 Ladies and gentlemen, good evening to this press conference from the 49th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum here in Davos, Switzerland. Thank you for joining us here in the room and thank you for joining us on the live stream, whether you're watching on Twitter, Facebook, all the usual channels or on our website. We're very happy that you're joining us. Thank you very much. You are joining the press conference titled, Are We There Yet? The Status of LGBTI Inclusion. And I'm very happy to introduce now a wonderful panel to talk and hopefully answer that question in the next 30 minutes. To my immediate left, I'm joined by Saadia Sahidi, who is a managing director of the World Economic Forum and the head of social and economic agendas. Next to her, we're joined by Michel Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights based in Geneva. To her immediate left, we're joined by Sander van Nordtende, the group chief executive products of Accenture. And last but definitely not least, we're joined by Karl von Rohr, who is a member of the managing board of Deutsche Bank, of course based in Germany. Thank you very much for being here. Without further ado, Saadia, why is the World Economic Forum engaged in this debate about inclusion, LGBTI inclusion, and why is it such an important topic here at this annual meeting? Sure, thank you. I'll try to be very brief. In October of this past year, we launched our Global Competitiveness Report, and it included a new updated framework, a new updated methodology that tries to take into account social equalities that tries to take into account the value of technology when measuring competitiveness. And when we built a much more diverse portfolio of what competitiveness truly means for different societies, it becomes incredibly clear that competitiveness can only occur for countries that provide opportunity for all. And that opportunity for all has to include women, that has to include people who have disabilities, that has to include people of different socioeconomic groups, and that absolutely has to include LGBTI diversity as well. And so there is a clear economic case. It's very clear that countries that do this well tend to be the ones that have faster growth, that have better productivity, that have better competitiveness, that have better long-term potential for all of their people. But there is also a moral case. There's a very clear values case. We have to ensure that every single person, regardless of sexual orientation, regardless of gender, regardless of race, regardless of religion, has equal opportunities. And so that's really the main rationale. And what's also interesting is now with the World Economic Forum being much more of a platform for public-private cooperation, we have an opportunity to take this movement that was very much started by various businesses and by civil society organizations and international organizations here at the forum, provide a platform for that movement to go forward, and employers in particular have such a strong role to play in providing better standards, providing better ways of accelerating LGBTI inclusion. Thank you, Sadia. And what a wonderful bridge, since you mentioned standards. Michelle, the United Nations has its own standards on LGBTI conduct. Tell us a little bit about them and what you think the way forward is. Well, I welcome really to be here with the launch of this platform for LGBTI inclusion, accelerating LGBTI inclusion, and it's no better place than in Davos to do this, because it was here in 2016 that my predecessor talking and activities company realized that company did not understood it was their responsibility to ensure LGBTI's rights, and they even thought that LGBTI issues were not human rights issues. So the decision and the reality is different. The UN believes that the private sector has an important role to play in human rights because companies make decision, being it on human resources or investments, supply change, or marketing that can have a real and profound impact on human rights. And of course, we all know the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states clearly that all human beings, despite all their diversity in religious, geographical diversity, gender, ethnic, et cetera, they all equally need to be respected with dignity and need to be considered their issues. And at the other hand, we understood that LGBTI community was very vulnerable. It was very vulnerable, it was discriminated. So the standards where they look after, and we work those standards, since 2016 at the Office of the High Commission of Human Rights, we work also with corporates, with civil society, with LGBTI organizations. But what meant to be is to engage companies in ensuring policies, anti-discrimination policies, to ensure to sensitize managers and to ensure also to equalize benefits of the employees in terms of being LGBTI community or not. So I would like to also take this opportunity to, I would say, to recognize the huge support of the seven members of this project. They have done a fantastic thing, and they have been do advance a lot. But are we there yet? No, we're not there yet. So now it's the time for implementation and also the time to reach out to more companies and encourage them to support the project that will permit to accelerate people's rights. So I think that I will finally say that I would like to recall that support for human rights of LGBTI people must be part of a broader corporate social responsibility agenda. So there is another agenda or it's part of the agenda called business and human rights that is also very important. And of course LGBTI community has to be part of this broader approach to human rights. Thank you, Michelle, and you mentioned the partnership. I should spell this out, especially for our online audience. We're launching here as well the partnership for global LGBTI equality. And we