SONYA REES
PARTNER, BLICK ROTHENBERG
Championing DE&I, so everyone can perform their best
Sonya Rees, a partner at tax, accounting and business advisory firm Blick Rothenberg is a passionate advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion in all its forms, including financial wellbeing for women. Sonya is using her experiences to help change perceptions and redefine the workplace for the benefit of everyone.
R
elocate Think Global People Award-winning Blick Rothenberg is in the business of looking after people’s assets worldwide. Key to its success is looking after its people. This ethos
runs through the business – from the CEO, to partners, managers, graduate recruits and mid-career returners – supported by a dedicated head of diversity & inclusion, Angela Cooke. Its practices are meeting the demands of the current and future workforce. Together with her colleagues at Blick Rothenberg, Sonya Rees, US/UK private client partner, is breaking the mould around inclusive talent management. A passionate advocate for true inclusion across every aspect of intersectionality, Sonya is an outstanding leader, a co-founder and former chair of the company’s Women’s Network, and a tireless champion of making working life better for everyone.
WIDENING OPPORTUNITIES Within Blick Rothenberg’s
inclusive culture, Sonya’s
personal values and leadership style exemplify how DE&I is all our business. Core to this is Sonya’s lived experience and her appreciation of the importance of knowing your own value and appreciating the worth of others. In her previous role, which she joined straight from
university, Sonya was made a partner relatively early in her career. She also negotiated a part-time role while at this senior level. “Ten years ago, this wasn’t that common,” says Sonya. “Obviously, now we know flexibility is very important and Covid has moved us on at least five years, but back then not many places offered it. “I’ve been very lucky with where I’ve got to. I want other people to have that opportunity. For example,
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flexible and part-time working shouldn’t be a seniority- led benefit. If you can make everybody’s lives easier everywhere, they are going to perform better. You are removing barriers and giving them opportunities.” Sonya traces the origins of her personal leadership style to her childhood. “I come from a male-dominated background and have been surrounded by male influences my whole life. My mother died when I was relatively young. I was at home with a dad and a brother. I went to a school when I was eight in the first year they took girls, so I was one of 16 girls in 160 children. “I subsequently went to a very male-dominated
college at Oxford and then into accountancy. I was used to being friends with men and quite frankly, feeling their equal. I was very lucky to have a lot of opportunity in life. I never felt the barriers to progression that some women face in my journey to partnership.”
PEOPLE AND PURPOSE In common with many other women featuring in Think Women’s 40 Outstanding Global Women series, starting a family was a critical point in Sonya’s career. “It wasn’t until I had my first baby that I really started to gather a sphere of female friends who were showing a very different experience to mine,” says Sonya. “In the area I lived there were a lot of like-minded people. The experiences that we shared and the support that we got from that led to me thinking, ‘how can I support other people?’” Around this time and after 17 years with the firm,
Sonya bucked the expectation of a life-long career in the company and started to look for a new opportunity that aligned more with her values. This led her seven
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