2022 Global Leaders in Consulting: Sonia Cheng

Sonia Cheng is a Senior Managing Director and leads the EMEA Information Governance Privacy & Security practice at FTI Consulting in London. She is a world-renowned expert in Information Governance and GDPR, handling high-stakes regulatory challenges with data at their heart. Throughout her distinguished career of over 22 years, she has led hundreds of engagements with Global 500 firms with a focus on financial services, insurance, healthcare and life sciences.

Ms. Cheng's diverse, hands-on experience enables her to solve clients' most pressing challenges at the intersection of data and regulation. Her domain expertise and extensive stakeholder management, technology and change management experience enables her to successfully navigate highly complex matters. She previously led the European Information Governance practice at IBM, holding senior leadership roles in global services, product management and business development for legal, retention, privacy and analytics solutions. During her tenure at IBM, Sonia was the co-inventor and holds a patent in IT Storage optimisation.

Prior to IBM, Ms. Cheng led professional services at PSS Systems and technology consulting roles at Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. Sonia was also a co-founder of a Silicon Valley based technology non-profit organization which provided technology transformation services to NGOs. She is a frequent speaker and published thought leader and has been featured as a Who's Who Legal Top Expert in Information Governance and Privacy in 2019 and 2020.

What do you consider your greatest personal or professional achievement?

Building a successful EMEA Information Governance, Privacy & Security practice from scratch. It's one thing to be an individual expert—it's something else to build a successful business without an existing professional network to start with, given that I was starting over in a new country. It was both intimidating and exciting to create something from nothing with a blank sheet of paper. Building a practice and a brand, growing a diverse team, winning work, and expanding our offerings has been tremendously challenging and rewarding over the last five years. We're continuing to grow, and I owe my success to our amazing team who bravely take on the client challenges where others have shied away. Becoming a partner is not the destination, but rather being at the starting point of an incredible journey to shape the future of the company and the next generation of leaders and stewards of a unique organization we are privileged to influence.

What advice would you give a professional just beginning a career in consulting?

Say yes. It's easy to get hung up on levels and promotions and focus on the superficial markers of career advancement. In my experience, if you focus on the substance of the work and the impact you're making, success ensues. Don't chase titles, but rather look for projects that scare or challenge you—these are the experiences that can alter the trajectory of your career.

It's also about being open, trying things you haven't done before, and being willing to challenge yourself outside of your comfort zone. That will give you more power in driving career growth than any title ever will. I think it's also important to possess empathy—toward your clients, your colleagues, and yourself. At the end of the day, what we do in consulting is in service of clients, and it's essential to actively listen to people and not just respond to their ask, but think about their why and connect action with impact, not just for the client's business, but for the person in front of you. Just being human and working from a place of empathy and trust will serve you well personally and professionally, and ultimately allow you to get more out of the work that you do and the relationships that you make along the way.

What have you loved most about your consulting career?

Relationships and trust are very important to me and I am proud of the fact that many of my clients I've known and worked with for a decade or more and often go on to become personal friends, mentors, or mentees. I love consulting because every day is different and the clients you work with are different and challenging in new and interesting ways.

I've also always enjoyed working on the projects that everyone else walks away from. I've made a career of solving first-of-a-kind, never-been-done-before projects with hostile or challenging stakeholders in high-stakes situations that most people turn down because they think they can't be successful. I do my best work under pressure. Whether it's solving complex data challenges or handling people/organizational challenges, I think it's important to embrace discomfort. Clients come to us to help deal with unprecedented challenges be it regulatory, technology or organizational, and status quo won't cut it. I really believe that if you don't disrupt yourself, someone else will, so I never shy away from an "impossible" challenge.

What's the best advice—personal or professional—you've ever received?

Know your why—that includes your big why, which drives the everyday small actions in pursuit of your wider purpose. I believe this is not a one-and-done question, but one that you should continually ask yourself, whether in pursuit of personal goals as well as working on client challenges. Too many times we focus on the what or the how and not enough time thinking about the why. Be curious about your client, their organization, how things work and ask why three times to get to the heart of the issue.

What does being honored as a Global Leader mean to you?

It's humbling to be in the company of all the amazing professionals and it's also recognition for the incredible dedication and hard work of the teams I've been fortunate enough to lead. Being a global leader is about making a difference for our clients and mentoring the talented individuals who entrust their careers to FTI Consulting regardless of country or segment, and making the firm a stronger and better place than when we started. When I started my career, the typical role models were aggressive, sharp-elbowed, and had a very outdated style of leadership. I learned through experience to find my own voice and unique style of leadership, which is grounded in empathy, relationships, and expertise. This award is recognition that there are many ways to be successful and that focusing on people and relationships can make all the difference.