Browne urges firms to end homophobia
FORMER BP boss Lord Browne has warned that businesses will keep losing talented staff unless they crack down on homophobia.
The crossbench peer said the business world “remains more intolerant of homosexuality than other worlds such as the legal profession” and urged bosses to stamp out intolerance.
Browne, who stepped down from the oil giant in 2007 after he was caught lying to the High Court about a gay relationship, said in a speech: “Being gay didn’t harm my career. But hiding my sexuality did make me unhappy and, in the end, it didn’t work.
“I realise now that the people we dealt with certainly knew I was gay. Putin had files on everybody.”
He said that in private equity, where he now works, fewer than one per cent are openly gay due to fears of marginalisation.
Speaking at the launch of Arup’s LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] network, Browne said targets for management could help, but warned against “the threat of political correctness” if such goals are badly implemented.
John Cridland, director general of business lobby the CBI, said he had “no sense of businesses taking a particular attitude to sexuality or any other area, but there is always a bit of catch up as social norms change”. “Business is seldom in the vanguard of social change, but it does react very quickly to it, both in terms of what their customers demand and in terms of their workforce,” he added.