have two of the partner companies represented here, Deutsche Bank and Accenture. But I should also mention that involved in this and also present here in the room are EY, there's Omnicom, and also this is supported by other companies like Mastercard, Microsoft, and Salesforce. So it's a pretty broad coalition and we're hoping, of course, to get more partners. But Sander, as a representative of one of these partner companies, what is the business perspective here? And how do you think business can develop a culture that helps to end discrimination in the workplace especially? So we like, and that's why we call the initiative also, we like to speak of a culture of equality. And we use that word because we are moving on from diversity to inclusion to equality. And it's really important because we, as Accenture, we've done some research and the research shows clearly that companies who have a culture of equality and Michelle already alluded to it are much more innovative and ultimately more successful. Also, because they create a more trusting environment for their people, and I always say in Accenture, there's no one who has to leave anything by the door. You can come to work, be yourself and focus at the work without having to hide, think, what am I gonna do? So I think that's really, that's that culture of equality that we're looking for. So the culture of equality is really a business imperative. I mean, obviously there's the human rights aspect that Sadia talked about and Michelle, but also from a business point of view, if I just look in our business, our clients are diverse. They bring different people to the table. They expect us to bring different people to the table who can be their selves and who can collaborate in the right way with their clients. It's my strong feeling, but it's also backed up by the research that diverse and equal teams have much better ideas to ultimately bring to the clients and to the business. So that's where the innovation point comes in. And then last but not least, from a talent point of view, we are Accenture. We want to have the best people on board of Accenture. And if we do not tap into different pools of talent and have that culture of equality, we're not gonna be the best for our clients. So what to do or what would be my three pieces of advice for a CEO or anyone at the C level looking at this? I would say the CEO commitment or the C level commitment goes beyond signing up for the standards. It goes to operationalizing the standards and that's what this initiative is all about. But it also comes to visible commitment at the C level. And I always say showing up matters. You have to go where the LGBT people gather. I mean, you have to set the right tone from the top. You have to be out in the field setting the right tone day in, day out and not shy away and just saying, yeah, we signed the standards and that's it. So visible CEO commitment, day in, day out. And if I say CEO, it's leadership commitment at large. Then secondly, and I'm not gonna steal too much of your thunder, but it's very important that from an HR point of view, you put in place the policies. I think you're gonna say a bit more about it, but that's really important because that is translating the tone from the top into real life action. And last, but not least, I would say it's very important to stimulate and I call it grassroots movements in your company, LGBTI networks and other ERGs to stimulate those to exist, to connect with other organizations to learn, to bring IDs to leadership to implement because the real improvement or the real progress I think comes from the grassroots. So we need to ensure that we stimulate that to happen. So, I mean, we are very excited to be here today. We are very excited to have seven companies sign up. I think we should strive. I don't know if we have an official target but to get to the 100 companies sooner rather than later. And that's the objective that we as an initiative have here together with the World Economic Forum. And let's say, I couldn't be more excited to be here today. Thank you, Senator Karl, you're a banker. So let's talk about investment, but I mean specifically investment in talent diversity. So what from your perspective are the steps that need to be taken within the company? And for example, which role does the HR department play there? So let me probably start by saying that of course, like also the other participant firms, we really welcome the World Economic Forum's decision to make the LGBTI issue part of their agenda. And as Sander said, it's a simple human rights issue. It has a business imperative and that's why we are very supportive and we're very committed to do our share in order to promote that topic. Now, we published this morning from Deutsche Bank a small video that hopefully you will also have access to that released nine important, what we think are very practical tips how to promote LGBTI inclusive business practice. And we hope that that's something that will be widely distributed because I think it could serve as a means to help HR departments, to help companies, to help government agencies take a look at the topic and I'm not gonna bore you with all the detail but maybe I'll just give you some of them and then I'll pick out two that well are very dear to my heart and the first thing is in all the business case of true inclusion and I'll come back to that. The second one is word choice matters. That's something that I think some always struggle how to actually use the words and there's nothing wrong with it making mistakes. Just try to get it right and over time you will and I think that's something that people just should try to not be shy about. Then the third one and I'll get back to that as well is allies are important and that is very much going back to Sander's point you need senior support for the topic because otherwise things don't move. I think we know that