Sonja Wekema has spent more than 25 years working at the intersection of leadership, culture and change, first as a senior leader and management consultant inside organisations, and since 2017 as an executive coach and adviser working with boards and senior teams from the outside.
Her corporate career took her through Shell and Capgemini, where she held senior roles in Management Consulting, HR, strategy and organisational change. That experience gives her something rare: she knows what it is like to be in the room where difficult decisions are made, under pressure, with imperfect information and competing interests.
As an executive coach, Sonja works with senior leaders and board members navigating complexity, responsibility and change. Her approach is direct, curious and contextual. She brings depth without losing sight of what the organisation actually needs.
Sonja holds a Master's degree in Communication Science (drs. University of Groningen), an MSc in Executive Coaching from Hult Ashridge, and an MEC in Executive and Team Coaching from VU Amsterdam. She is an external PhD candidate at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam researching vulnerability in intercultural leadership. She is accredited as EMCC Senior Practitioner, ICF and NOBCO, and works with Hogan Assessments, Insights Discovery, and Barrett Values methodologies.
She is Managing Partner of The Other Perspective and co-founder of The Board Whisperers. She is the co-author of three leadership books, including Leading in a Wicked World (with Matthias Schramm, 2024), and a TEDx speaker.