Meet Sonya

Designer, business-woman, social entrepreneur and much sought-after speaker.

I’m at my happiest when I’m communicating to create positive impact. Speaking internationally, I excite and inspire by drawing on my career experience as an entrepreneur, social entrepreneur, and advocate for equitable workplaces. I’ve won multiple awards for the work that I do and recently completed a Masters in Business Equity, Diversity & Inclusion.

I employ a cocktail of storytelling, humour and cold hard facts to help businesses create cultures where everybody can thrive.

Women’s equity in the workplace is a passion of mine and I am an advocate for and a champion of the role of men in enacting positive change. In 2018 I became an inaugural member of the Irish cross-party parliamentary committee for gender equality in the workplace and a recognised thought leader in the area.

Trust your intuition, be clear, be consistent and be so tenacious you scare yourself.
— Sonya Lennon

Gender Advocacy
#WORKEQUAL

I founded Work Equal (formerly Dress for Success) in 2012 its mission to advance the economic independence of women through service provision and policy change. We have supported over 4,000 women into employment and are continuing to grow our impact.

We have campaign nationally and at European level for policy change to facilitate equitable workplaces. With Work Equal, I was an early and vocal advocate for gender pay reporting legislation, which is now mandatory in Ireland.

I speak regularly to members of the Irish Government and sit on the Cross Party Parliamentary Committee for Workplace Equality. I have been called as an expert witness for the government, on Gender Equality. Learn more about what we do, or to support us.

Sonya MC'd our Gather conference with 500 SME delegates from 17 countries. She totally captured the spirit of the event and was the perfect glue for one of our pillar events.
— Martina McDonnell, Marketing Director SMB, EMEA, Meta

LiFT

In 2018 I co-founded LIFT Ireland whose mission is to improve the level of leadership throughout Ireland bringing 10% of the population through its programme by 2028. We are on target to achieve our goal. 97% of adult participants in the programme improved there understanding of good leadership and 86% of adults experienced real positive change. Learn more about what we do, or support us.

I listened to your Audi Ireland podcast and absolutely loved the way you spoke about every member of society feeling like they belong, are empowered and are heard. You said it’s not about women only. It’s about the dominant representation as much as the marginalised. It really resonated with me.
— Tarryn (de Klerk) Knight, Head of Marketing, PR and Product at Audi South Africa

Why hire Sonya...

I tip over cultural tables, change minds and leave lasting impressions on leaders and their people by interrogating and challenging assumptions in a non-judgmental way. Once the table is tipped, I offer a suite of solutions to correct it.

I act as a friendly disruptor, my message is accessible and creates permission to speak about the difficulties we face in the current workplace. Those who are underrepresented don’t want to speak up, and those in power don’t want to offend. I offer a range of solutions to short-circuit that impasse.

Get in touch to take this to the next step so that I can speak to your greatest asset, your people.