The 2017 Women Leaders in Consulting: Htike Htike Kyaw Soe

Htike Htike Kyaw Soe joined KPMG as part of the Strategic Profitability Insights (SPI) product offering. She joined as the first hire for the East Coast over three years ago from the United Nations working with Energy Statistics after finishing an MBA at Columbia Business School. Soe is now the lead Strategic Profitability Insights Director and National PE/M&A Lead and has contributed to the strong growth of the East Coast and national team.

"The growth of our team has been my biggest professional achievement," she says. "After hundreds of projects, long hours, numerous interviews of candidates, problem solving, working with complex data and trying to create value-add analyses, it's been great to see the team grow from just me to double digit head count in the East Coast alone."

Soe was born and raised in Myanmar and loves to travel. Before her career began, she studied Biochemistry and Sociology at Grinnell College in Iowa. After completing her MBA from Columbia Business School, "I knew I wanted to get into consulting and it was just a matter of finding the right group."

One of her classmates contacted her regarding her current role. Given her data background and MBA, she found the role to be a great fit.

"Every engagement is a different puzzle to solve and doing that with my wonderful team has been one of the most enjoyable parts of the work," Soe says. "It has also been a really rewarding experience seeing the group grow. I've had the honor of hiring over half of the people on the team and figuring out the path forward together with the team."

What's the best advice she's ever received? She says to stay completely focused on her team and her clients. "In the world of consulting sometimes there can be a lot of things happening simultaneously and I've tried to adhere to those words," she says. "In order to effectively work with my team and clients I've also tried to maintain a sense of self-awareness. I put myself in the teams' and clients' shoes so I can be a good leader to my team—teaching them how to fish instead of giving them the fish—and appropriately align with clients' needs and desires."

As for the advice she'd give others just starting their careers, Soe would say to make it work to your style with a strong sense of awareness. "I think a lot of us are in traditionally more male dominant areas and our styles may differ from the norm," Soe says. "Be confident about that and use it to your advantage." For example, Soe says she is often the only female minority in a meeting and she tries to use that to her advantage. "If we are confident and passionate about our work we may be more memorable to our clients and potential clients," she says.

Consulting:  What does winning the Women Leaders in Consulting award mean to you?

Soe: "This award was a nomination from my team so it means a tremendous amount. I often say that with management it is tough to know if you're right or wrong and their nomination gives me hope that I am on the right path in at least some aspects. Made all those sleepless nights worth it! I hope that I can continue to be a good leader to them and help them grow in their careers and personal goals."