategic initiatives at the Office of Diversity. At Credit Suisse, Sears created the first LGBTQ MBA recruiting program on Wall Street, “Open Perspectives, which won the HRC Innovation Award in 2010. He also supported the creation of the first Veterans network on Wall Street, which grew into VOWS (Veterans on Wall Street).

Founding Out on the Street In 2010, Sears was laid off from Credit Suisse, and used his severance check to start an LGBTQ-business Summit, called “Out on the Street,” a CEO-hosted gathering to discuss the business opportunity of LGBTQ equality. The first Summit, held March 30, 2011, was hosted by Seth Waugh, the Americas CEO of Deutsche Bank and was attended by senior leaders from Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley. Reporters from ABC News, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and American Banker, among others, quoted Wall Street as the gay community's ally, for the first time.

In 2012, Out on the Street expanded to include several more firms, holding its second summit hosted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The initiative further expanded internationally that year, as over 180 senior members from 15 global financial institutions met in London, at the first summit of Out on the Street held outside of the United States. Receiving a welcome from the Lord Mayor, a letter of support from the U.S. secretary of state, a keynote by a high-ranking Balkan leader, the summit had an overwhelmingly positive response. Speakers discussed themes that were addressed in that year's New York City Summit, attesting to the global nature of challenges facing the LGBTQ community, but also discussed region-specific topics like that of culture and family pressures.

A secondary initiative, “Out in Law,” which sought to convene senior lawyers from across major law firms, was launched in 2014 – with the first “Out in Law” summit hosted by New York University Law School on March 13, 2014, including 28 participating law firms and over 200 attendees. The initiative aimed to bring together LGBTQ and straight ally leaders from the legal profession to discuss issues, network, and collectively set a forward-looking agenda for the legal community. At the inaugural summit on May 18, 2016, speakers like Kieran Moore, CEO of Ogilvy PR, Anthony Venn-Brown, CEO of Ambassadors & Bridge Builders International, and the Honourable Senator Penny Wong, discussed Australia's progress towards a more equal society for LGBTQ people, and how business has been involved in that progress forward. Hosted by Morgan Stanley on April 30, 2014, the summit convened leaders across industries and engaged attendees with interactive panel discussions, business case studies, and workshops to build leadership skills and create opportunities for networking.

In 2015, Out Leadership launched OutQUORUM, premiering a first-of-its-kind LGBTQ+ inclusive Board Diversity Policy for the United States with KPMG. The organization published the first-ever LGBTQ+ Board Diversity Guidelines for the United States so that any company who wanted to, could change its policy in ten minutes.

2016 marked a further expansion of the organization's many initiatives, as OutWOMEN was launched – championing the success of senior LGBTQ women in business. On February 4, 2016, the organization announced that the initiative would drive equality forward by organizing global engagement opportunities for LGBTQ women in significant leadership positions at major companies.

Philanthropy Sears serves on various nonprofit boards, including the Williams Institute of UCLA, the Palette Fund, the Global Equality Fund of the U.S. Department of State, Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, The North Carolina Community Foundation and the National Advisory Council of the Stonewall National Archives & Museum.

Sears holds an integral role in several events Lambda Legal, a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people, and everyone living with HIV through impact litigation, education and public work, has organized. Since 2003, the year Lambda Legal won Lawrence v. Texas, Sears has hosted Lambda in the Pines, the longest running LGBTQ fundraiser in the United States.

Sears is the founding co-chair of Jeffrey Fashion Cares New York, a fashion show fundraiser created in tandem with namesake Jeffrey Kalinsky – over the 10 years Sears led the event, it raised over $8 million for LGBTQ+ / HIV causes, with recipients including Lambda Legal, Hetrick Martin Institute, GMHC, the Point Foundation, and ACRIA.

