Sheela Maini Søgaard is the CEO of the architecture company

Bjarke Ingels Group Bjarke Ingels Group, often referred to as BIG, is a Copenhagen, New York City, London, Barcelona, Shanghai, Oslo, Los Angeles, Zurich, and Bhutan-based group of architects and designers operating within the fields of architecture, product, lands ...

(also known as BIG), as well as one of BIG's 23 partners. She is credited for growing the company and making profitable after joining the company in 2008. Maini Søgaard is known for being outspoken about gender balance. She has been a keynote speaker at the AIA Conference 2018.

Personal life

Maini Søgaard was born to a Danish mother and Indian father and grew up in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. She moved to Copenhagen to study at

Copenhagen Business School Copenhagen Business School (Danish'': Handelshøjskolen i København'') often abbreviated and referred to as CBS (also in Danish), is a public university situated in Copenhagen, Denmark and is considered one of the most prestigious business scho ...

, and later moved to New York. She has three children with her husband, who is a stay-at-home dad.

Career

Maini Søgaard studied at Copenhagen Business School, and then started her career by working at the multinational consumer goods corporation

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, the consulting firm

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, and for the Danish chef and

Noma Noma, NoMa, or NOMA may refer to: Places * NoMa, the area North of Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., US ** NoMa–Gallaudet U station, on Washington Metro * Noma, Florida, US * NOMA, Manchester, a redevelopment in England * Noma District, ...

co-founder

Claus Meyer Claus Meyer (born 27 December 1963) is a Danish entrepreneur, cook and television host. He is often accredited as the founder of the New Nordic Cuisine philosophy. Projects Claus Meyer has been engaged in a plethora of projects and has been ...

. In 2008, she joined BIG as the company's

chief financial officer A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, ...

and later on became its

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. Within the company and the industry, Maini Søgaard has been praised for improving the firm's profitability and growing the company more than tenfold. According to her, she has done so by re-thinking the traditional fee approach in architecture, hiring the right business staff, checking project timelines and budgets regularly throughout the year, and insisting on being paid by customers. She also credits the importance of culture for the company's success. Maini Søgaard currently serves on the board of learning platform Area9 Lyceum, the advisory board of

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, as chairman of Danish wooden flooring company Dinesen and on the global law firm Kromann Reumert excellence panel.

Opinions and beliefs

In 2017, Bjarke Ingels Group was criticised for the underrepresentation of women in architecture, as Maini Søgaard the only woman out of 12 partners. Cat Huang later became the second female partner in at BIG. Maini Søgaard's response was to argue that half of the managers were women, as well as 60% of directors, and that they had leading policies regarding maternity/paternity leaves and wage equality. Maini Søgaard has argued that to have more women in leadership positions, it is necessary to share maternity and paternity leave equally, provide families with the opportunity of childcare during the whole duration of working hours, as well as encourage women in leadership now to mentor new women in business.

Awards

Maini Søgaard was one of the recipients of the 2018

Nykredit Architecture Prize The Nykredit Architecture Prize is the largest Danish architecture prize. Founded by the Nykredit Foundation (an arm of the Nykredit Group), it is awarded annually to a person, or group of people, who have personally, or through their work, made ...

. She was one of five nominees for the 2019 Danish Leader of The Year Award. She was in 2019 also listed as one of

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's 100 Most Creative People in Business, and received the 2019

Womenomics ''Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success'' is a non-fiction book written by ABC News' ''Good Morning America'' senior national correspondent Claire Shipman and BBC World News America Washington correspondent Katty Kay that was published by H ...

Award. She was the winner of the 2022 Danish Leader of the Year Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sogaard, Sheela Maini Danish architects Danish women business executives Danish business executives Copenhagen Business School alumni Danish people of Indian descent Living people Year of birth missing (living people) __FORCETOC__