Sophie L'Helias

Sophie L’Helias is a senior fellow for The Conference Board ESG Center. She began her career as an M&A attorney in New York and Paris. She later joined an event-driven hedge fund in New York as Managing Director and founded a strategic corporate governance advisory firm. An expert on governance issues, she co-founded the International Corporate Governance Network (www.ICGN.org), today’s leading global investor-led governance organization.  Ms. L'Helias recently founded LeaderXXchange™ that brings together institutional investors, business leaders and other market participants to promote diversity on corporate boards worldwide. 

Author of the book “Le Retour de l’Actionnaire” (“The Shareholder Comeback”), Ms. L'Helias frequently publishes articles in Europe, the United States and Canada and is a regular speaker at business and academic forums. An inactive member of the New York and Paris Bars, Ms. L'Helias holds an MBA from INSEAD, an LLM from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Masters of Laws from the law schools of the University of Pantheon-Sorbonne- Paris I, following law studies at the University of Saarbrücken, Germany.

Ms. L’Helias serves as a director on the board of Kering, a company listed on Euronext Paris in the CAC40 Index and world leader in apparel and accessories that develops an ensemble of powerful brands across Luxury and Sport & Lifestyle (www.kering.com).