Sonya Barlow

Sonya hosts her talk show The Sonya Barlow Show where she interviews world leaders on the stories behind their success, with high-profile names such as Princess Lamia of Saudi Arabia and Footballer Gilberto Silva. In 2022, Sonya was named a LinkedIn Top Voice for Gender Diversity and her BBC show The Everyday Hustle, was The Best Radio Show in the UK.

She is the CEO of the Like Minded Females (LMF) Network, an inclusion consultancy and social networking platform redesigning workplace policies and professional careers to encourage diversity and inclusion. Sonya has also written the popular book “Unprepared to Entrepreneur” and won multiple awards, including Europe’s Top 50 Women in Tech, Marie Claire’s Future Shaper, UK Entrepreneur of the Year and Asian Women of Achievement. She is one of the youngest South Asian females to have two TEDx talks, titled “Please Come Online” and “Failure Comes Before Resilience”.

Sonya’s energetic and captivating personality has seen her invited to keynote at The House of Commons on gender diversity and delivering global keynotes on business, technology and inclusion in Germany, Lithuania, Romania, Kenya, Pakistan, Amsterdam, France, the UK, Portugal and Mauritius, to name a few.

Sonya’s background in technology, business and travel provides her with the unique ability to understand technical terms, share innovative solutions and advocate allyship. She has a great sense of cultural communication and is often told that her power is summarising large bits of information into notable smaller action steps that the audience can easily take away.

She has worked with household brands such as Lloyds banking group and Capital One on their technology podcast, led campaigns for L’Oréal, HP, Rolls Royce, Fiverr, Logitech and LinkedIn and delivered talks to high-profile stakeholders across industries such as Fintech, Technology, Finance, Hospitality, Public Sector, Higher Education, Government, Fashion, Retail and Corporate.

Sonya has worked in the technology sector since 2015 and is currently building an app to encourage professional working women to build their networks and knowledge, whilst supporting workplaces to retain diverse talent.

Outside of her day-to-day, Sonya is a highly accomplished Moderator and Event MC, with official hosting duties for London Tech Week, WebSummit, Cogx Festival and Amsterdam Fintech Week. She is also a writer for Metro UK, Telegraph, HelloMag, Lonely Planet and TripAdvisor and is often asked to lecture for Coventry University, Bayes Business School, Oxford Brookes, University of the Arts London and Kings College.

Ensuring that the relevant information is shared, Sonya uses her social media platforms positively to storytell her experiences of travelling, business and technology as a role model. She has over 100,000 followers and is seen as an influential voice striving to make a difference.

Sonya Barlow is a neurodivergent British Pakistani woman with chronic migraines, ADHD and mental health conditions, and diversity, resilience, and neurodiversity are topics close to her heart when delivering keynotes. She is able to deliver workshops and keynotes about her own experiences of ADHD, with advice on coping mechanisms and how your neurodiversity can be an asset if channeled in the right way.

Sonya has worked in the technology sector since 2015 and is currently building an app to encourage professional working women to build their networks and knowledge, whilst supporting workplaces to retain diverse talent.

Notable achievements and highlights of Sonya’s work include:

• LinkedIn Changemaker 2021 for Diversity & Inclusion in EU & UK
• Published Author, ‘Unprepared to Entrepreneur’
• BBC Radio Presenter of The Everyday Hustle, BBC
• Most Influential Women in Tech 2020 & 2021, ComputerWeekly
• Runner up in Forbes 30 Under 30, 2021
• A published journalist for The Telegraph, Metro Newspaper & Sifted UK
• Travel entrepreneur for The Oberoi, Westin, and Beachcomber Hotels