Todd G. Sears is an American businessman and advocate for LGBT equality. He founded Out Leadership, a strategic advisory firm that works to extend equality for LGBT people worldwide, and served as head of diversity at Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse.

Career

For his education, Sears attended

Woodberry Forest School Woodberry Forest School is a private, all-male boarding school located in Woodberry Forest, Madison County, Virginia, in the United States. Woodberry's current enrollment is 405. Students come from 28 U.S. states (plus the District of Columbi ...

in Virginia, before graduating from Duke University in 1998. Sears began working at Merrill Lynch in 2001, where he created the first national team of financial advisors on Wall Street to focus on the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

community. While at Merrill Lynch, he produced seminars that addressed the challenges LGBT clients face in estate-planning and his team expanded to include 10 financial advisors in six cities. Under Sears, the team generated $1.4 billion over four years. Sears worked at Credit Suisse after Merrill Lynch, and became the head of diversity and inclusion. While at Credit Suisse, Sears created the first Veteran's Network on Wall Street. Sears founded Out on the Street, a group which works to increase LGBT awareness at financial firms. The organization holds an annual summit for LGBT and straight ally leaders of the biggest banks in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. In 2011, Sears founded Out Leadership, a strategic advisory firm that advises multinational corporations on LGBT issues. The firm holds business conferences and summits. Out on the Street became part of Out Leadership. Additionally, he started similar initiatives including Out in Law which focuses on the legal industry, OutNEXT focused on young professionals, and Quorum, a professional network that aims to increase LGBT representation on corporate boards. He is principal of Out Leadership LLC, formerly known as Coda Leadership Consulting LLC. Sears is also the founding co-chair of Jeffrey Fashion Cares.

References

American LGBT businesspeople Duke University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American LGBT rights activists {{LGBT-activist-stub