Jim Fielding, Ex-Head of Disney Stores, on the Hurdles of Progressing as a Queer Executive

Harvard Business Review · Oct 18, 2026 · 42m

Jim Fielding, Ex-Head of Disney Stores, on the Struggles of Making It as a Queer Executive

18 Aug 2023

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What does it feel like to live inauthentically at work? For his first professional job in the 1980s, in the fashion industry, Jim Fielding led what he calls a “double life.” With close friends and confidants, he was open about his relationship with another man. But at work, when discussing his partner he’d switch his pronouns and change stories to conform to expectations at the time. The inauthenticity created emotional, physical, and mental problems. “I was having migraines,” Fielding…