Gender Advisory Council: Sonja Barendregt-Roojers

I joined one of PwC’s predecessor firms as a junior assistant as my very first job out of high school at the age of 18. After combining work and my chartered accountancy studies for two years, I decided to instead go to Erasmus University Rotterdam to study business economics. After graduating, I started post graduate accountancy studies and became a chartered accountant.

After I became a partner in 1998 I specialised in the financial services industry. I became the Investment Management industry leader for the Netherlands and joined the European Investment Management Leadership team. In 2004 I became the chair of the Pension Funds industry group in the Netherlands and founded the International Pensions group.

All those steps were relevant for my career because I learned a lot about managing, speaking in front of large audiences and expanding my international and national networks.

Staying who you are

In 2003 I started the diversity initiative in the Netherlands. I am one of the leaders of this diversity project and still a member of PwC’s Dutch Diversity Strategy Council. I strongly believe in diversity as one of the most important aspects of people working together.

During the various levels of my career, I have decided that it is very important to stay who I am. That means that sometimes roles will go to other people who may be better at lobbying and creating support. But being myself is so important for me that I am not willing to adjust to the expectations held by other people. And therefore I think it is vital to also accept other people the way they are and create a diverse environment.

Diverse leadership creates better performance

There are numerous activities that can be done to increase the number of women in leadership positions, such as encouraging women to stay with the firm, acknowledging female leadership capabilities and recognising the fact that more diverse leadership creates better commercial performance. Maybe it is time to move on more quickly.

Diversity programmes are numerous, but as author and journalist Alison Maitland always says: "Diversity programmes are as common as women at the top are rare".