The CEO That Could Shell Oil’s top exec Steve Miller does more than just give lip service to GLBT issues Interview by Coy Tow

Just a few months ago some company executives, human resources professionals, and selected leaders gathered at an event sponsored by Shell Oil to discuss diversity in the workplace. The day was to begin with a few comments from the CEO of Shell Oil, Steve Miller. Like most of the people gathered, I was impressed with the fact that a chief executive officer of such a major company would take the time to drive to the Woodlands and address about 40 people on diversity. The bigger surprise came as Steve Miller began to address the group and talk with passion and commitment about how important this subject is to him personally and to the well being of his company.

The next item on the agenda was to introduce Sara Rook, a now fully-out male-to-female transgender employee of Shell Oil. For more than an hour Rook and her manager gave a detailed description of her transition and how Shell Oil went about preparing for the transition to occur. All of us who were present were in awe of the bravery of Rook, the response of the company, and the importance placed on the process. All the while Miller sat and listened. This CEO seems to be invested in his people and share a passion for diversity that indeed includes all people. This past March, Steve Miller served as the honorary chair at the Houston HRC gala, the first CEO to be thus honored.

Also present at the interview were Rick Schroder and John Sequeira, also from Shell.

OutSmart: Can you share how your own personal experiences have prepared you to deal with the workplace issues for the GLBT community?

Steve Miller: My father was with Amoco Oil, and growing up, I moved around a lot. I ended up in Chicago, and went to Newture High School. It’s a very heavily Jewish school—as a gentile coming there from North Dakota, I was definitely in the minority.... I came to work for Shell in 1967 at the Deer Park refinery and have been with Shell all my career—spending about 25 percent of my career overseas. So I had a lot of experience of being the minority culture in a majority culture.

One of the core values at Shell is respect for people. But that’s [also] how my family raised their children, to respect people regardless of their station in life or who or what they were. So when you take an innate learned value around respect for people, mix in a heavy dosage of having lived as the minority culture in a number of majority cultures, you begin to have the setting of the stage for how I come to value diversity the way I do. And how I try to be sensitive to those issues—even though I may not completely understand them, I know they’re there.

Absolutely, and your recognition that maybe you don’t have the direct experience in all those communities and finding and empowering people who do.

A leader has to be able to delegate so that the people who are really out there battling the issue are empowered to make the calls. We’ve got eight diversity networks in the company. Two African-American and two women networks, one [each] in Houston and in New Orleans; an Asian network; an Hispanic network. We just started up a disabled network about 15 months ago. And then of course we have the GLBT network. So we have eight networks that I work personally with and do that purposefully to try to understand what really are the battles that they’re taking on.

It also gives a leader a lot of punch outside. When we were working on this issue of the Boy Scouts and the gay community, we went first to the GLBT network and said Here’s the problem, gang, what do you suggest we do? And so when it got to proposing approaches, you can site that you have a whole bunch of people behind you who thought this is the way to go. That’s a huge advantage for you as a leader. If you look around the table and nobody else can say that—which at that time they couldn’t—you know you’ve got an extraordinary amount of clout. A leader has to go out and get the grassroots support. And once he’s got that kind of grassroots support, then most things have a tendency to occur. Rick, do you want to say anything?

Rick Schroder: Yes, Coy, I would second Steve’s remark around how employees would feel about the progress we’ve been making. I’ve looked at this as a journey. And to be honest with you, six years ago, I never thought I’d be sitting in a conference room with the chairman of Shell having an interview with OutSmart magazine. I never thought we’d be a player in a piece of legislation like ENDA nor did I think that gender identity would be a topic on the table some day. So I have to say that over those years we have made some remarkable progress. Last fall I was at the SEA Shell annual meeting. And what was interesting during the dialogue was that was the first time I’ve heard of SEA Shell members talking about an "oasis " in the workplace—places where they felt safe and respected and valued as GLBT employees. I thought that was encouraging because I’ve seen the education pieces sinking in and there are places where they’re seeing the commitment of leadership around creating an inclusive workplace.

As a community leader, do you feel you have an obligation to challenge other corporations or organizations to embrace policy that values diversity and includes GLBT-specific guidelines?

I think you have to do that to be credible. I mean if you look at the last election, a number of us got out, worked actively with the mayor, signed letters, put money in, working on the [domestic] partner benefits referendum. It certainly would have been safer for me and safer for Shell to not have my name on the letters and not support it, but I thought it was the right thing to do.

