Bank CEO backs Cook's announcement

Trevor Burgess, CEO of St. Petersburg-based C1 Bank, has talked for years about how being an openly gay CEO of a publicly traded company — like he is — shouldn't matter.

Burgess, who has run C1 Bank since 2009, made that point on a national scale Oct. 30, when Apple CEO Tim Cook announced he was gay. Cook, in an essay in Bloomberg Businessweek, wrote that “if hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it's worth the trade-off with my own privacy.”

The declaration drew global media attention. A runner-up for the Business Observer's 2014 Entrepreneur of the year Award, Burgess was quoted in front page stories in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. He was also interviewed live on CNBC's “Squawk on the Street” show. Here are some of Burgess' comments:

New York Times: Burgess, referencing Cook's essay where the Apple CEO says his announcement is like “laying a brick on the path toward justice,” tells the Times that Cook's statement is “more like 600 million bricks.” Adds Burgess: “He has the most influential voice in global business.” Burgess was also the subject of a Sept. 5 Times story about the rarity of a publicly traded firm's CEO being openly gay.
Wall Street Journal: “If Tim Cook can be openly gay, then it just shouldn't matter in any other corporation in America.”

CNBC: “I think today will go down as a real seminal moment in American business history...As the leader of the most valuable business in the world he can be a tremendous force for change. Young gay
and lesbian students and kids can now dream an American Dream about how they can rise through the ranks and be a leader.”