Sophie L’Hélias is a recognized international corporate governance and sustainability expert with extensive experience in shareholder engagement, investor activism and stewardship. She is trusted advisor to global investors, C-Suites executives and board directors on governance and sustainability strategies.

Sophie founded LeaderXXchange in 2015 to create and invest in innovative governance and sustainability solutions. She created the first app Gender Diversity Exchange to track and benchmark 3,900 companies in 38 industries across 27 countries on gender diversity in leadership. The award-winning solution is licensed to financial institutions to customise ETF and other investment offerings.       

She is an experienced director of corporate and financial boards.

She is the Chair of the ESG committee of Herbalife (NYSE) where she is also a member of of the audit committee and is an independent director of IWG Plc where she serves on the audit and remuneration committees. Sophie is also an independent director of Africa50, an investment infrastructure platform supported by the African Development Bank, Echiquier Positive Impact Europe investment funds that invest in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) as well as Agence France Locale, a municipality-owned bank in France.

Sophie also served Chair of the Board of Suez SA and oversaw its merger with Véolia a global environmental solutions leader. She also served as the lead independent director of the global luxury group Kering SA where she was also a member of the audit, nomination, compensation and ESG committees and responsible for ESG investor engagement.

Sophie is a co-founder of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) with membership investors representing assets under management in excess of $34 trillion. Interested in uncovering new trends and research findings, she serves engages thought leaders. She serves on the Board of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI), is a Senior Fellow at The Conference Board ESG Center in New York and is Vice President Prospective and Ideas at the Medef in France. She previously served on the International Advisory Board of the Hawkamah Governance Institute in Dubai and as an advisor to the UN Global Compact’s Blueprint for SDG Leadership.

She holds an MBA from INSEAD, an LLM from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, a Masters of Laws from the University of Pantheon-Sorbonne, and after studied at the European Law Institute of the University of Saarbrücken in Germany.