Former BP-boss Lord Browne lends his name to LGBT network OUTStanding
Lord Browne's crusade to help LGBT executives come out of the glass closet is continuing its pace. The former BP boss has linked up with OUTStanding, the LGBT professional network, to compile its Top 100 list of LGBT executives – for which nominations are now open.
“Lord Browne is one of our biggest advocates,” OUTStanding founder Suki Sandhu told The Capitalist. “The message of his book is very similar to ours and he’s a great role model himself.”
Sandu believes this is an important year to push OUTStanding’s agenda, given we’ve got the first ever openly gay FTSE 100 chief exec in Burberry’s Christopher Bailey. OUTStanding is also taking nominations for “straight allies” – non-LGBT executives who go out of their way to make the workplace an encouraging environment for LGBT workers to come out.
As for what’s it like working with the notoriously reserved Lord Browne, Sandhu surprised us. “He’s actually really fun,” Sandhu told us. “He’s one of the best conversationalists I’ve ever met, he gives you his undivided attention when he’s talking to you which is rare in a leader.” We shouldn’t judge a book by its cover…
■ Jim Mellon may have been tweeting about London’s cooling house prices yesterday, but the fund manager’s mind (and body) was somewhere else – the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. And as ever, he was keen to get the inside scoop. “I get a nod from the Fringe organisers as to what’s good,” he told The Capitalist. “We’re seeing six things a day for nine days – the odyssey begins.” Let’s hope his enthusiasm doesn’t cool as fast as house prices…
■ Looks like US retail giant Best Buy could be in Motorola’s bad books. The phone company has been waiting until next month to reveal details about its Moto 360 smartwatch, but Best Buy jumped the gun – publishing a product page about the gadget, revealing its price – $249.99. The retailer took the page down pretty swiftly, but not before the tech journos at Droid-Life spotted it, spilling the beans on the price. Doh.
■ The Lib Dems raised some eyebrows with its latest manifesto pledge yesterday. It announced it would maintain free access to national museums and galleries. A noble pledge, except we spoke to the Department for Culture, Media & Sport and it said a change to this legislation had never been on the table. “We’re the only party to come out and say anything about free access to museums,” a LIb Dem spokesperson told The Capitalist. Perhaps because there’s no need to?