Meet the out LGBTQ+ corporate board members in the Fortune 500

30 seats (0.5%) in 28 companies (5%) occupied by 23 out LGBTQ+ people including 13 women, 3 LatinX, 3 POC.

This list is the only one keeping continuous track of LGBTQ+ board representation globally. There has been some movement in LGBTQ+ representation in the Fortune 500 corporate board in 2022 triggering this update. As examples, Peter Thiel left Facebook while Beth Ford joined BlackRock.

Summary

LGBTQ+ people occupy just 30 out of an estimated 5,670 board seats in Fortune 500 companies (2021 ranking), or 0.5%. Beyond the obvious issue of the abysmal representation on good governance — Gallup polls suggest that between 5.7% and 7.1% of adults self-identify as LGBTQ+ in the US — it is an insidious form of discrimination in the private sector.

Below is the tally of the top LGBTQ+ business leaders who serve in some of the world’s most prominent boardrooms.

Who are the business leaders occupying these seats?

There are 23 out LGBTQ+ people, in majority lesbians, in the boardroom — an exclusive club that includes thirteen women, three LatinX, and three POC (both men). Many are existing or former CEOs, including the four out CEOs of the Fortune 500, but the group also includes more atypical profiles, such as the Ford Foundation’s Darren Walker.

Many occupy several seats. Beth Ford, CEO of Land O’Lakes, holds three board seats now that she has joined BlackRock’s board, followed by Darren Walker (two: PepsiCo and Block), Tim Cook (two: Apple and Nike), Jim Fitterling (two: Dow, 3M), Amy Lane (two: TJX, NextEra) and M. Michele Burns (two: Goldman Sachs, Cisco).

Interestingly enough, many of these board members — but not all — came out late in their career (Tim Cook, for example) when they had already reached the pinnacle of the corporate world.

Which companies stand out?

The queerest boards are Macy’s, with CEO Jeff Gennette and Google’s Torrence Boone, and Cisco, with Dr Kristina M. Johnson and M. Michele Burns.

Only three LGBTQ+ people chair Fortune 500 boards: Susan Arnold (chair of the embattled Disney board), Jim Fitterling (chair of the Dow board as well as CEO) and Jeff Gennette (chair of the Macy’s board as well as CEO).

LGBTQ+ board directors in the Fortune 500

• #3 Apple — Tim Cook
• #16 Walgreens Boots Alliance — Nancy Schlichting
• #44 PepsiCo — Darren Walker
• #50 Disney — Susan Arnold (chair of the board)
• #55 Prudential — Peter R. Lighte
• #57 Goldman Sachs — M. Michele Burns
• #63 Cisco — Dr Kristina M. Johnson and M. Michele Burns
• #82 Dow — Jim Fitterling (chair of the board)
• #85 Nike — Tim Cook
• #96 3M — Jim Fitterling
• #97 TJX — Amy B. Lane
• #107 Qualcomm — Sylvia Acevedo
• #148 Rite Aid — Elizabeth Burr
• #159 Paccar — Beth Ford
• #163 L3Harris — Rita Lane
• #164 Macy’s — Torrence Boone and Jeff Gennette (chair of the board)
• #166 NextEra Energy — Amy B. Lane
• #188 Colgate-Palmolive — Lorrie Norrington
• #189 AECOM — Sander van’t Noordende
• #192 BlackRock — Beth Ford
• #208 Block — Darren Walker
• #219 Land O’Lakes — Beth Ford
• #226 Edison International — Michael C. Camuñez
• #276 Consolidated Edison — Dwight McBride
• #331 Conagra Brands — Ruth Ann Marshall
• #414 Zimmer Biomet — Betsy Bernard
• #418 Sanmina — Rita Lane
• #430 CMS Energy — Myrna Soto

What is the trend?

Between arrivals and departures this number remains rather stable. While we saw key board appointments in 2021 (3M, BlackRock, AECOM), some departures offset them. Peter Thiel famously left Meta; Ryan Zanin left the Fannie Mae board to become its chief risk officer; Professor Carolyn Bertozzi resigned as an independent director of Lilly’s board after an acquisition that could have created a conflict.

How does it translate geographically?

Because of the impetus created by the legislator, California leads the pack on LGBTQ+ corporate board diversity, with eight of its 55 Fortune 500 companies (15%) having an LGBTQ+ board member. Those nine seats — Cisco has two LGBTQ+ board members — represent approximately 1.6% of board seats, compared with an average of 0.6% nationally. The eight companies are Apple (Tim Cook), The Walt Disney Company (Susan Arnold, chair), Cisco (Dr Kristina Johnson, M. Michele Burns), AECOM (Sander van’t Noordende, chair), Edison International (Michael C. Camuñez), Square (Darren Walker), Qualcomm (Sylvia Acevedo) and Sanmina (Rita Lane).

What about outside the public 500?

Preliminary evidence shows that LGBTQ+ people are even more underrepresented on Fortune 1000 companies. Some of the board members listed above serve on companies outside the Fortune 500 group: Darren Walker serves on the board of Ralph Lauren (658), Elizabeth “Busy” Burr serves on SVB Financial Group (524) and Mr. Cooper Group (777), Myrna Soto serves on the boards of Spirit Airlines (795) and Popular Inc (888), and Adam Stanley serves on the board of GATX (730). Beth Brooke now serves on the board of The New York Times (733).

Outside the Fortune 1000 it is even more difficult to track. M. Michele Burns serves on the board of Etsy, Inc. Serge Dumont has joined the board of Nasdaq-listed East West Bancorp, Inc. Pamela Stewart (Coca-Cola) is now on the board of Utz Brands. Rob Smith (Phluid Project) serves on the board of Steve Madden Inc. Patrick O’Keeffe, former CHRO of American, has joined Sun Country Airlines’ board. Mary Beth Henson serves on Ares. Robert Medrano serves on Veritone and Lief.

What about Europe?

Top business leaders in Europe are more likely to be closeted than their Anglo-Saxon counterparts for a variety of societal reasons, making such a list impossible to build. Sander van’t Noordende is both CEO and board chair of the Randstad supervisory board since March 2022, Rita Lane is an LGBTQ+ director of Signify Holdings, M. Michele Burns serves on the board of Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Nicolas Calcoen is president of the board of France’s Amundi.

Why does this matter?

There is enormous power in Fortune 500 boardrooms, and underrepresentation perpetuates the economic marginalisation of LGBTQ+ people. Encouraging board members to disclose their sexual orientation and gender identity is a step towards addressing the issue in the conservative corporate governance world, and companies that do so dispel the myth that directors are unwilling to self-disclose. Interestingly, very few of the Fortune 500 companies that have out LGBTQ+ board members disclose it in their proxy statements.

How can you help?

Help us keep this list — and others, for the Fortune 1000 and beyond — up to date. Raise your hand for board service. Use your power as an employee, consumer and investor to require companies to include sexual orientation and gender identity in their board diversity guidelines, to include LGBTQ+ people in their slates of candidates for board service, and to disclose the sexual orientation and gender identity of board members in their proxies. Use your voice to ask the regulator — particularly the Securities and Exchange Commission — to require disclosure from companies and encourage boards to diversify. And help make LGBTQ+ people in the governance world visible.