Sonya Lennon

Sonya Lennon has thirty years of experience in business as a creative director, designer, broadcaster, entrepreneur, strategic consultant and speaker. A multi-award-winning Social Entrepreneur, Sonya founded the global not for profit initiative Dress for Success ( now Work Equal) in Ireland in 2011 which has successfully supported over 3,000 women into employment and economic independence. Through her advocacy work, she has campaigned at a European level for gender equality in the workplace by addressing the Gender Pay & Opportunity Gap. Since 2016, Sonya has led the highly publicised #WorkEqual campaign in Ireland. Through this campaign, she has spearheaded public awareness, highlighted legacy and cultural issues that prevent workplace equality and focussed on solutions to address them. Sonya has presented the issue on multiple occasions to the Irish Government. The inaugural #WorkEqual Conference in 2019 saw her bring together international speakers and diverse stakeholders to ratify priority issues and recommendations. This culminated in a post-conference report titled Practical Steps to Workplace Equality co-authored with Professor Michelle Millar NUIG. This document has been submitted to the government as a framework to accelerate positive change. Sonya is solution focussed, iterative and innovative but always grounded by a value in human relationships and understanding how to maximise the potential of business and people. Sonya lives her life and works with a profound sense of curiosity and joy matched with an infectious laugh and a razor-sharp wit.