Todd Sears

Todd Sears is the Founder and Principal of Out Leadership, the global LGBT+ business network trusted by CEOs and multinational companies to drive Return on Equality®.

Out Leadership creates executive events and insights that help businesses realize the economic growth and talent dividend derived from inclusion, and convenes three groundbreaking talent accelerators: OutNEXT, the first global leadership development program for the next generation of LGBT+ talent; Quorum, which seeks to advance the conversation around LGBT+ diversity in corporate governance; and OutWOMEN, which convenes and celebrates LGBT+ women in business.

Todd began his career as an investment banker before moving to Merrill Lynch to become a Financial Advisor, where he created the first team of financial advisors on Wall Street to focus on the LGBT+ community and brought $1.5 billion of new assets to the firm. Todd then moved into diversity leadership, pioneering equality initiatives first at Merrill Lynch and then at Credit Suisse.

Sears serves on the non-profit boards of the Williams Institute of UCLA, The Palette Fund, the Global Equality Fund of the United States Department of State and Lambda Legal, and on the National Advisory Council of the Stonewall National Archives & Museum; he was the founding chair of Jeffrey Fashion Cares, which he ran for 10 years. He is a graduate of Duke University.

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