Investor Peter Thiel says something almost daily that makes news, but as one of the few elite global business executives to have come out as gay, Thiel’s thoughts on the strange lack of gay Fortune 500 CEOs draws particular interest. How can it be that there are none? (Or better put, none who have gone public.) Thiel told Business Insider that it may be a case of a “perception of discrimination.” Given that Fortune 500 companies are necessarily global, sexual orientation issues which may not cause difficulties in many parts of the world might still be a hindrance elsewhere. Or at least might be perceived as a potential hindrance. And with the average Fortune 500 salary well above $10 million, why take the risk?
But perhaps Thiel’s most prized ability is his tendency to accurately predict the future–Thiel was, after all, a co-founder of PayPal and and early investor in Facebook, for starters. Will the no gay CEO situation change? Business Insider says Thiel believes part of it also “could be a generational issue, since a lot of the CEOs at Fortune 500 companies are older, and we’ll see more of them come out in the next decade or two.”
