A full room at our fourth annual NACD Summit dinner

On Tuesday, October 13, PRISM: The Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors hosted its fourth annual dinner alongside the NACD Directors Summit at National Harbor, Maryland. Nearly 40 sitting directors, future directors and governance leaders joined us, including guests from the Institute of Directors New Zealand, The IIA and Farient Advisors in London.

"Being present in the governance ecosystem matters," Executive Director Fabrice Houdart told guests in his welcome, "and this week brings together so many of the people who shape how boards work."

We are grateful to our host partner, Cooley, and to Melissa Gohlke, partner in Cooley's Washington office, for welcoming us for a second year.

Judgment, perspective and who is in the room

Board Chair Michael Camuñez, President and CEO of Monarch Global Strategies and an independent director of Edison International, the American Funds boards at Capital Group and Amplify Education, spoke about why PRISM's work matters to governance.

"Having served on boards across business, higher education and philanthropy, I've come to believe that the hardest decisions rarely come down to information alone. They come down to judgment. To perspective. To who's in the room, what experiences they bring, and whether someone is willing to ask the question no one else is asking. And that's really what PRISM is about."

He pointed to PRISM's latest research, based on Equilar data: openly LGBTQ+ directors now hold 45 Fortune 500 board seats, down from 50 two years ago, and only one genuinely new openly LGBTQ+ director has joined that group since 2024. "There is no shortage of talented, accomplished LGBTQ+ executives who are qualified to serve," he said. "But too many remain outside the networks and relationships through which board opportunities are identified and filled."

Michael also described the thinking behind PRISM's new name and identity: "We're not simply working to bring more LGBTQ+ leaders into boardrooms. We're working to make those boardrooms stronger. PRISM. Sharper perspective. Stronger boards."

Next stop: New York

The conversation continues at the 4th Annual PRISM Summit on Monday, October 26 in New York, opening with a keynote by David Glasgow, executive director of NYU's Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging and coauthor with Kenji Yoshino of How Equality Wins. Michael also previewed a new initiative to be announced at the Summit, bringing together some of America's most accomplished LGBTQ+ corporate directors.

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