Awards and honors In 2014, Sears was awarded the My Hero Award by Aid for AIDS International, which recognizes individuals who have made a significant impact on the lives of people living with HIV. That year, he also received the Empire State Pride Agenda Foundation's 2014 Equality at Work Award, presented in recognition of his leadership and commitment to advancing rights for LGBTQ professionals and working to elevate equality in the workplace.

In 2015, Sears received the Paula L. Ettelbrick Award, which celebrates the unparalleled achievement by an individual or an organization in advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender attorneys.

In 2018, Sears was presented the AGLCC's (Atlanta Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce) Vanguard Award, recognizing him as an LGBTQ advocate visible on the National and/or Global stage, having pioneered new territory in the business community while advocating for inclusion, equality and greater access to opportunity for LGBTQ individuals.

In 2019, Sears was awarded the Duke Alumni Association's Beyond Duke Award, in recognition of his service to the Duke community, his city, and the world, through his involvement in Out Leadership.

Sears has been listed on Crain's Notable LGBTQ leaders for several years, having been on the list in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024. The list recognizes people who are pacesetters that drive equity and inclusion across city business.

Publications Sears has published several articles across various platforms, including the Huffington Post, Harvard Business Review, the South China Morning Post, and Forbes.

Huffington Post, Hong Kong's Religious Pluralism Offers a Model for Diversity in the Special Administrative Region, 2015 Huffington Post, Room at the Table: Remembering Bayard Rustin's Legacy on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 2016 Huffington Post, As the World's Attention Turns to Brazil, Companies in Brazil Have an Historic Opportunity to Demonstrate LGBT Inclusion, 2016 Huffington Post, Nathan Deal Faces Stark Choice: Partisanship or Prosperity?, 2016 New York Slant, Expanding LGBT Diversity on Corporate Boards is Good for Business, 2016 New Zealand Herald, Protecting Employees Where Being Gay is a Crime, 2016 B The Change, Inspirational Business Leaders Write About the Necessity of an Inclusive Economy - B The Change Media, 2017 South China Morning Post, It’s time for laws that protect workers of all sexual orientations in Hong Kong, 2017 The Advocate Magazine, Why Is Fortune Magazine Honoring Antigay Companies Like Publix?, 2018 Pensions & Investments, Commentary: Get on board – it's time for investors to include LGBT people in board diversity, 2018 Forbes, The Human Power of Corporate Pride, 2019 Forbes, Learning From Ben Carson’s Prejudice: How Leaders Should Talk About Transgender People, 2019 Pensions & Investments, Commentary: Get on board - it's time for investors to include LGBT people in board diversity, 2019 Omaha World-Herald, Todd Sears: Cate Folsom leaves an important World-Herald legacy, 2020 Forbes, Why It's High Time The Law Protects LGBT+ Citizens, 2020 Forbes, The Power of Purpose in Corporate Strategy, 2020 Forbes, How Larry Kramer Was ‘The Destiny Of Me’, 2020 Forbes, All Eyes On California This Wednesday: AB-979 Could Alter Corporate Boards For The Better, 2020 Third Sector News, Additional funding to deliver specialist orthoses to more children, org says, 2021 Third Sector News, Law firm joins federation working to improve LGBTIQ+ living conditions, 2021 Forbes, Dispelling Myths On The Barriers To Minority Representation On Corporate Boards, 2021 Forbes, No One Ever Changed Their Mind Because You Called Them A “Bigot”, 2022 Forbes, Attacking ESG: A Strategy That’s Doomed To Fail, 2024 HR Daily Advisor, Progress and Potential: The Evolution of the Global Workplace for LGBTQ+ Employees, 2024 Harvard Business Review, Why Companies Must Recommit to the Fight for LGBTQ+ Rights, 2024 Infobae, Por qué las empresas deben comprometerse de nuevo con la lucha por los derechos LGBTQ+, 2024 Economic waves and 'rainbow washing': Thailand’s same-sex marriage Bill brings business opportunities and challenges, say experts, 2024