Business Leaders Emphasize Financial Benefits of LGBTQ+-Inclusive ESG at Inaugural Out Leadership ESG Summit

Out Leadership Announces Return on Equality™, an LGBTQ+-Inclusive ESG Summit Hosted by Nasdaq on October 4th

NEW YORK CITY, NY – Out Leadership, the premier global LGBTQ+ organization harnessing the power of business to drive equality, announced today the Return on Equality^TM ESG Summit. The Summit will convene leaders from across industries to share new ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) research and thought leadership, implement best practices for inclusion, governance, and sustainability, and help companies embed LGBTQ+ inclusion into every pillar of a company’s ESG practices.

The Return on Equality™ ESG Summit is the culmination of over 18 months of development by a working group including representatives from 46 companies in New York, London, Hong Kong, and Sydney, globally sponsored by Ropes & Gray and MSCI and including Salons hosted by Hogan Lovells and Millennium.

“Companies operate on the principle of maximizing shareholder return, while minimizing business risk, two things sustainability and inclusion have proven time and again to deliver.  It’s simple: the opposition to ESG and LGBTQ+ inclusion is anti-business. Business leaders would not have adopted these policies—and kept and expanded them over the years— if they weren’t good for business,” said Todd Sears, Founder and CEO of Out Leadership.  “And because we’ve spent the last 13 years proving that LGBTQ+ equality is good business, we recognize the enormous potential to create LGBTQ+ inclusive ESG initiatives that generate even better business outcomes.”

The Return on Equality^TM ESG Summit will be hosted by Nasdaq on October 4th and is sponsored by MSCI and Ropes & Gray. Out Leadership also announces an exciting lineup of speakers, including the New York City Comptroller, Brad LanderKen Janssens, ESG Expert and Senior Adviser, Out Leadership; Rachel Hodgdon, CEO and President, IWBIKarl Racine, former Attorney General of the District of Columbia and Partner at Hogan Lovells; Eric Behl-Remijan, Partner, Ropes & Gray; Randall Hopkins, Global Head of Nasdaq ESG Solutions Vice President, Nasdaq; Bob McCormick, Managing Director, PJT Camberview; Jonas Kron, Chief Advocacy Officer, Trillium; and Drew Murphy, CEO, Edison Energy.

The summit will include discussion topics across the ESG and DE&I spectrum, including:

• Establishing LGBTQ+- inclusive ESG reporting, including understanding the current landscape based on Out Leadeship’s analysis of 220 companies in the United States and the United Kingdom.
• Understanding the climate of anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-ESG efforts across the United States and how leading companies are navigating the political noise to keep generating superior shareholder value and continue attracting top talent.
• Advancing LGBTQ+ inclusion through the Out Leadership’s OutQUORUM LGBTQ+ board diversity initiative.

The preliminary agenda for the Return on Equality ESG Summit, along with session topics, times, and participant bios, can be accessed via the following link.