Meet the man happily balancing his ‘day job’ and his ‘gay job’ as lead of the Organon Pride Network

myGwork sat down to chat with Andrew Brown, Global Employee Resource Group Lead at Organon, about support networks, the evolution of LGBTQ+ representation, and his journey to leading the Pride Network Employee Resource Group at Organon.

For Andrew Brown, life began in a small industrial town in the Northeast of England. Growing up through the 80s and 90s, against the backdrop of legislation such as Section 28, his exposure to the LGBTQ+ community was minimal.

“There weren’t any visible LGBTQ+ people, no LGBTQ+ spaces,” he recalls. “When I realised I wasn’t heterosexual and was in the closet, I decided I was going to have to hide my sexuality until I felt safe enough to be myself.” Reflecting, Andrew feels it’s possible that had he been in a safer space earlier, he may have come out sooner rather than in his early 20s. “There was no social media, there wasn’t really an internet; the information you had was given to you by someone else – this is how we formed our own opinions and beliefs and without the diversity in people that we have now, there wasn’t often an opportunity to hear differing opinions. Until being LGBTQ+ was presented to me, I couldn’t know what it was I was feeling, especially when the expectation was that you would meet a woman, marry her, and start a family.”

Whilst not religious himself, faith has impacted Andrew’s experiences. When he came out his family was supportive, although he notes his father struggled because of his Catholicism. “I’m not religious but it has played a part in my upbringing and my views. It’s reinforced to me the importance of consequences to your actions, but also that you’ve got to make your own way in life. But also that so long as you’re happy, and not causing harm to anyone, who’s to say you can’t do what you want? Nobody has that right.”

Andrew joined MSD whilst at university, working with the company until it organised several of its divisions into separate companies – one being Organon, who Andrew joined as it was formed. In addition to being the Global Employee Resource Group Lead, he is also a Product Release Co-ordinator, ensuring that every product is manufactured to the highest standards, correctly packaged, and released on time to the markets which require it.

Over the course of Andrew’s career, the attitude towards LGBTQ+ people in business have evolved. Whereas at the start of his career, he didn’t feel comfortable being out – “people had the opinions and used the language, often homophobic, that was prevalent at the time” – as conversations around LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace evolved, Andrew wanted to be involved.

“LGBTQ+ visibility in society and the workplace pushed the company to ensure their policies and procedures were treating everyone fairly,” says Andrew, comparing the evolution over recent years. “MSD decided we needed employee resource groups (ERGs) to facilitate that.” The network began taking steps to be visible: appearing at Pride, engaging in conversations to make it clear to LGBTQ+ employees that MSD – and later Organon – was a place where you could be yourself without fear of your sexual orientation or gender identity being an issue or barrier to your career progression. After attending Pride, an LGBTQ+ ERG was founded, and Andrew threw himself into it enthusiastically.

It started as a small group at a manufacturing site and quickly became a UK-wide network, as Andrew and the team working to build the ERG realised that in fact there were more LGBTQ+ staff at MSD than they had first realised. Equally insightful though was the number of allies who willingly came forward to offer support. “We realised that there were so many people who may be part of the community because of their gender or sexuality, but also those who wanted to join as allies to the community.”

Andrew went from being the site-lead for the network to suddenly the UK lead, co-ordinating the campaigns and resources as well as examining how the company was sticking to its commitments to diversity and inclusion.

When MSD created Organon, Andrew became a part of the new company – which now also needed to start its own LGBTQ+ ERG, from scratch. “It’s a busy time creating a company, and I said I was going to be too busy in my day job to create the Pride network too.” But Andrew’s absence from the ERG Lead application process was noted: after applications closed, he was contacted by the team recruiting a Pride lead to ask why his name wasn’t on the candidate list – had there been an error?

“I went to my boss and said look, it’s quite flattering that they’ve recognised what I’ve done in the past, but I am just too busy to do this going forward.” The response from his boss was as encouraging as it was instantaneous: “What do you need from us to be able to do this?”

Andrew assessed what would need to be done, laid out his terms, and by the end of the afternoon his management team were behind him: he would interview to become the Global ERG Lead, and if successful would be balancing his ‘day job’ with his ‘gay job’ with the support of his team at Organon. One interview later, and he had landed the role.

Andrew began building the Pride network from scratch – leadership structure, network strategy, membership and leadership recruitment, branding and even the name! “I wanted the Organon Pride Network to have a truly global outlook and approach to issues and opportunities.” says Andrew, when asked for advice on building these networks.

“You can’t do everything yourself so you need a team around you. Find an executive sponsor who really is a supporter of what you want to achieve – people may not know who you are and so may not engage with you, but if they know and respect your executive sponsor, they’ll listen to them and that’s where your engagement with new members and leaders begins.”

The focus now is to build a sense of belonging, and an environment where everyone can turn up regardless of their identity. “When you feel psychologically safe and valued at our company, then you’ll be the best version of you and hopefully feel like you belong with us. And when you feel like you belong here, hopefully you will want to stay with us and develop your career. But it’s not just about retaining the talent. It’s about attracting new talent and increasing the diversity within the company.”

Andrew feels he can talk to anyone at any level of the company about his identity and be treated with respect when he does so. This journey has also taught Andrew to feel the value of showing up wholly as yourself, that this only adds to your success in the workplace. “I’ve learnt to be myself and about the power of that authenticity.”

Organon is a partner of myGwork, the LGBTQ+ Business Community. To find out more about Organon and check out their job opportunities, visit their myGwork page here.