Fabrice Houdart

Fabrice Houdart has spent more than twenty years working on LGBTQ+ equality from inside the institutions that shape economies: the World Bank, the United Nations and, today, corporate boardrooms and capital markets.

He is the founder and executive director of PRISM, the Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors, which he launched in 2022 as the first association of its kind in the United States. PRISM works alongside sister associations in Canada and Australia. It prepares board-ready LGBTQ+ leaders for their first or next board seat and connects them with search firms and nominating committees.

He is also co-founder of Koppa, the LGBTI+ Economic Power Lab, which works to unlock LGBTI+ economic power through knowledge, finance and connection. In 2025 Koppa launched Ring the Bell for LGBTIQ+ Equality with the UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative, the UN Global Compact and UN Human Rights, and convened the first Global LGBTIQ+ Inclusive Finance Forum in New York.

Since 2021 he has served as an external member of the L’Oréal Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Advisory Board, co-chaired by CEO Nicolas Hieronimus.

Every week he publishes a Substack on LGBTQ+ equality with more than 20,000 subscribers, and his writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Devex, Inc., the Washington Blade, the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and the LSE Business Review.

Career

From 2002 to 2016 he worked at the World Bank on the Maghreb, Central Asia, Yemen, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo, finishing as Senior Country Officer for the Maghreb. Alongside his country work he led the Bank’s early efforts to connect LGBTI inclusion with development, including research on the economic cost of homophobia and the institution’s first LGBT workplace survey. He later co-authored the Asian Development Bank’s Roadmap for Inclusive Development Based on SOGIESC (2024–2028).

From 2016 to 2020 he was a Human Rights Officer at the UN Human Rights Office in New York. There he co-authored the UN Standards of Conduct for Business on tackling discrimination against LGBTI people and won public support for them from more than 270 of the world’s largest companies. He also co-created two earlier projects: OutPerform LGBT Invest, an early LGBTQ+ impact investing initiative, and LGBTQ+ Footprint, which lets people offset spending linked to anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives by funding civil society groups.

He has served as an expert witness on board diversity for the California Department of Justice. He holds a BBA from Université Paris Dauphine and an MBA from American University.

He lives in New York City with his twin sons, Maxime and Eitan, who are 13.

Teaching

• Queering International DevelopmentGeorgetown University, Institute for Women, Peace and Security · GHDP-6648 · Spring 2024 · co-taught with Caroline Vagneron
• Advancing SOGIE in DevelopmentColumbia University, School of International and Public Affairs · INAF U6743 · Fall 2023 · co-taught with Philip Crehan

Boards and affiliations

• L’Oréal Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Advisory BoardExternal member since 2021
• CUNY TV FoundationBoard member and Treasurer
• Housing WorksBoard member
• Institute of Current World AffairsChair of the Board · set up the David Mixner Fellowship
• Liminal Lens InvestmentsBoard member · an impact fund for LGBTQIA+ people, persons with disabilities and forced migrants in India and Brazil
• IDAHOBIT CommitteeTreasurer
• Open for BusinessSenior Advisor to the Board
• NACD Center for Inclusive GovernanceMember
• Royal Society of ArtsFellow
• Cosmos Club, Washington DCMember

Recognition

• NACD Directorship 100, three-time honoree2021 · 2024 · 2025
• Stonewall Rebel2023
• Diligent Modern Governance 1002022
• LinkedIn Top LGBTQ+ Voices2022
• Crain’s Notable LGBTQ Leaders and Executives2020 and 2022
• Attitude 101 LGBTQ+ trailblazers changing the world2021
• IGLTA Pioneer Award, GGBA Honor Award and Alan Turing Award2019