if leaders don't move topics it's difficult. Then investigate the laws in the places your company operates in. You have to understand as an HR department well what's the environment you're dealing with. Then make the LGBTI inclusion topic part of your strategic agenda. I think very important to get it to the company's topic to the company's top. Then understand the company's policies and benefits something that is very important for the real life of LGBTI people. Then consider offering opportunities for people to self-identify. Again, not everyone wants to self-identify. However, you have to give possibilities for people to identify also in the HR systems. Then of course an obvious one ensure inclusive people practices something that is very important. And then again coming back to Sander's point influence your company's executives to become engaged. That's something we take very seriously as a board of Deutsche Bank and we have had a number of initiatives on that. So let me come back to two because I would like to leave you with a few numbers. You said I'm a banker so I have to give you a few numbers and that's the business case. And there was some research that was done and that I think gave very interesting numbers. So 72% of the respondents of a survey that was done I think among 30,000 people or so are more likely to accept a job at a company that is supportive of LGBTI employees. 87% of millennials believe that the success of a business should be measured in terms of more than just its financial performance but also its inclusion practices. 82% of the respondents are more likely to purchase from companies that support LGBTI equality. And what the research also told us is that LGBTI inclusive organizations are more innovative. Concretely, they are more likely to have innovative products, 75% more likely, 45% more likely to improve market share and 70% more likely to succeed in new markets. So inclusion really, really matters. Now the second point that I find particularly important and I've in many discussions with some of our LGBTI employees that's something that has very often been raised to me is the third topic that I mentioned before is allies are important. We know that LGBTI people are much more likely to be bullied at school in their business lives, sometimes even in their private lives, that they are much more often treated unfairly or that in some countries they even have their lives at risk. So I think having to hide their identity and orientation, we know that that very negatively impacts people's well-being, their performance, their relationships. I've had someone in our bank who's actually a young man who always has the picture of his sister on the desk because he doesn't want to be seen as gay. So what I think our responsibility as leaders is, is that we create an environment where people know and they can have the trust that they're safe and that they can be what they are. And I think that's our responsibility to create this room of psychological and unfortunately in some countries even physical safety. And I guess that's what I would like to leave you with. I very strongly believe that these topics are important and if we can contribute to that, I think we have done something very good. Thank you very much, Carl. And I think you also both agreed with Michel that we're not there yet, as the title suggests. We have some time for Q&A. If I can see a show of hands. If you still need some time to gather your thoughts, we received by email a question earlier from a fellow journalist to basically the whole panel. It's from Hugo Greenhalt. He is working and writing for openly, that's the LGBTI platform of the Thompson Reuters Foundation, and his question is with an increasing number of reports on abuses, how can media ensure reporting accurately about LGBTI? Now, obviously none of you are journalists, but I think the culture aspects that you mentioned before speak very much to that as well and maybe you can share your thoughts on Hugo's question. Who wants to take a stand? Well, I think to some degree you could almost put the question to the audience because I think we have a number of journalists there. But I think, as always, I find... Well, if the media managed to stay as fact-based as possible and neither tried to scandalize the one side or the other, then I think we can look at the facts of the issues and then I think it's very important, and I think we've all said that before, that what senior company leaders, that senior state leaders, that senior societal important people step in and make statements. I think also what is important for people and for companies, but also for people, and I hope so for governments, is to understand that this is an issue of numbers. These are people with stories, with things that are happening to them. So to show people stories, it can be very helpful. I mean, to show it in different ways. I mean, in my country, there was a huge discussion and a lot of groups of people were against to promote. We were promoting a qualitative marriage and so on. And but then there was this Chilean film that won the Oscar, that is called Fabulous Woman. And the actress is trans and she tried to see the movies very good. And she shows, I mean, she's the actress which is also trans and she acts like a trans and she shows what happens to trans women and how the brutality can be. But on the other hand, how she's a fantastic human being. So I think we need to be very factual, as you say, but also we need to see what really happens to people that are real people, that are people that can be our colleague, our neighbor, our brother, our sister and that we need to think on how we give them the dignity and respect that they reserve. I know that the media had much more experience on this, but I do believe always that to talk in abstract doesn't help, we need to put faces to the situation of the people. Thank you. Yes, we have a