Macy’s Boss Discusses Being an Openly Gay CEO and Trying to Break Groupthink

When Jeff Gennette joined Macy’s Inc.’s management training program in 1983, he had a big decision to make. Should he tell his colleagues he was gay?

Mr. Gennette had come out in college at Stanford University, where he majored in English. But being openly gay in American corporations at that time was risky, he said. “It was the beginning of the AIDS crisis,” said Mr. Gennette, 61 years old. “So it was a scary time to be a gay person and be out and open.”