CGI executive Mark Aston: ‘Creativity comes from diversity’

myGwork sat down to chat with Mark Aston, senior vice president for UK North, Utilities, Communications, and Australia at CGI about coming out, the growth of diversity and inclusion in business, and the importance of ensuring that staff feel supported at work.  

Mark’s story begins in South Essex in the 1970s, at a time when he says there were three options upon reaching maturity. “No one went to university. You either went to work for a bank in the city, you went to hit things with a hammer in the refinery up the road, or you went to work in a shop.” Mark opted briefly for the bank route. “It was a short-lived career.” He took any opportunities he was given and found himself working at CGI – a company he has been with for the last 31 years.  

Growing up in the 70s, Mark says, complicated his route to coming out. “You would never have considered yourself gay, because there were zero positive stereotypes. Gay at the time was just equated with Aids – even sex education at the time just boiled down to talking about it as though nothing else was going on. I didn’t know any better.” He went down what was viewed as the expected path at the time – get married and have kids. It wasn’t until later in his life, just 13 years ago, that he took the decision to come out and live as his authentic self.

“All I could think of was the worst possible scenarios”

Coming out can be a difficult experience for LGBTQ+ people, particularly as we begin to worry and imagine the worst possible outcomes. Mark was no different in these concerns: “I work in a job where you’re planning for things all the time, and usually planning for the worst in case it happens. My brain is wired in a way that when it came to planning coming out, all I could think of was the worst possible scenarios.”

When it finally happened, he couldn’t have been more surprised by the support he received. “My dad was a proper East Londoner, and he became my greatest supporter.” At work, Mark’s boss was constantly checking in on him, taking time to understand the complexities and supporting him through it. “It was a weight lifted – after being with the company for so long I was worried about that change from ‘Straight Mark’ to ‘Gay Mark,’ how people would behave, perceive me, my career, and so on. In reality, it’s never been an issue.”

“We’re actively involved in going through policies”

Mark now is the sponsor of the LGBTQ+ network at CGI in the UK and Australia, where the mission is to ensure everyone can bring their whole selves to work. CGI’s approach is coordination between employees and leadership: if there is enough interest in a network, management will provide the resources and structure to establish it and support it to thrive in the business. Each network is then sponsored by someone from the executive team, who is a safe harbour for that network – fighting for the changes they want to implement, accessing further resources, and so on. “We’re actively involved in going through policies, evolving them over time, and using the community response to assess whether our policies are unconditionally inclusive.”  

LGBTQ+ representation in business has evolved in recent years, and throughout his career Mark has seen this grow from being “an issue that was never discussed, to an issue that was discussed, to being an issue that doesn’t need to be discussed.” It’s a far cry from the school playground, Mark remembers, where homophobic slurs were rife. “It’s just so different now.”

‘Transition at work’ policy

CGI’s LGBTQ+ network has made itself heard on several issues, including, for example, upgrading the language in maternity and paternity policies. “Some of these things can feel like a minefield, particularly for people who are very passionate and determined not to show bias. You can end up tripping over your own tongue sometimes, so we want to create the right frameworks that we can put in place. For example, we’ve built in consultation with the network a ‘transition at work’ policy, that being just one of the lots of parts that we have as a network.”

The network decides among itself how to proceed on matters – what policies to push for, how these policies are shaped, all the way down to which Prides they want to march it. In addition to policy, the network organises socials for staff to join and unwind, as well as connecting with other networks in the business around the world to develop partnerships and discuss the way forward for LGBTQ+ staff at CGI.

“It’s useful for people to see people like themselves”

 “There was a lack of role models in my formative years, and being able to see that your sexuality or gender isn’t an impediment to your professional life or success is great,” Mark explains. “It’s useful for people to see people like themselves who have been able to advance their own careers, as well as that there are people at senior levels who they can talk to. It’s about unconditional inclusivity.”  

Unconditionally inclusive is very much embedded in the company’s culture. With over 90,000 employees around the world at CGI, what they’re doing every day is trying to find solutions to problems, which requires creativity.  

“I think creativity comes from diversity. You need people with different perspectives looking at problems to find good solutions to them. Our job is to nurture the differences that create these viewpoints. We’ve got to create safe spaces for people that think differently, have different needs, where people feel they can contribute effectively.”  

CGI is a partner of myGwork, the LGBTQ+ business community. Check out their job opportunities here.