SOPHiAN Women Leadership Club (SWLC) is a global community of women in leadership across SOPHiA GENETICS who share experiences and grow through peer-to-peer support. The group meets monthly on topics like empowering women with AI, leading through change, and imposter syndrome. This week, SWLC multiplied its impact through a special gathering with more women across the company.
Manuela Valente (Chief People Officer) set the tone for our time together and four leaders shared their varied paths and experiences: Christina Gknitzou (Senior Customer Support Manager), Jennifer Marques Pereira (Director of Global Accounting & Reporting), Karen Schindler (Strategic Accounts Director), and Sophie Chevalier (VP, Legal Affairs), followed by a keynote on stress management and well-being from Tamara Maas (VP, Bioinformatic Services).
Trusting you're ready
When Jennifer was first offered a stretch role, her initial reaction was: "No, I'm not ready. I don't have all the skills." It's a reaction many women recognize, focusing on what's missing rather than what's already there.
Her advice: don't wait until you feel 100% ready. Don't rule yourself out of an opportunity just because you don't tick every box. Give yourself the chance to consider it, take the stretch, and trust that the learning happens along the way. Looking back, that "no" almost cost her one of the biggest growth chapters of her career.
Advocating for one another
The panel spoke about actively promoting each other when someone isn't in the room. For Sophie, one of the earliest shifts came even before she joined SOPHiA GENETICS: learning how to work collaboratively, to think as a team rather than individually.
Christina also shared her own take on sponsorship, promoting each other when we're not on the table, whether that's bringing light to a colleague's work or giving small credit where it's due.
Leading with kindness
Christina offered a meaningful note: people remember the impact of leaders even in their personal lives, so be good and kind to others. We're on a mission together.
Karen echoed this, “reach out to new joiners especially those joining us remotely or genuinely check-in with colleagues to see how they’re doing.” These small acts of kindness have big impact.
For Jennifer, that kindness showed up after coming back from maternity leave, when a colleague in the room with us offered her support not just by asking, but by actually taking something off her plate.
Setting boundaries
With so much demanded of senior roles, boundaries came up again and again: disconnecting fully, stepping back to recover, and returning at full capacity rather than running on empty. Sophie and Christina shared how important it is to find the boundaries that work for you and to plan ahead, whether that's turning off notifications for focus time or communicating work hours clearly.
Managing stress and well-being
Tamara continued the conversation with a keynote on stress management and well-being. She opened by reframing stress: there's a difference between the kind of stress that sharpens us and the kind that wears us down, and learning to tell them apart matters. She also spoke directly to the different stages of life and how stress and its management look different depending on where someone is in that journey.
Carrying it forward
Leadership is a shared journey. It's built through different choices, from a willingness to take the leap before feeling fully ready, to advocating for yourself and others through sponsorship. And it's sustained by taking well-being just as seriously as ambition. Above all, it's women supporting each other, across functions, geographies, and every stage of career and life.
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