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Our first conversation of the afternoon is with Bryson Thornton,

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Global Communications Director with Philip Morris International,

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one of the sponsors of today’s event.

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Great to be speaking with you, Bryson.

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I know you’re off in Switzerland, but I know that’s not where you started out.

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You started out, like you, you know, why don’t you tell us where you started your life out, as a young gay man?

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It’s nice to talk to you again, Steve.

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I actually grew up in a small town that you’ve probably never heard of called D’Iberville Mississippi.

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It’s a small town near Biloxi, which maybe you’ve heard of, on the Gulf of Mexico.

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One of my favorite movies is called Sordid Lives.

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I mean, it’s going to take people way back and show how dated I am, I’m sure,

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but it’s a great story about the Deep South and a young man coming out.

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So, what were the features of you growing up in the Deep South that remain with you today?

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Well, I think, you know, I have to say that I was very fortunate to grow up in a home

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where differences were not only appreciated, but respected.

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Individuality was respected.

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But I do have to also say that I think, much like for other young people,

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I think it was probably in grade school when I started to realize that I was different,

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even if I didn’t know what different meant, or what kind of different I was.

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But I certainly quickly came to understand that different was bad.

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And I think, as a result of that, like so many other people,

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I started to compartmentalize who I was,

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start hiding certain aspects of myself

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and I think I carried that on into my adult life,

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certainly, into my professional life probably for far too long.

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Well, you know now we’re talking today

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and one of the things I’ve been trying to get at

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is what’s going on in people’s minds.

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We both seem to have had seen a lot of progress

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and we see some people that have done well.

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You can say people… a lot of them are in positions of privilege

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but there are a lot of people that are not.

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You’ve worked with, you know, now Philip Morris, which is supporting today’s event,

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but also Burger King and whatnot.

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So, you’re right smack dab at the top levels of corporate culture

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and most of us look at that as a place that’s not been as welcoming as it might be to LGBTQ individuals.

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And so, let me ask you this, not so you give us a kumbaya, everything’s great story:

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What have been the toughest parts of your journey in these companies?

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Well, I think, for me, I think going back to this idea of compartmentalization,

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this idea that I felt that I needed to hide certain aspects of myself

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and I think that there’s… you know, no matter who you work for

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I mean, I was at Burger King, as you say,

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at the time that they first launched the Proud Whopper in San Francisco, during Pride.

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That was your idea, right? Was the Proud Whopper your idea?

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I can’t say that, it certainly was not my idea,

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but I was certainly proud to be a part of the initiative.

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And, you know, now I’ve been at PMI for four and a half years,

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and the company has more than 25 LGBTQ+ networks around the world.

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I’ve never in any way felt marginalized, but at the same time

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I’ve sort of always chosen to refrain from talking about my personal life in professional settings.

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But I think a lot of that has really been self-enforced

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and now actually, as of recent, I’ve become much more open, if you will

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about who I am, and sharing all of the parts of me that make me me,

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and I think as a result of that, I’ve actually grown closer with colleagues

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I was always sort of in fear that I would be somehow pigeonholed

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or marginalized, in a way,

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but it certainly hasn’t been my experience

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but I think that’s probably something that a lot of people do struggle with

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but that’s also why I think that, you know, for people like me

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when we do have the opportunity,

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I’ve never done anything like this before

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I’m very happy to be here

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but I’ve never shown or shared so much of myself in this kind of way publicly.

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I’ve always talked about projects and programs and things like that, and companies

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but I’ve never really told the story of Bryson, if you will, publicly.

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So, I think as soon as people are comfortable,

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the more we have the opportunity to do it,

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the more we should.

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This idea that it’s never too late to be what you might have been

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is something that I think I try to remind myself of all the time.

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And then I think what people will find, hopefully, is at least in my experience

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with PMI, for sure, it’s been, you know

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I’m the truest version of myself today as I’ve ever been.

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You know, I’m going to ask you a complex question right now.

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Hopefully I’ll get it, you know, sort of right,

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and that is, we all kind of come with baggage.

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I’ve become a big fan of a book called How to Become an Antiracist by Ibram Kendi

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and it really talks about that it doesn’t matter if you’re black, if you’re Hispanic,

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if you’re white, if you come from whatever background,

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we come with baggage as pre-programmed

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and how we, you know, become conscious of that, how we overcome that.

