The 100 out and proud heroes of the business world who have risen above barriers to success

1 Christopher Bailey
Burberry
Chief creative and chief executive

Christopher Bailey took over as chief executive of Burberry, the luxury retailer, this year, becoming the first openly gay person to lead a FTSE 100 company, writes Denise Law.

The appointment is “groundbreaking” says Suki Sandhu, founder of UK-based OUTstanding in Business, a non-profit networking group that campaigns for LGBT rights in the workplace.

He adds: “He represents the ideal LGBT leader of the future: unselfconscious, successful and comfortable with his gay identity in public. He has not been held back by his sexuality nor has he been defined by it.”

Vanessa Friedman, former fashion editor at the FT, noted that what sets Mr Bailey apart in an “industry of divas” is not that he is gay, but that he is “famously nice, famously normal, famously un-diva-like”.

Since Mr Bailey joined Burberry as creative director in 2001, the company’s revenues have increased fourfold. He has been credited with turning the brand into a digital leader in the luxury industry.

2 Antonio Simoes
HSBC
Chief executive UK

3 Beth Brooke-Marciniak
EY
Global vice chair, public policy

4 Anthony Watson
Nike
Global chief information officer

5 Stephen Clarke
WHSmith
Chief executive

6 Jason Grenfell-Gardner
IGI Laboratories
President & chief executive

7 Alex Schultz
Facebook
Vice-president, growth

8 Paul Reed
BP IST
Chief executive

9 Robert Greenblatt
NBC Entertainment
Chairman

10 Claudia Brind-Woody
IBM
Vice-president & managing director, global intellectual property licensing

11 Brian Bickell
Shaftesbury
Chief executive

12 Dan Fitz
BT
Group general counsel & company secretary

13 Trevor Burgess
C1 Bank
Chief executive

14 Sally Susman
Pfizer
Executive vice president, corporate affairs

15 Mary Portas
Portas Agency
Chief creative officer

16 Charles Allen
Global Radio
Chairman

17 Arjan Dijk
Google
Vice president, marketing

18 Robert Annibale
Citi
Global director, Citi microfinance & community development

19 Faried Chopdat
SAB Miller
Global business services deployment lead

20 Neil Tallantire
Diageo
Global portfolio director

21 Joseph Evangelisti
JP Morgan Chase
Chief communications officer

22 Robert Hanson
John Hardy
Chief executive

23 Jan Gooding
Aviva
Group brand director

24 Mary Jo Abler
3M Unitek
Vice-president and general manager

25 Julie Hogan
NCR Corporation
Vice-president, North America services delivery

26 Liz Bingham
EY
Managing partner for talent

27 Josh Graff
LinkedIn
Senior director, marketing solutions, EMEA

28 David Isaac
Pinsent Masons
Partner & global sector head, advanced manufacturing & technology services

29 Paul Wood
Bloomberg
Chief risk & compliance officer

30 Angela Darlington
Aviva
Chief risk officer, UK Life

31 Justin D’Agostino
Herbert Smith Freehills
Global head of practice, dispute resolution

32 Louis Vega
Dow Chemicals
Chief of staff

33 Simon Millson
British American Tobacco
Group head of corporate affairs

34 Michael Rowe
Slaughter & May
Partner, head of competition litigation

35 Jim McEleney
BNY Mellon
Chief operating officer, EMEA

36 Tim Baxter
Standard Chartered Bank
Global head of communications

37 Richard Beaven
Lloyds Banking
Insurance operations director

38 Jo Rzymowska
Celebrity Cruises
Managing director, UK & Ireland

39 Crawford Prentice
M&S Banking
Deputy chief executive

40 Antonia Belcher
MHBC
Founding partner

41 Jim Ford
Allen & Overy
Partner, head of corporate intellectual property

42 Andrew Williams-Fry
Gatwick Airports
Chief economist

43 Guy Black
Telegraph Media Group
Executive director

44 Jonathan Mildenhall
Airbnb
Chief marketing officer

45 Dan Perlet
EE
Director of corporate and financial affairs

46 Peter Zorn
Deutsche Bank
Managing director, group technology and operations

47 Margaret Stumpp
QM Associates
Senior adviser

48 Mark Q McLane
Barclays
Managing director, global head of diversity and inclusion

49 Dennis Layton
McKinsey
Partner

50 Margot Slattery
Sodexo
Managing director corporate services, Ireland & Northern Ireland

51 Debbie Gupta
NEST
Managing director, corporate services

52 Marianne Roling
Microsoft
General manager, small & medium market solutions and partners business, central and eastern Europe

