Openly Bisexual Lloyd’s of London CEO Reveals the Homophobia and Sexism She Faced From Colleagues
October 9, 2018Dame Inga Beale, the first woman and first openly bisexual CEO of Lloyd’s of London, has revealed she faced “rude, sexist and homophobic” attitudes when she was appointed in 2014, The Times reports.
Beale said she received several threatening and abusive letters from Lloyd’s of London's male underwriters and brokers, including one that read: “You don’t deserve to be on the planet; you should go and die.”
“Anonymous messages were sent to the chairman about me, and some emails and letters were sent directly to me,” she said.
“They were rude, sexist and homophobic. Some had swearing.
“My way of coping was immediately to delete the emails and throw away the letters so it didn’t prevent me from moving forward.”
Beale came out as bi in 2008, and is now married to Swiss goldsmith Philippe Pfeiffer.
“People say: ‘Well, now you’re married to a man, doesn’t that just make you a heterosexual woman?'” Beale said.
“Suddenly I’ve got a man and half your lesbian friends don’t socialise with you anymore. You’re excluded from that group…
“All of us female chief executives, we all say: ‘We’re pretty certain that our successors are gonna be men,” said Beale on her replacement, John Neal.
“That’s how it feels. [Male chairmen think:] ‘We’ve done that [appointed a woman] so we’d better take it back.'”
“I hear frequently from men, ‘I’ve appointed a woman and she’s doing an excellent job’ — and they always sound surprised.
“It’s absurd! You just wouldn’t say: ‘I’ve appointed a man and he’s actually doing a good job.’”
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