Gay Chief Executives Come Out as Winners

Despite difficulties in buttoned-down corridors of power, institutional and business CEOs aren't so willing to hide.

By Gail Shister
Inquirer Staff Writer

Alba Martinez, chief executive officer of the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, didn't know her father was gay until he contracted AIDS and died when she was 21.
To the world, Antonio Martinez, an administrator at the University of Puerto Rico, was a heterosexual family man. Only when his disease was diagnosed, in 1986, did he reveal his secret life. Six months later, he was dead at 55.
The traumatic event "reaffirmed my belief in being true to yourself," says Alba Martinez, 45. "I felt really sad that my father had to lead a double life. Nobody should have to go through life hiding who they are."
In the buttoned-down business corridors of Philadelphia and other large cities, an increasing number of gay CEOs are not hiding anymore. Some, like Martinez and Sean Buffington, new president of the University of the Arts, have been open about their sexual orientation for their entire professional lives.
They are in the minority. Coming out is serious business in business. Especially for a CEO.
It can stall, or even derail, careers. It can spark backlash from clients or shareholders or boards of directors. It can trigger consumer boycotts or alumni mutinies.
For gay CEOs who keep their sexual orientation under wraps, much of that fear is self-generated, says Kirk Snyder, author of The G Quotient: Why Gay Executives Are Excelling as Leaders.
"That closet has become very familiar," says Snyder, 47, who came out 15 years ago. "You're not fooling anybody. Employees take their cues from you. Everybody knows, but nobody talks about it. We can't live that way anymore."
Still, not a single CEO of a Fortune 500 company is openly gay, according to Snyder's research. He says he knows of five who are closeted, however, and he predicts that at least one of them will come out within five years.
Five openly gay CEOs in Philadelphia were interviewed for this article. An equal number declined. Despite being out to their companies and to the gay community at large, several said they weren't comfortable, or weren't ready, to be totally public.
One said she wanted the spotlight to be on her company, not on her, regardless of her sexuality. Another was advised by his company not to participate. All agreed it was more difficult to be out in the business world.
Difficulty aside, "I would never even consider working in an environment where I couldn't be open about who I am," says Martinez, former commissioner of Philadelphia's Department of Human Services, the city's largest operating department, and a former columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News.
Martinez came out while attending Georgetown Law School. (An academic whiz, she began at 19.) Her partner, Roberta Trombetta, 40, an executive with the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, is also a lawyer.
Gay CEOs "are more reticent to stand out in a crowd," says Bob Witeck, openly gay CEO of Witeck-Combs Communications in Washington and author of Business Inside Out.
"It's more important to represent the company than yourself. You don't want to go off script. You don't want to be perceived by a conservative board of directors as pushing an agenda."
Martinez says she does not judge other gay leaders on how public - or private - they choose to be. For her and numerous others, however, personal authenticity is essential for good leadership.
"You can't be in leadership and not be who you are," she says. "You lead by example. Leaders have to be truthful and open. I couldn't live any other way."
Neither could the University of the Arts' Buffington. One of a handful of openly gay college presidents in the United States, he is also, at 38, one of the youngest.
Born and raised in rural Maryland, Buffington was an altar boy for 10 years. He came out during his junior year at Harvard.
He and his partner of 14 years, Boston Globe arts editor Scott Heller, 46, were married in July in Lenox, Mass. They've been commuting since Buffington began his five-year, $200,000-plus contract in mid-August.
Buffington, an arts administrator at Harvard for 13 years, says he was totally up-front with UArt's search committee about his "marital status."
It was such a nonissue, he says, that Heller joined him for dinner with the chairman and vice chairman of the board.
Around the 2,400-student campus, "I have gotten absolutely no negative response," says Buffington, who hosts pizza parties to get to know students. "That doesn't mean people don't think it."
For a university president, being out presents special challenges. Boards of trustees, which tend to be older and conservative, fear it will hurt fund-raising, a huge part of any president's job.
Some fret over the image of a president attending university functions with his same-sex partner. Or playing golf with donors and not talking about the wife and kids. (News flash: Buffington, who stands 6-foot-2 and wears size 13 shoes, doesn't like sports.)
For public universities - UArts is private - there's the additional fear that conservative lawmakers will lobby state legislatures to reduce funding.
As part of a generation that grew up enjoying benefits hard won by older activists, Buffington says he doesn't sweat the gay stuff. Given the changing sexual landscape, he doesn't have to.
"It's easier now. There isn't the sense of a day-to-day insecurity or fear or anger. Being gay is in my consciousness every day, but it's not the defining sense of who I am."
Geography matters, too. Martin Sellers, 59, CEO of Sellers Feinberg, a health-care strategy firm in Center City, says it's easier for a CEO to be out in gay-friendly Philadelphia than in many other cities.
"You see a lot more [openly gay CEOs] than you used to," says Sellers, whose 15-year partner, Brian Dorsey, 41, is an actor and playwright. "If you turned the clock back 25 years, there might not have been a single one."
United Way's Martinez agrees. "The business community here, as I've experienced it, is very enlightened. Leaders understand they have a diverse workforce and a diverse customer base. You can't be exclusive anymore."
David Jefferys, CEO and founder of the marketing firm Altus Group, learned that lesson about 10 years ago. That's when he began adding gay-related businesses to the company's all-heterosexual accounts.
At the same time, he came out professionally, too. Today, 50 percent of Altus Group's business is targeted to gays, and Jefferys feels 100 percent whole.
"It doesn't feel like I'm living two separate lives," says Jefferys, 50, who grew up in tony Darien, Conn.
"Before, I had to have my private life hidden when I was at work. I had to play a lot of games. You can't have integrity without honesty."
Authenticity is what drives leadership ability, in Sellers' view. "It's what attracts people, what makes them interested in what you have to say. It's what forms trust."
Jefferys came out during his senior year at Villanova. He and his partner, dentist Ron Hayes, 40, have been together 12 years.
Mark Stiffler doesn't understand what all the noise is about.
Stiffler, 45, CEO of Synygy, an incentive-compensation company based in Chester, has been out since he was 16. He has two degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and owns homes in Gladwyne, Florida and Arizona.
"I'm clueless why anybody isn't out," says the Harrisburg native, who is single. "I've never experienced any problems. I think it helps to be educated and rich."
Stiffler says he's been hearing the same arguments for 25 years against letting one's rainbow flag fly. He's over it. Even if he didn't own the company.
"If you lose a job, it wasn't the right job. If you lose friends, they weren't really your friends. If your family doesn't talk to you for 10 years, oh, well.
"Things happen. How you react to them is within your power and control."
Spoken like a CEO. Gay, straight or otherwise.

