What Makes Us Clique - Lee Rubin

Lee has been a prominent activist for the LGBTQ community for decades. He served on the Board of Directors for national organizations, including HRC and National LGBTQ Taskforce. Here in South Florida, he has been involved with The Pride Center and Our Fund and has been honored with a Business of Pride Outstanding Voices Award from the South Florida Business Journal and an Out 50 Award from SFGN. Recently, he sat down with us to discuss his role as Senior Manager, Diversity and Inclusion at Citrix.

Andy Armano: Talk a bit about your early years. Where did you get your passion for advocacy?

Lee Rubin: I grew up in a family where giving back was really important. Growing up Jewish, I did a lot of things through the Jewish Reform Movement. I’ve always had this thing for volunteering and for taking leadership roles. I grew up on the Main Line area of Philadelphia, an area of trust funds, it’s very WASP-y. I definitely had a sense of being the “other” growing up. My early career was spent in DC and I immediately got involved in advocacy. And at the end of 2009, my husband and I were ready for a change and decided to move from DC down to Fort Lauderdale.

AA: I know you have a long history of work with HRC, Pride Center, LGBT Task Force and Our Fund, but how did your activism translate to the corporate world?

LR: After getting hired at Citrix as a marketing director, I pretty quickly got involved in the company’s internal Pride Alliance, which is our LGBTQ group as a volunteer on top of my full-time position. We were able to make significant changes at Citrix. We convinced the company to participate in the HRC Corporate Equality Index which gives a company the designation of “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality.” The first year we did the survey, we scored only an 85%. So we decided not to submit, but to do the work needed to achieve 100% to be a “Best Places to Work.” In 2017, we resubmitted and scored 100%. We’ve been 100% for the last three years.

AA: How do you get buy-in from corporate leadership?

LR: First, it’s the right thing to do, But, diversity and inclusion are also good for business and does improve profits and productivity. There are numerous studies that prove this.

AA: You recently managed to make your volunteering advocacy efforts your full-time job. How did that happen?

LR: In early 2018, Citrix decided to create a dedicated diversity and inclusion program in September and I become the new Senior Manager for Diversity and Inclusion. I currently run our corporate ERG programs globally, each of which supports a specific underrepresented group. We have an employee resource group focused on women which is our WIN group. We have black professionals, Latino professionals, a veterans group, a disability group, and a foster care and adoption group. I manage all those programs. I’m really taking the lessons that I learned from running the Pride Alliance and expanding that to make life better at Citrix for all of our underrepresented minorities. This summer we’re going to be named a “Best Place to Work for Disability Equality” as well.

AA: So your advocacy now includes other underrepresented groups. How have you navigated this transition?

LR: One of the things my boss said to me was, “The first job is to take your passion for your identity and expand it for other identities” I really took that to heart. I think I’ve been really successful in showing that same kind of passion for the rest of our underrepresented minorities at Citrix.

AA: Under your guidance, Citrix has made some fairly large contributions to diversity and inclusion. Talk about that.

LR: I am especially proud of Citrix’s corporate advocacy. Just in the last two years, we’ve signed on to 11 amicus briefs to the Supreme Court alongside other major corporations. Citrix first used its corporate voice for change in Raleigh, North Carolina, regarding HB2, which was the North Carolina bathroom bill. This was the first time that Citrix ever took a political stand on an issue. We basically said that hate wasn’t good for business. We also gave and we raised, through our employees, $50,000 for victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting. The Supreme Court just took three cases that they’re going to decide next year. They will decide if Title VII, which is the Civil Rights Act, includes gender identity and gender expression.

AA: What’s your approach to fostering inclusion within a corporation?

LR: It’s really about creating a sense of belonging for employees. We have this new tagline for the department which is “I belong at Citrix.” The difference between including someone and creating a sense of belonging is very different. Including is saying, “You can come to the party,” but belonging is really creating an atmosphere where everyone can let their hair down and dance.

AA: Do you see changes within corporations having a broader impact on society?

LR: Yes, We have offices around the world and our corporate values are as alive there as anywhere. We’re launching new chapters in Raleigh, NC; Bangalore, India; and Santa Clara, CA. We’re also expanding our offices in Dublin, the UK, and Costa Rica.