question there. If you could wait for the microphone and state your name and organization, please. My name is Steve Ehrens, Bloomberg News. I have a question to you. When you say, you know, it's obviously an advantage if a bank or any other employer is a good thing for millennials, I think you said 70 or 82% would prefer to work for a company. Does this ever come up actually in a job interview? I mean, inclusion practices of a bank? Absolutely. I mean, that's a topic, inclusion practices, of course, for people concerned is something that they're interested in, but also for others. I think we see among the candidates that we're interviewing, we see much more interest in cultural aspects and that includes inclusion topics and that's, we get very concrete questions on that. So it is, right? And maybe to add to that, this comes up before the job interview because what do you do before you apply for a job? You go look on the website and if you see on the website a bunch of white guys with red ties and that's all you see, you're not gonna apply. So the policies and the statements on equality and inclusion are, I mean, they're out there and I would suggest any company if you haven't put them out there because people will look for them and if they're not there, people will not apply for your company and they won't even get to the 78% or what it was. So, I mean, I think it's a real issue and you need to be out there because the millennials are looking for that, they're looking for your purpose and they're looking for your work environment and if your purpose is make a lot of money for shareholders and your work environment is, we like this type of people, whatever the type of people is, don't think they will apply. Thank you. There's a question from the gentleman on the left there. Thank you. Yeah, hi, my name is Michael Engmann from German Newswire, DPA, AFX. Just one clarification from Mr. Von Rohr. The study you mentioned is that the study or survey Deutsche Bank conducted. Okay, and to everyone on the panel, you all say you're not there yet. So, how much are you there? To which degree can you give us, is there ever the possibility of getting there? Do you have a measure what you can apply to the question? Well, to give my fellow panelists some time to think, I would start with the simple fact that the forum has about 1,000 partner and member companies and we have represented in this partnership less than 10. So, I think that's maybe a clear indication that there's definitely room for improvement, but I'm sure my fellow panelists have much more to add to that. Well, when I said we're not there yet, it's because 226 companies are sort of signed for the standards. But one thing is to sign for the standards and other is to implement it. But what we also have seen is that you sometimes the headquarters of the companies do implement it very well, but if you go to the local level, it's not implemented. And we had the experience when the standards were launched in 16 different places in the world, in one place in Africa, none of the companies came to the launch because in that country it's a very controversial issue. It's against the law. And of course, and we understand, understand them, don't pretend to, I would say to tell the companies they cannot evaluate the risk in different countries. But on the same time, we believe that companies not only had to go out because of the millennials and so on, but also because and one of the standards that what it says is, I mean the standards mainly have five key points is no and show respect for human rights, eliminate discrimination, provide support, and prevent other human rights violation and act in the public sphere. So it's more to the companies go and act in the public sphere. That's why you were mentioning that it should be a visible commitment. And also because companies can be very important when in their engagement with governments to try or with parliament, parliament's to try to insist on stopping bills that discriminate people and trying to include laws that really include people, all human beings. So that's what I wanna add. Yeah, maybe to put some thoughts in your mind. What we are there would mean everybody, wherever they are, in whatever country they are, whatever company they work for. When they go to work in the morning, they find an equal workplace. Now think about that. We have seven billion people in the world. Let's say half of those people or maybe a bit more are the working population. So that's four billion, maybe five billion people. We may be with all these companies, with all the multinational companies, let's say the top 100 companies in the world. We have maybe now, 50 million people working for us. That's probably generous. Now then we have many good ones. Let's say 100 million people wake up in the morning and go to work and they find a workplace with a culture of equality. And even I would say in Accenture, as Michel alluded to, we are not perfect. We also have our challenges. So in terms of are we there yet, I think we're just scratching the surface. And that's why we need to keep at it. And that's why we are here. And that's the intention of the project that we're launching today, to do that too. Thank you very much. Since we're a Swiss organization and mindful of the time, if there's no further questions at this point, let me just add one more thing maybe from the forum's perspective. We had a lot of emails from the community in last days that were asking us why a certain public figure speaking here that have been outright hostile to the community. I think let this be a clear sign by the World Economic Forum that the allies that's under mentioned are here at the World Economic Forum and we're trying to support the community. And I want to thank everybody here on the panel for showing their support, everybody here in the room for being here and everybody for watching. Thank you very much.