It may be legally sound, but don't forget the court of public opinion

Putting on a PR hat for a second, listen to this report by Marty Moss-Coane of WHYY 91-FM on Philadelphia's DROP program. Interestingly, the city solicitor approved a plan to allow two city council members to "retire", collect a lump-sum pension benefit of several hundred-thousand dollars, and return to their posts a day later. It seems that every effort was made to keep this issue quiet. At a time when Philadelphia is attempting to clean up the image of its city government and implement ethics reform, this smells particularly bad. It's an example of a decision made based on legal grounds, but without an eye to the public relations implications. Would a PR practitioner have greenlighted the deal?

Hour 2Is the City of Philadelphia's Deferred Retirement Option Program being misused? DROP was originally intended to help the City to retain its most experienced workers, but in the past year elected officials have begun signing up. We'll talk with ZACK STALBERG the President and CEO of The Committee of Seventy which called for the audit of the program which is now underway, BILL GREEN a Philadelphia City Councilman who plans to introduce a bill banning future elected officials from DROP, and BOB EDDIS the Past President of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police about why the program is still needed. Listen to this show via Real Audio mp3

Tami Sortman named Person of the Year by Philadelphia Gay News

Tami Sortman Named Person of the Year by Philadelphia Gay NewsMonday January 14, 11:35 am ET
PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Philadelphia Gay News recently named Tami Sortman Person of the Year. Sortman, a vice president at the Altus Group, earned the honor for her visionary work with the Philadelphia Gay Tourism Caucus and for her commitment to building Philadelphia’s reputation as a gay-friendly travel destination.
“I can think of no one more deserving of this honor,” said David Jefferys, president of the Altus Group and a Board Member of the PGTC. “Her unwavering efforts on behalf of Philadelphia and her ability to forge relationships in the travel industry are amazing.”
Sortman helped found the PGTC in 2002. The goal of the organization was to make Philadelphia a more attractive destination to GLBT travelers. In 2004, she became the Caucus’ second president after the departure of former president John Cochie.
As president, Sortman helped to create the Philadelphia Freedom Hotel Package, which offers GLBT couples overnight accommodations at gay-friendly hotels in the city. She also helped organize a sensitivity training program to help hospitality and tourism organizations to be more sensitive to the needs of GLBT travelers.
Sortman is a 16-year veteran of the Altus Group, which developed the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation’s award-winning “Philadelphia: Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay™” tourism campaign. The campaign was one of only three tourism campaigns to win platinum awards from the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association. The other two were “I Love New York” and Las Vegas’ “What Happens Here Stays Here.”
She also helps to produce the agency’s City Navigaytour GLBT travel guides for cities including Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburgh, New Orleans and San Diego.
Sortman currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Washington West Civic Association. She was born in Williamsport, Pa. and graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a Bachelor’s in Art and Graphic Design.

