Cory Valente, associate scientist with The Dow Chemical Company in Upper Providence Township, near Collegeville, was named to a list of Top 30 Future LGBT Leaders, making him the only honoree from the Philadelphia area, according to a PGN analysis of the winners.
The Financial Times and OUTstanding, a professional networking group, partnered to curate the annual list, along with other power lists that named leading LGBT and ally executives. The honorees were announced in October.
“To get third place on the top 30 list is quite substantial,” Valente told PGN. “It really comes down to the fact that it was a complete team effort.”
Four other employees from Dow, headquartered in Midland, Mich., earned recognition, including Andrew N. Liveris, chairman and CEO named third in the Top 30 Executive Allies list; James Fitterling, vice chairman of business operations named 73rd in Top 100 LGBT Leaders; Louis A. Vega, chief of staff and vice president of Olympics and sports solutions named 15th in Top 100 LGBT Leaders; and Tlacaelel Benavides, the Latin America marketing manager named 18th in Top 30 Future LGBT Leaders.
Dow has earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for the last 10 years.
“Having [LGBT-inclusive] policies in place gives employees the feeling of having a safe community to work in,” said Valente, who joined Dow in 2011. “When a company becomes more vocal externally, they’re taking a risk because not everyone is going to be on the same page. It makes me proud to work for a company like this.”
Valente, who is gay, serves as the Global Leader of GLAD, the LGBT and allies network at Dow, which operates in more than 35 countries. He also took his advocacy outside the company when he helped create the Delaware Valley LGBT Consortium. About 12 employees from Dow, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Merck and Johnson & Johnson participate.
“We very much wanted this to be a regional endeavor for the science industry,” Valente said. “As things happen, we can quickly align, pool resources and leverage some of our best practices. Everybody has an ear to the ground so we can align quickly.”
Valente said when religious-freedom legislation, which was seen as a license to discriminate against LGBT people, came up in Indiana, Texas and Louisiana, Dow decided to take a proactive role and release a statement denouncing discrimination for any reason. Dow is one of the largest employers in those states.
In 2016, Valente would like to focus on Dow’s GLAD work in the Asia-Pacific region. The company has an especially large presence in Shanghai, Valente said.
“We’ll hopefully start a dialogue and change some minds,” he said. “From everything I’ve heard, I see significant opportunity that we’ll be able to accomplish.”
To see all the notable LGBT business leaders, visit www.out-standing.org/nominations/2015-role-models.