LEADERSHIP

Proportion of junior LGBTQ + employees who report retreating back into the closet when starting their first job

Her wife, she notes, is a literature professor. Research Aliette cites suggests close to 40 % of junior LGBTQ + employees retreat back into the closet when they start their first job, despite having been openly out at university or in their personal lives. She took her own public stance in 2021, and in a workplace culture that was considerably less prepared for it than the one she leads today, and later that year L’ Autre Cercle, a French association for LGBTQ + inclusion at work, named her a Role Model for that decision. Aliette is quick to point out that her visibility comes from a position of privilege, and that’ s a position she doesn’ t take for granted. It is why the order of her own X biography – CEO, mum of two, former soccer player – feels less like an accident and more like a statement: three identities, held equally, none hidden to make the others more comfortable.“ Teaming is so important, always, at any level,” she writes on LinkedIn.“ What matters is to find our pack, not to be better, stronger or more powerful than everyone around us.” Football and boardrooms – Aliette’ s never seen much difference between the two. businesschief. com 65