The 2018 Women Leaders in Consulting: Sonia Sande

"More than any single client or project accomplishment, it's important to me to be a role model and encourage and motivate colleagues through my actions," Sande says. "It's very gratifying when people reach out to say my style and values resonate and encourage them."  

Sande is a leader in EY's consulting practice, where she serves as the Northeast region's Performance Improvement Growth Leader. In this role, she connects EY's services to complex client challenges, driving new capabilities, skills and innovation into the accounts.   

"I love making connections to help people achieve their personal goals and plans," she says. "Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than drawing on my knowledge base, experience and network to connect others, accelerate progress and develop creative solutions." 

Sande says she also really enjoys the people she gets to work with on a daily basis—and for her, the perfect day is filled with interaction and discussion. "I'm grateful to work in a profession where I'm surrounded by interesting and stimulating people," she says. 

Sonia graduated from the University of Cambridge and has spent more than 20 years in the consulting profession, with a personal focus on finance transformation. She has helped many multinational companies transform their finance functions to deliver efficiency and effectiveness improvements.

 "My move into consulting shortly after college was very much by design, although I didn't fully appreciate what an interesting career I would have ahead of me," she says. "I was interested in problem-solving and doing varied work; I was also very clear that I really liked the people-element of consulting—with teams and clients—and was drawn to a client-centric career."

Sande admits that it may sound a little cliché, but the best advice she's ever received was to be authentic, "decide what I want my trademark values and attributes to be and live by that. This advice has enabled me to be happy, align my home and work personas, and feel proud of my own role and impact."

Meanwhile, she advises new female consultants to "be open to the opportunities, be comfortable not having complete control or visibility into what the future holds, and don't make self-limiting decisions because you fear not being able to do it all at some future date." 

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

Sande: "The Women in Consulting award is a great honor and it's a wonderful time to pause and reflect on the impact I've had to date. Lots more to do, but for now, I appreciate the support of my friends, family and colleagues and am delighted to receive this recognition alongside some great, inspiring women!"