Also, I’m the chairman of the Greater Houston Partnership. I talked a lot in my keynote speech in January about the [need for] enhanced diversification requirements in the civic leadership. Also, I co-chair a CEO roundtable on diversity with Gordon Bathune and Ken Lay. We’ve been meeting and sharing best practices and not-so-best practices, bringing in people to talk to us about what it feels like to be a minority business man or woman in the Houston area. So I’m engaged that way and that pushes on a number of leading companies here in the Houston area.

Also in the Greater Houston Partnership, the chair of the executive committee has a fairly broad discretion at appointing some 25 at-large members. Out of those 25 this last year, I appointed 11 [who were] either women or ethnic minorities. And they’re there not really because they’re women or ethnic minorities but because they bring a lot to the table and maybe need a little chance to come to bat and show what they can do.

Even in a non-corporate arena, many of us are benefiting from the work you’re doing.

Once again, you see that’s how you bring multiple forces to bear on the problem. When a company steps out or a senior leader steps out, it can be sometimes a little risky and a little scary. [But] you begin to get the critical mass necessary to begin to change actual environments not only in one workplace but in many workplaces and ultimately in the community.

You know, you were there with us up at the Woodlands when Sara [Rook] talked about her experience at Deer Park. It was clear from the start that the leadership said We want to work this out as opposed to We want Sara to go away or It’s okay if pressure is put on Sara so she decides to leave of her own choice—that’s not what we said. We said, No we have a valued employee here who can make even better contributions and what do we have to do to enable her to do that? And I think things have worked out remarkably well.

You really want to be known out there as an inclusive environment where people, regardless of their sexual orientation or their ethnic backgrounds or their schooling or disabilities or whatever, can come to Shell and find a fulfilling opportunity to pursue their career. At the end of the day as a leader here, I’ve got a concern of the longer-term performance of the company, and you only have good longer-term performance if you’ve got great people. You’re in a very competitive marketplace and I think offering an inclusive environment is a means to tap into some wonderful skills and resources that are available in this country.

Coy Tow has spent the last 16 years in tourism and community service. As the current executive director of the Greater Houston GLBT Chamber of Commerce, Tow is helping Houston become known throughout the nation as a progressive and proactive GLBT community.

Shell Oil and GLBT Issues

Shell Oil has an impressive record of corporate GLBT diversity—so much so that last year they were named to the Advocate’s annual list of "Best Gay-Friendly Firms in the Country"—the first (and, so far, only) oil company to be included.

Shell started their road toward GLBT inclusion in April 1996, when they added sexual orientation to their nondiscrimination policy. By early summer that year, a GLBT employee network group called SEA Shell (Support, Equality, Awareness at Shell) had formed, and was formally recognized by the company in 1998. One of SEA Shell’s first goals was domestic partner benefits, which they officially adopted January 1, 1998, applicable to both same-sex couples and unmarried heterosexual couples.

Since then, Shell has been an active presence in the GLBT community, both locally and nationally, working for GLBT legislation and teaching other companies how to progress on GLBT issues.

Shell came out as a company in support of Mayor Lee Brown’s changes to the city nondiscrimination policy and offering of domestic partner benefits to city employees. Another letter was sent to the Honorable Governor Rick Perry later in the month supporting him in signing the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Act.

When Shell hosted a diversity conference for Shell employees in September 2001, HRC executive director Elizabeth Birch was the keynote speaker. That December, Shell hosted a one-day diversity event for diversity professionals from other companies, with Shell CEO Steve Miller as keynote speaker.

On February 27, Miller provided written testimony to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions supporting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), making Shell the only oil company to have provided support for ENDA.

In addition, Shell has become a familiar face at Houston GLBT community functions:

o Shell has been a member of the GLBT Chamber of Commerce, has helped underwrite the chamber newsletter, and has been a sponsor of Empower, the chamber’s business expo, since it began in 1997.

o Shell and/or SEA Shell has made contributions to a number of community charities including PFLAG, Lesbian Health Initiative, AIDS Foundation Houston, Dignity USA, Miss Camp America Foundation, People With AIDS Coalition, the G&L Community Center of New Orleans, and the Human Rights Campaign, AssistHers, H.A.T.C.H., and Gay & Lesbian Parents.

o Shell Oil has been a sponsor of the HRC Gala—both locally and nationally—since 1999. Shell has flown SEA Shell leaders to attend the events in Washington, D.C.

o Shell Oil has also been a sponsor of the transgender Unity Banquet in 2001 and 2002.

o Shell employees have been participating in the Houston AIDS Walk and the Houston GLBT Pride Parade since 1999.

o Shell Oil has participated in Out & Equal, the GLBT workplace issues conference, and has provided speakers on transitioning gender identity in the workplace and Creating GLBT Employee Network Groups.

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