Ex-BP Chief backs coming out at work

It’s easy to conceive of successful people as having a handle on every single workplace problem – especially those at the apex of an organisation’s hierarchy.

Yet, that is simply not the case. Lord Browne of Madingley, former-Group Chief Executive of BP, who headed the firm for 12 years – in what has been reported on by the Financial Times as “a golden period of expansion and diversification” – might appear to be a paragon of unwavering career success.

And, in many ways he is. He’s been knighted. He’s a crossbench peer in the House of Lords as well as working as a go-between for Government and the business world. He balances these commitments between roles at the University of Oxford and various positions of responsibility in the art world.

Yet, despite obvious evidence of triumph, he struggled to bring his whole self to work: Lord Browne is gay, but kept his sexuality private for many years.