53 Phil Kleweno
Bain & Company
Partner

54 Daniel Winterfeldt
CMS Cameron McKenna
Head of international capital markets and D&I partner

55 Chris Stening
Telefonica UK
Transitional services director

56 Michael Brunt
The Economist
Executive vice-president & managing director, global circulation

57 Sadiq Gillani
Lufthansa
Senior vice-president and chief strategy officer

58 Mike Hoban
Morrisons
Brand and communications director

59 Matthew Flood
Balfour Beatty
General counsel and divisional manager, services division

60 Alison McFadyen
Standard Chartered Bank
Head of governance, west

61 Patrick Rowe
Accenture
Deputy general counsel

62 Elyse Cherry
Boston Community Capital
Chief executive officer

63 Michiel Kolman
Elsevier
Senior vice-president, global academic relations

64 Denny Tu
British Sky Broadcasting
Head of strategy & planning

65 Veit Schuhen
Maitland Group
Chief operating officer

66 Klaus-Stefan Hohenstatt
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Regional managing partner

67 Sandy Gould
Yahoo
Head of recruiting, senior vice-president of talent acquisition

68 Matt Batham
Deloitte
Senior tax partner

69 Scott McGregor
Camco Clean Energy
Chief executive

70 Jeffrey Krogh
BNP Paribas
Managing director, media & telecom finance, London

71 Vincent François
Société Générale
Regional group chief audit executive

72 Mike Anderson
Coutts
Managing director, wealth manager

73 Renee Brown
Wells Fargo
Senior vice-president, director of enterprise social media

74 Rob Hudson
British Land Co
Group financial controller

75 Jeff Davis
Barclays
Managing director, global head of sales & trading

76 Steven Wardlaw
Baker Botts
Partner in charge, London office

77 Richard Cristofoli
Debenhams
Marketing director

78 Julia Hoggett
Financial Conduct Authority
Head of investment banking department

79 Tim Hailes
JP Morgan
Managing director & associate general counsel

80 Harry Rich
Royal Institute of British Architects
Chief executive officer

81 Steven Cox
Fujitsu
Executive director, public sector

82 Nicolas Patrick
DLA Piper
Partner, head of pro bono & corporate responsibility, international

83 Andy Woodfield
PwC
Partner

84 Svetlana Omelchenko
Coty
Vice-president, global marketing insights

85 Tim Fetherston-Dilke
Accenture
Finance director for UK & Ireland

86 Peter Murray
Arup
Head of government affairs

87 Jacqueline Davies
Financial Conduct Authority
Human resources director

88 Harry Small
Baker & McKenzie
Partner, global head of information technology & commercial practice

89 Nicholas Creswell
Thomson Reuters
Vice-president, performance & talent management

90 Robert Kerse
Circle Housing
Executive director, resources

91 Siobhan Martin
Mercer
Executive director, human resources

92 Audrey Connolly
Lloyds Banking
Head of FOS operations

93 Darren Towers
EDF Energy
Head of sustainability & environmental leadership

94 Michael Chissick
Fieldfisher
Managing partner

95 Mark Aldridge
Jacques Vert Group
Group marketing director

96 Isabella Segal
Nyman Libson Paul
Partner

97 David Lyon
Tony Blair Associates
Board managing director

98 Tim Millward
Extrastaff
Chief executive officer

99 Pierre Landy
Yahoo
Deputy general counsel, EMEA

100 Andrew Nicolls
Hudson Sandler
Vice-chairman

This list was compiled by OUTstanding

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OUTstanding’s second annual list of Top LGBT executives has doubled in length, but our methodology for ranking them remains largely unchanged, writes Suki Sandhu, OUTstanding’s founder .

We asked what nominees had done inside and outside the workplace to make it more welcoming to LGBT individuals and looked for information about the candidate’s influence within the business as well as recent significant achievements.

We favoured people who were active in inclusion as well as movers and shakers.

Last year, we had no out LGBT chief executives of FTSE 100 companies. But this year that changed, as Christopher Bailey reached the helm at Burberry, making him the perfect fit for the top place.

However, we still have a way to go. It is disappointing to see women filling only 24 per cent of the list and Black, Minority Ethnic nominees wildly under-represented. We have only three transgender representatives on the list, all of whom transitioned from male to female. We do not have anyone we are aware of who publicly identifies as bisexual. Much work is still to be done.

But LGBT people are not the only ones with a responsibility for making workplaces inclusive. This is why we have introduced the ally leaders list. Allies are those who, while not LGBT, have been active in ensuring their organisations are welcoming places for LGBT staff. We assessed their nominations on the same criteria we used for our LGBT list.

Richard Branson is a deserving number one for this: he has been supporting the gay community for very many years.

There are also four serious omissions from the lists: Lord Browne, partner at Riverstone Holdings; Dawn Airey, senior vice-president at Yahoo; Harriet Green, chief executive of Thomas Cook; and Ashok Vaswani, head of personal and corporate banking at Barclays. As our advisory panel, they are reluctantly omitted.

This year’s lists represent a move towards a world where talent can rise to the top, unimpeded by discrimination.

Harnessing the abilities of all executives is powerful for our companies, our economy, our society and for the individuals involved.

This story was updated on October 9