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You work at a company, I mean, maybe all companies are this way, too,

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and they have, you know, issues but, you know,

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Philip Morris International has not always been a company without controversy

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and it’s been one that’s had to be introspective,

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and it has come with baggage

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and I’d love to just hear from you how you deal with that.

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You’re investing a lot in issues of race and inclusion.

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You’re issuing a lot in LGBT issues today, around the world,

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and so, I’d love to hear just a little bit about what the challenges for PMI have been.

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I think you’re right.

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There’s no denying that a company like Philip Morris has a certain level of baggage, if you will.

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As you say, I think people also have sort of preconceived notions

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or even a frightening idea of what people who work for Philip Morris might be like,

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but the truth is that, and I think it’s been evidenced by the work that we’ve been doing,

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is that, you know, treating people with fairness, and respect, and equality,

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it’s part of the company’s core values,

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it’s part of what we put at the center of what we call our global vision, our mission

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which is really quite transformative, you know,

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it’s the transformation of our business from being thought of as, you know, maybe traditionally big tobacco

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to being thought of as big tech or big science.

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But at the same time, none of that is going to be possible

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if we don’t have diversity of thought and diversity of experience, diversity of ideas

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and that’s the only way we’re going to get there,

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at least in our case, for sure,

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and I think that any company who is trying to succeed in whatever they’re doing,

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I don’t think consumers are looking for companies that sit on the fence anymore.

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I think that in order to move, you have to make waves,

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and sometimes that means, you know, talking about issues that are uncomfortable.

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Sometimes that means supporting causes that may be controversial

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but you know you’re doing the right thing,

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it’s an example for your employees

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and it’s a good example for your consumers.

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I’m going to ask you another unfair question, since you’re an expert in branding,

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but I am interested in this.

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Mississippi, and you’re the closest Mississippian to me right now, has just decided to change its brand.

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So, it has decided to change and redesign its state flag

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to get rid of the Confederate part of its flag, and redo it.

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And so, you know, people can scoff at that and say, well that’s just branding,

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that’s just a symbolic thing.

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That still doesn’t move the needle on systemic racism or on many of the, you know

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basically, the intolerance that has come out of a certain legacy in your home state

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and I guess the region, and the nation as a whole, we can keep going on.

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But I’m interested in the link between actions that matter and how it connects to branding changes.

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You’re absolutely right, and, for me, it speaks to this idea that, yes, policies are great

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but having values and actually creating action, or enforcing action, is always going to be superior.

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People don’t just want to hear about what your values are

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they want you to show them what your values are.

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I think, at least, speaking on behalf of an organization,

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I think consumers today vote with their pocketbooks, more often than they do at the polls.

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I think they do it every single day.

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I know that I, at least in my personal experience,

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the companies that I support are the companies that I feel support me,

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or support social issues that I support.

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And that goes from the organization itself and the things that they do

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but also to their senior leaders and the way that they present themselves,

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in the way that they talk about issues,

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and I think we have to realize that as a large company, or as a senior leader in a company,

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we don’t just have a microphone,

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you know, we are standing at the center of a stage

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in the center of an enormous amphitheater,

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and we have a megaphone,

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and that comes with a great deal of opportunity, but also responsibility.

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I think when it comes to being a communications professional specifically,

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I think we have an absolute responsibility to make it clear what our companies stand for

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you know, even when it is potentially controversial.

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But to your point of action, you’re absolutely right.

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I mean, it’s great to say something, but you have to really show it

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and coming from a company that has a long history,

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and, as you say, is no stranger to controversy

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I think, you know, I’m always of the thinking to give people

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give them the better judgment, if you will,

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the upper hand, and in a way sort of trust that what they’ll do, they’ll act on

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and that they mean it.

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But don’t want to, you know, I never want to be the kind of person that is overly skeptical

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and doesn’t give that person the opportunity to actually create change

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when they say they want to change.

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Well, well, Bryson, I want to thank you

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because I asked you to come onto this.

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I wanted a real body, a real human being in a tough company and a corporate culture,

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and so hopefully all your colleagues are watching right now

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and they see a little bit of the Bryson story they didn’t know

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which I think is a good model for other people to see and to look at.

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So, thanks so much for joining us today, we appreciate it.

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My pleasure you, thank you.