Equal at McKinsey, McKinsey’s LGBTQ+ network, has been a source of community and support for colleagues since 1995. Not everyone comes to the firm fully out, either to themselves or to their families.
As we celebrate Pride, we are inspired by three colleagues who have faced the personal battle of coming out in their time at the firm, and in turn found the firm to be an integral part of breaking barriers in addressing their identities.
Maurice Obeid, senior partner
Maurice grew up in Byblos, a city of about 40,000 people on the coast of Lebanon, where he did not experience a visible LGBTQ+ community.
A veteran of the firm for 13 years, Maurice first came to the United States for his undergraduate studies. He was out when he joined the firm, but it wasn’t until McKinsey’s global conference for Equal at McKinsey members early in his tenure that he began to celebrate his identity.
“Coming from a background where being gay wasn’t seen or encouraged… it was incredible to be with colleagues from around the world where that part of me was embraced and welcomed in a community,” he says.
This new confidence and support became a driving force in Maurice’s career. Among his many achievements are becoming a leader in the North America chapter of Equal at McKinsey, a lead author of McKinsey’s seminal research on being transgender in the workplace, a board member at the Lesbian & Gay Community Services Center (the Center), and one of Crain’s New York Business “2023 Notable LGBQIA+ Leaders.”
“Bringing all of these LGBTQ+ elements into my work—it’s unbelievable how I’ve gone from a place of shame to a place of strength,” he says. “I’m not sure this would have happened without the supportive community at the firm.”
Eleonora Sharef, partner
A native of Colombia who also grew up in Germany, Eleonora’s LGBTQ+ awakening happened in Australia. She’d settled in New York City with the firm but had the opportunity to work in Australia for one year in 2008. At the time she wasn’t out to anyone—including herself.
One night, friends from the firm invited her to an LGBTQ+ event. With some butterflies in her stomach, she attended, buoyed by the safety and freedom of being away from friends and family. She knew right away that she belonged.
“I could safely be who I was with no one judging me,” she says. “I came out at work with colleagues and clients, and it was so positive. McKinsey Australia gave me the chance to experience being out before having to come out in my ‘real’ life.”
After Australia, she was living out and proud, working for the firm in Brazil. She started a tech company in San Francisco, where she lived in the city’s Castro district. She ultimately returned to the firm in New York, where she met her wife, a former firm colleague. They now have two children together.
While she remains an active member of Equal at McKinsey and speaks with colleagues about building families with same-sex parents, she’s also focused on her involvement with the firm’s Hispanic leadership network. Additionally, she coleads sustainable and inclusive growth for the firm’s insurance work, aiming to make the industry more environmentally conscious and inclusive.
“I have been able to blend my passion for sustainable and inclusive growth with my client work,” Eleonora says. “This encompasses many interest areas—and certainly LGBTQ+ inclusion is key. I am especially grateful that I can bring my whole self to the firm.”
Jericho “Cep” Concepcion, IT analyst
Cep is from Manila, Philippines. “There’s a contradiction between fun drag culture and celebrity icons, and true support for queer people,” says Cep. “Growing up, I felt the degrading stigma toward gay people.”
Cep says his high school administrators suspected he was gay based off stereotypes in his behavior and the company he kept. The principal reported him to his parents, and Cep denied it to everyone, including himself, fearing their disappointment and even conversion therapy.
He stayed in the closet until he joined the firm.
“I didn’t dare to pick this conversation up until after joining McKinsey and Equal at McKinsey. I’d never felt so much love, support, and acceptance as a gay man. I could finally breathe, and they gave me the courage to be my true self,” says Cep.
This support led Cep to join the global Equal at McKinsey strategy team, serve on the Equal at McKinsey Asia regional leadership team, and be involved in pro bono projects supporting not-for-profit organizations. This included helping an LGBTQ+ organization in India publish a report on entrepreneurship and supplier diversity—all outside his core work in tech. He’s recently relocated to McKinsey’s Prague office and serves on the Equal at McKinsey Europe team.
Before he relocated, he had a moment he never thought he’d have: he came out to his family.
At a Equal at McKinseyevent before he left Manila, his father shared a personal story with Cep’s fellow Equal at McKinsey members and allies. His father recalled his vulnerable journey as a parent that he would not have a “normal” son, that he never thought this “issue” would come to his family, and even explored if it could be “reversed.”
But that was all in the past. Now that Cep is out and proud, his father “accepts him for what he is, and not for what he isn’t.”
Sadly, Cep’s father passed away shortly after that Equal at McKinsey event.
“It was humbling to have that gift, to finally see my father express his love and acceptance for who I truly am in front of my friends, mentors, and colleagues—before he left. I never thought I’d see that day in my lifetime.”