Out Leadership announced today that Mastercard will extend its support of the organization’s efforts to drive greater equality in the workplace.
The global technology company joins law firm Hogan Lovells as a global sponsor of OutWOMEN, a groundbreaking initiative convening and celebrating LGBT+ women leaders in business.
“We believe that in order for any company – or even for society – to succeed, every person must be in a position to operate at their best,” said Randall Tucker, chief inclusion officer, Mastercard. “This includes valuing and driving inclusion and diversity. Our continued work with Out Leadership will help to extend the conversation and allow companies to build on successes where employees in all their diversity feel accepted and valued.”
The OutWOMEN initiative launched in 2016, and has convened a growing network of LGBT+ women business leaders at Out Leadership’s summits in New York, London, Hong Kong and Sydney, as well as at invitation-only salon dinners in other major business centers.
Stephanie Sandberg, Out Leadership Managing Director and lead coordinator of the initiative, notes: “OutWOMEN began as a question we asked the leaders in our network: do you think that LGBT+ women in business need a more effective, more formal way to meet one another, and to do business together?”
“The answer was a resounding yes,” Sandberg continued. “And now that we’re building out the initiative and broadening its scope, we’re certain we’ve just begun to tap into something tremendously powerful. The fact that just 26% of the Financial Times’ list of the most powerful LGBT+ executives are women demonstrates that LGBT+ women in business need visibility and role models. We’re grateful to Mastercard’s visionary sponsorship, which will allow us to keep building this valuable resource.”
