Amit Paley

Mr. Amit Paley is the CEO and executive director of The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people. He began as a counselor on The Trevor Project's 24/7 TrevorLifeline in 2011, and since then he has answered hundreds of calls from LGBTQ youth in crisis. Mr. Paley is the first volunteer counselor to become the CEO of the organization in its 21-year history and he still continues to answer calls on the TrevorLifeline.

Under his leadership, the organization has dramatically expanded the number of LGBTQ youth that it serves and the breadth of programming that it offers. During his two-year tenure, The Trevor Project built and launched a new, integrated crisis services platform, expanded its chat and text services to 24/7, and more than doubled the number of youth served each month. The organization has also transformed its TrevorSpace platform into the largest safe-space social networking site for LGBTQ+ youth and expanded The Trevor Project’s research initiatives. The Trevor Project also now operates the largest grassroots campaign in the world to end conversion therapy.

Before becoming CEO of The Trevor Project, Mr. Paley was an associate partner at the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he served numerous non-profit organizations, Fortune 500 companies, and governments. He served as a leader of McKinsey’s LGBTQ group and spearheaded the firm’s global efforts on inclusion for transgender and non-binary people. Prior to joining McKinsey, Mr. Paley was a reporter at The Washington Post, where his work was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He is a renowned expert on the mental health of LGBTQ young people and suicide prevention, and his voice has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CBS, ABC, NBC, Reuters, Fortune and more. Mr. Paley is a 2019 GLG Social Impact Fellow, and has been included in this year’s NBC’s #Pride 50 list and Logo30 list. He received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, an MBA from Columbia Business School, and a master’s degree from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism.