The downfall of Lord Browne of Madingley a little more than two years ago remains a stark illustration of the difficulties faced by lesbians and gay men at the top of British business.

The former chief executive of BP resigned from running Britain’s most valuable company after admitting that he had lied in legal documents about how he had met a male partner with whom he had a four-year relationship.

Lord Browne said after resigning that he had always kept his private life separate from his business life: “I have always regarded my sexuality as a personal matter, to be kept private.” The fear, albeit unspoken, was that being gay, and being widely known to be gay, was a bar to rising to such a high-profile job.

Robert Taylor would appear to offer a rebuke to such thinking. The chief executive of Kleinwort Benson, the investment bank, is a rare breed in the City: he is gay and makes no secret of his sexuality. Mr Taylor has always been open about his sexuality and maintains that it has never been an issue. City workers are judged primarily by their ability to bring in clients or generate revenue, he argues.

The irony, he adds, is that some gays and lesbians misguidedly believe that their sexuality is a secret. “I’m very aware that some people cannot take the teasing or knowing that people are talking about you, but people talk about you whether you’re straight or gay.” The benefits of being out at work are manifest, he says: “Not having that burden [of being in the closet] means I feel I have the ability to be who I want to be and not feel constrained by having to act in a certain way.”

While some may question why gays and lesbians should feel compelled to be out at work, Mr Taylor feels it is more a question of being able to be yourself, rather than adopting a persona. In his view, trying to hide your sexuality can have a negative effect on career progression: fear of talking openly about your personal life can lead people to avoid social events such as after-work drinks and thus generate an impression of being remote. That can result in being overlooked when promotions are decided.

As an out lesbian working in the City, Ashley Steel is perhaps an even rarer breed than Mr Taylor. Her company, KPMG, is one of the organisations on Stonewall’s list of the best employers for gay, lesbian and bisexual people. She believes that inclusion on the lobby group’s list is more than a PR exercise by employers: “I think it does change things for people on the shop floor because it sends a message across the entire organisation.”

Barclays is another financial institution that appears on the Stonewall list. Since 2002 the bank has had a gay and lesbian network, called Spectrum. Apart from organising events for gay and lesbian employees, Johan Fraser, its chair, says that Spectrum provides the bank with ideas about how best to serve all its customers as well as ways in which the bank can exploit the “pink pound”.

She says that the network has a positive effect on Barclays’ recruitment: “It’s not only about getting the best people from all corners of society, but it also shows that we are serious about getting the best out of them.”

The lack of gay role models in the business world has led to a “pink plateau”, a gay version of the glass ceiling, it is claimed. According to David Shields, director of workplace programmes at Stonewall: “There are gay and lesbian people there, but they are not out.” He says that many reach senior positions but may not make the leap to board level because they fear they could not be out in such a role. Echos, perhaps, of Lord Browne and something that the example of Mr Taylor and Ms Steel may go some way to correcting.

Top ten City employers

1. Lloyds TSB (1)

2. Goldman Sachs (13)

3. Barclays (15)

4. Ernst & Young (19)

5. PricewaterhouseCoopers (21)

6. KPMG (22)

7. Simmons & Simmons (31)

8. Credit Suisse (33)

9. RBS Group (45)

10. Pinsent Masons (50)

Source: Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers 2009 (original ranking in brackets)

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