How LGBTQ+ scholarships are ensuring more diverse voices in the world of business

Progress towards diversity in leadership is happening, but there is more work to do. LGBTQ+ scholarships can help today’s business leaders to bring their whole selves to the table and raise progressive voices that historically haven’t been welcomed at the top.    

For professional figure skater Mauro Bruni, an MBA presented the opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills he needed to grow his performing arts business, and to build the ice theatre he dreamed of.   

An artist and performer from New York, United States, Mauro has always had his toe firmly dipped in the performing arts world. “I’ve been a performer all my life, but I have limited experience in traditional business,” Mauro said. 

“I wanted to understand how to run my company more efficiently and to better support the people I work with, so an MBA felt like the perfect way to balance my creative career with the business knowledge I needed to go further.”   

In 2019, Mauro started his MBA at Imperial College Business School in London and was awarded with a Reaching Out MBA (ROMBA) scholarship. ROMBA aims to educate, inspire and connect the LGBTQ+ MBA community to drive change in the workplace and create the next generation of leaders.    

To receive the scholarship, Mauro showcased a demonstrable track record of leadership in the LGBTQ+ community and a commitment to ROMBA’s mission to lead the way to equality in business education, the workplace and throughout society. To Mauro, inclusivity and equality are naturally embodied in everything that he does as a leader. 

“There are many people in the figure skating world who identify as LGBTQ+, so there is no way to do business in the industry without being inclusive towards LGBTQ+ people and issues,” he said. “As a member of the LGBTQ+ community myself, it has always felt easy for me to be inclusive because it comes naturally. I want to be in the performance arts industry, and I understand that I need to be a champion for both of my communities.” 

“It’s very important for me to live honestly as someone who is openly gay, married and thriving, and to show that I’ve been able to create something for myself and my community. If I think of myself as a young child, that’s what I wish I could have seen.”

A big part of being a leader in his industry is bringing his whole self to the table and encouraging others to do the same. “I think that’s what makes me show up every day and allows me to bring my true self into my work. It’s important for me to encourage the people I work with to feel everything they want to feel and to show up 100 percent in their performance too. By showing up as themselves, they bring so much more authenticity and have greater impact.”    

It’s something that Mauro believes all businesses should encourage. Historically and especially in the West, diverse voices have not had a place in the boardroom resulting in business decisions being made by those with similar views and ideas. But thankfully, newer more diverse voices are coming through to challenge the status quo and bring new thinking to the forefront.    

“The world is becoming very polarised and there’s an unwillingness to open up and welcome ‘otherness’ in,” said Mauro. “But ultimately, having more diverse and authentic voices represented in business can only create room for more imagination, more ideas and new methods that haven’t been tried before. Additionally, it showcases how a company is representative of its consumers and the communities it hopes to engage with.”     

“I think it’s beneficial for everyone to be more understanding and tolerant of people who come from different backgrounds and different experiences.”