PEOPLE: Personnel File Gay Friendly Corporations Boost Bottom Line Financial Performance By Hedley Lawson Tuesday, November 6, 2012 11:35 AM On October 23rd, New York’s business leaders met to announce Prudential as the winner of the 2013 Corporate Equality Ally Award. Prudential received a stellar 100 percent rating on the Human Right Campaign’s (HRC) Corporate Equality Index for the past nine years. Many corporations in attendance noted that being inclusive and welcoming to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community is the right thing to do and makes good business sense. Among the leaders is Prudential, who recently appointed Michele Meyer-Shipp as Chief Diversity Officer. She states, "Look at the changing demographics in our society, look at the power of the LGBT community. It's imperative, not only morally but business-wise and demographics-wise." Prudential not only receives high marks for its employee resource group EAGLES (which stands for Employee Association of Gay Men, Lesbians, Bisexuals & Transgenders), it will also soon launch its first-ever LGBT financial experience site. This national survey of the country's LGBT population will seek to gain a better understanding of their financial service needs. To make it easier for consumers to work with LGBT-friendly companies, the Human Rights Campaign has released a guide, "Buying for Workplace Equality 2012," to companies, products and services that support LGBT workplace inclusion. This pocket-sized book provides an extensive list of companies and products, color-coded by green, yellow, and red (the least LGBT-friendly) to indicate workplace equality scores. It is divided into 19 categories from restaurants to retailers to automotive companies, to let people more easily put their money back into companies that support their community. For more information about HRC’s CEI, click here. Hedley Lawson, Contributing Editor Managing Partner Aligned Growth Partners, LLC 707-217-0979 hlawson@alignedgrowth.com www.alignedgrowth.com