Todd Sears

Out Leadership was founded in 2011 by Todd Sears, a former investment banker whose financial expertise and passion for social justice led him to create an advocacy platform for businesses that he knew could transform the corporate landscape for the better.
As an openly gay man on Wall Street, Todd experienced firsthand the challenges and homophobia that LGBTQ+ professionals faced in the workplace.
He saw the barriers that kept certain people from having a seat at the table—and he was determined to break them down.
Todd has always believed that business has the power to drive progress and equality faster than government or culture alone and, by meeting corporate leaders at their comfort level, he could create real change.
That’s exactly what he set out to do at Merrill Lynch. By tapping into the economic power of the LGBTQ+ community, Todd was not only able to bring in billions of dollars of investment, he also found a way to change hearts and minds.
In 2008, he brought that mindset to Credit Suisse, where he became Head of Diversity and Inclusion for the Americas.
Then, In 2011, he took his biggest leap forward. Now a self-described “recovering investment banker,” he used his severance check to launch Out on the Street–the first-ever summit of leaders and allies from the world of international finance to focus on business opportunities within the LGBTQ+ community.
Hosted by Deutsche Bank in New York City, it included major institutions such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.
It was the beginning of something great.
Out on the Street expanded into Europe in 2012, with a summit in London attended by more than 200 business leaders and CEOs.
In 2013, the initiative reached Asia, with a summit in Hong Kong, co-hosted by Barclays and HSBC.
Recognizing the potential to drive LGBTQ+ equality across various industries,
Out On The Street was rebranded and Out Leadership was born.
Since then, Todd’s vision for advancing LGBTQ+ equality in business has come to life. Out Leadership is now the premier business advisory platform for driving LGBTQ+ inclusion in workplaces around the world.
A graduate of Duke University, Todd serves on the boards of Lambda Legal, The Williams Institute at UCLA, the U.S. State Department’s Global Equality Fund.
His accolades include Crain’s Notable LGBTQ+ Leader (2020–2024), the Beyond Duke Award, Lambda Liberty Award, Empire State Pride Agenda’s Equality at Work Award, the Vanguard Award, the My Hero Award, and the Paula Ettelbrick Award—recognizing his enduring impact on LGBTQ+ visibility and leadership in business.
Under his leadership, Out Leadership has grown into a network of over 30,000 business leaders, including 1,200 CEOs, and has hosted 140 Global Summits across five continents.