McKinsey chief awarded Trevor Project honor for LGTB efforts

Dominic Barton, global managing director at McKinsey & Company, was awarded the Trevor Project’s 20/20 Visionary Award on behalf of the Big Three strategy consultancy. McKinsey’s efforts to support LGBT staff and young people in local communities helped it secure the prestigious award.

At its 20th annual ceremony in New York, pop superstar Rita Ora performed and millions were raised in donations for the Trevor Project – a leading nonprofit organization which offers crisis intervention and suicide prevention strategies for LGBT youth. Television producers Lena Waithe and Greg Berlanti were among the three people awarded for their services to this vulnerable community.

The other was McKinsey chief Dominic Barton. The Canadian consultant – now in the last of his three terms as global managing partner – won the 20/20 Visionary Award which celebrates businesses and leaders which encourage LGBT employees and contribute to the broader community.

Amit Paley, executive director of the Trevor Project said that McKinsey “has done a huge amount for LGBTQ people in general, for youth specifically, and for The Trevor Project in particular,”

“They have had early on for their employees who are part of same-sex relationships, an LGBTQ employee group, and cover gender-affirmation surgery for trans employees. Barton, in particular, has been integral in pushing for policies and creating a culture at McKinsey that supports the LGBTQ community."Paley is himself a former McKinsey consultant who volunteered as a counselor at Trevor in 2012. His chief of staff, Sam Dorrison, is also a McKinsey alumni who describes the consulting firm’s impact on Trevor as “immeasurable”.

“I am personally honored and humbled to accept the 20/20 Visionary Award on behalf of McKinsey,” said Barton. “It’s so important that our LGBTQ youth know that they are beautiful and that they are not alone. We want the best people in the world—in all the ways that they are diverse.”

“We have a mission statement with two equal parts. The first is to have a lasting impact on our clients and the second is to attract and retain the best talent. We can’t do either if we aren’t attracting a broad set of the best available talent. Therefore, we need LGBTQ people to feel comfortable that McKinsey & Company is a good place to work.”

“We have a recruiting program to attract the LGBTQ community. “Our GLAM network is the fastest growing in the firm. Not only from a moral point of view is this important, but from a business and economic point of view it’s important.”

Other leading consultancies agree. LGBT+ initiatives at Bain & Co are led by Joao Soares, who has championed recruitment from the community throughout his career. Over at the Boston Consulting Group there is the LGBT Network. All three firms promote their high inclusivity scores by various rights organizations and Best Places to Work for LGBT employees awards.