Pittsburgh Continues its GLBT Tourism Campaign

Here's an interesting article on Pittsburgh's GLBT marketing campaign. A nice mention for Altus Group's City Navigaytour as well.

PITTSBURGH -- Tourism is a multibillion-dollar business and fighting for a slice of the action means getting the word out about your city's tourism.
Pittsburgh is trying to attract more gay and lesbian visitors, but that means battling a few misconceptions about the town.
The city wants to show the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community or GLBT, a group that accounts for 10 percent of the U.S. travel market, what the city has to offer.
"Statistics tell us there is a lot of money to be had, a lot of money to spend," said Beverly Morrow-Jones of Visit Pittsburgh. "They like spending money and they like having a good time, and I think, just like everybody else, the gay and lesbian community wants to feel welcomed."
So, Visit Pittsburgh is making its pitch, selling the city through inclusion in the gay-friendly NaviGaytor travel guide.
Gary Van Horn heads the Delta Foundation, which helps to unite Pittsburgh's gay community.
"I think it's huge," said Van Horn. "I think they see that there is a huge market there and to kind of encompass that and bring them to Pittsburgh, I think, is great."
"I am still afraid there is a perception out there this is not the most progressive town or the most modern city, and it's a completely wrong perception, obviously, as we all know," said Peter Karlovich of the Delta Foundation.
In the end, the formula for attracting gay and lesbian tourists is no different than what you would use to attract any tourist to Pittsburgh: Be friendly and fun.

Buying Power of Gays and Lesbians to Exceed $835 Billion

A little late mentioning this one, but it's what we've been saying to clients for years at my agency, Altus Group. Gays and lesbians have the highest per-capita spending of any group. But destination marketing to this group (which in reality is made up of many groups) requires some special understanding of what motivates GLBT consumers.

New York, January 25, 2007˜ No longer considered a narrow niche, corporate America is waking up to the enormous opportunity of marketing to gays and lesbians, whose buying power is set to exceed $835 billion by 2011, according to The Gay and Lesbian Market in the U.S., a new report from market research firm Packaged Facts, in collaboration with the premier gay and lesbian PR and marketing firm Witeck-Combs Communications Inc.This year's report pegs the 2006 buying power of gays and lesbians at $660 billion, an amount that will increase significantly as the gay and lesbian population, estimated at 15.3 million, grows to a projected 16.3 million in 2011.Such phenomenal growth and consumer power has not gone unnoticed by major national marketers. LOGO, the new gay and lesbian cable TV outlet, has more than 80 major brands as sponsors, and advertisers are increasingly targeting gays in mainstream media, particularly online, as gays tend to have a higher proclivity towards digital entertainment than their heterosexual counterparts. The report also tracks the exceptional visibility in the growing numbers of gay and lesbian households and families and provides a comprehensive demographic and regional profile highlighting the core nesting, consumption and travel habits of gay men, women, and couples. "What we're finding since our last report two years ago is a greater openness among gays and lesbians to share their consumer habits, leisure and media pursuits, and personal/social attitudes," notes Don Montuori, the publisher of Packaged Facts. "At the same time there is a growing trend towards acceptance among the American people which is opening up greater opportunities to market to gays and lesbians in traditional and online venues.""As trendspotters, we see marketers hungry to acquire more appreciation of gay America's economic standing, as well as more sophistication about what makes gay households like and unlike other households," said Bob Witeck, CEO of Witeck-Combs Communications. "This report should make a profound and timely contribution to these insights."Now in its 5th edition, The Gay and Lesbian Market in the U.S. provides the most in-depth psychographical look at the consumer behaviors and attitudes of gays and lesbians available. Priced at $3500, this report can be purchased directly from Packaged Facts by visiting: www.packagedfacts.com/Gays-Lesbian-1259124 . It is also available at MarketResearch.com.About Packaged FactsPackaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, publishes market intelligence on a wide range of consumer industries, including consumer goods and retailing, food and beverage, and demographics. For more information visit www.PackagedFacts.com About Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc.Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc. is the nation‚s premier strategic marketing communications firm, specializing in reaching the gay and lesbian consumer market. With over fourteen years experience in this unique market, Witeck-Combs Communications serves as a bridge between corporate America and gay and lesbian consumers. In 2006 Bob Witeck and Wes Combs co-authored Business Inside Out (Kaplan Publishing), considered the first-ever book on marketing insights, practical tips and strategies targeting the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender market. They have appeared in worldwide media outlets including Fortune, CNBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, Ad Age, New York Times and Washington Post. For more information visit www.witeckcombs.com