Sonya is a ‘dyed in the wool’ fashion woman with over thirty years’ experience in the industry. But her journey has led her to some unexpected places. She's closed the NASDAQ, had tea in Downing Street and raced Nurburgring. She is a designer, broadcaster, and businesswoman.  As a serial Entrepreneur and Social Entrepreneur, she has won multiple awards. She brought the global not for profit initiative Dress for Success to Ireland in 2018 and she co-founded LIFT - leading Ireland’s Future Together which aims to improve the level of personal leadership in Ireland by 2028 - no pressure. She exercises her passion for gender equality in the workplace by addressing the Gender Pay & Opportunity Gap, to the Irish Government, at The European Parliament and to anyone who wants to make positive change (and some that don’t). She has grown her own clothing brand Lennon Courtney, with her long time business partner Brendan Courtney, because business partners aren’t just for Christmas!

In November 2019, Sonya conceived and held the first-ever #WorkEqual conference in The Marker Hotel Dublin. The conference was opened by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and saw a representative audience from government, business, trade unions, education and non-profit. The now annual conference and campaign aim to define and agree to key policy measures that could accelerate the pace of workplace equality for women in Ireland. Oh, and then put them into action to make Ireland a fairer place for everyone to work and thrive. She is currently studying for a Masters in Business Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in IADT and regularly delivers solution-focused keynote speeches.