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Sheela Maini Søgaard is the [[Chief executive officer|CEO]] of the [[architecture]] company [[Bjarke Ingels Group]] (also known as BIG), as well as one of BIG's 17 partners<ref>{{Cite web|title=BIG {{!}} Bjarke Ingels Group|url=https://big.dk/#about|access-date=2021-03-13|language=en-US}}</ref>. She is credited for growing the company and making it into a profitable megafirm after joining the company in 2008<ref>{{Cite web|last=LaBarre|first=Suzanne|date=2019-05-22|title=How this CEO transformed a small architectural shop into a cutting-edge, international megafirm|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/90343345/most-creative-people-2019-bjarke-ingels-group-sheela-sogaard|access-date=2021-03-14|website=Fast Company|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Ten years on, Bjarke Ingels and Sheela Maini Søgaard reveal how they brought BIG back from the brink|url=http://cladglobal.com/news?codeid=335276|access-date=2021-03-14|website=cladglobal.com}}</ref>. Sheela is known for being outspoken about gender balance, as well as for arguing that BIG is one of the leading companies in the industry when it comes to wage equality and policies of [[parental leave]]<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-03-30|title=BIG's only female partner defends firm's gender balance after Instagram attack|url=https://www.dezeen.com/2017/03/30/big-bjarke-ingels-sheela-maini-sogaard-instagram-backlash-women-architecture/|access-date=2021-04-03|website=Dezeen|language=en}}</ref>. She has been a keynote speaker at the AIA Conference 2018<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.architectmagazine.com/practice/bjarke-ingels-group-ceo-sheela-maini-sgaard-added-to-the-aia-conference-keynote-lineup_o|access-date=2021-04-03|website=www.architectmagazine.com}}</ref>, and was been nominated in 2019 as one of [[Fast Company]]'s 100 Most Creative People in Business<ref>{{Cite web|title=100 Most Creative People in Business 2019|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/most-creative-people/2019|access-date=2021-03-14|website=Fast Company|language=en-US}}</ref>.
Sheela Maini Søgaard is the [[Chief executive officer|CEO]] of the [[architecture]] company [[Bjarke Ingels Group]] (also known as BIG), as well as one of BIG's 17 partners<ref>{{Cite web|title=BIG {{!}} Bjarke Ingels Group|url=https://big.dk/#about|access-date=2021-03-13|language=en-US}}</ref>. She is credited for growing the company and making it into a profitable megafirm after joining the company in 2008<ref>{{Cite web|last=LaBarre|first=Suzanne|date=2019-05-22|title=How this CEO transformed a small architectural shop into a cutting-edge, international megafirm|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/90343345/most-creative-people-2019-bjarke-ingels-group-sheela-sogaard|access-date=2021-03-14|website=Fast Company|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Ten years on, Bjarke Ingels and Sheela Maini Søgaard reveal how they brought BIG back from the brink|url=http://cladglobal.com/news?codeid=335276|access-date=2021-03-14|website=cladglobal.com}}</ref>. Sheela is known for being outspoken about gender balance, as well as for arguing that BIG is one of the leading companies in the industry when it comes to wage equality and policies of [[parental leave]]<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-03-30|title=BIG's only female partner defends firm's gender balance after Instagram attack|url=https://www.dezeen.com/2017/03/30/big-bjarke-ingels-sheela-maini-sogaard-instagram-backlash-women-architecture/|access-date=2021-04-03|website=Dezeen|language=en}}</ref>. She has been a keynote speaker at the AIA Conference 2018<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.architectmagazine.com/practice/bjarke-ingels-group-ceo-sheela-maini-sgaard-added-to-the-aia-conference-keynote-lineup_o|access-date=2021-04-03|website=www.architectmagazine.com}}</ref>, was been nominated in 2019 as one of [[Fast Company]]'s 100 Most Creative People in Business<ref>{{Cite web|title=100 Most Creative People in Business 2019|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/most-creative-people/2019|access-date=2021-03-14|website=Fast Company|language=en-US}}</ref>, and received the 2019 [[Womenomics]] Award<ref>{{Cite web|title=Awards|url=https://www.womenomicscph.dk/awards/|access-date=2021-04-03|website=Womenomics CPH|language=en-US}}</ref>.


== Personal life ==
== Personal life ==

Revision as of 16:21, 3 April 2021

Sheela Maini Søgaard is the CEO of the architecture company Bjarke Ingels Group (also known as BIG), as well as one of BIG's 17 partners[1]. She is credited for growing the company and making it into a profitable megafirm after joining the company in 2008[2][3]. Sheela is known for being outspoken about gender balance, as well as for arguing that BIG is one of the leading companies in the industry when it comes to wage equality and policies of parental leave[4]. She has been a keynote speaker at the AIA Conference 2018[5], was been nominated in 2019 as one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business[6], and received the 2019 Womenomics Award[7].

Personal life

Sheela was born to a Danish mother and Indian father and grew up in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. She moved to Copenhagen to study at Copenhagen Business School, and later moved to New York. She has three children with her husband, who is a stay-at-home dad.[8]

Career

Sheela studied at Copenhagen Business School, and then started her career by working at the multinational consumer goods corporation Procter and Gamble, the consulting firm McKinsey, and for the Danish chef and Noma co-founder Claus Meyer[9]. In 2008, she joined BIG as the company's Chief Financial Officer and later on became its Chief Executive Officer.

Within the company and the industry, Sheela has been praised for improving the firm's profitability and growing the company more than tenfold. According to her, she has done so by re-thinking the traditional fee approach in architecture, hiring the right business staff, checking project timelines and budgets regularly throughout the year, and insisting on being paid by customers[10]. She also credits the importance of culture for the company's success[11].

Opinions and beliefs

In 2017, Bjarke Ingels Group was criticised for the underrepresentation of women in architecture, as Sheela was the only woman out of 12 partners. Cat Huang later became the second female partner in at BIG[12]. Sheela's response was to argue that half of the managers were women, as well as 60% of directors, and that they had leading policies regarding maternity/paternity leaves and wage equality[13].

Sheela has argued that to have more women in leadership positions, it is necessary to share maternity and paternity leaves equally, provide families with the opportunity of childcare during the whole duration of working hours, as well as encourage women in leadership now to mentor new women in business[14].


  1. ^ "BIG | Bjarke Ingels Group". Retrieved 2021-03-13.
  2. ^ LaBarre, Suzanne (2019-05-22). "How this CEO transformed a small architectural shop into a cutting-edge, international megafirm". Fast Company. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
  3. ^ "Ten years on, Bjarke Ingels and Sheela Maini Søgaard reveal how they brought BIG back from the brink". cladglobal.com. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
  4. ^ "BIG's only female partner defends firm's gender balance after Instagram attack". Dezeen. 2017-03-30. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  5. ^ www.architectmagazine.com https://www.architectmagazine.com/practice/bjarke-ingels-group-ceo-sheela-maini-sgaard-added-to-the-aia-conference-keynote-lineup_o. Retrieved 2021-04-03. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ^ "100 Most Creative People in Business 2019". Fast Company. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
  7. ^ "Awards". Womenomics CPH. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  8. ^ "Sheela Maini Søgaard | Flyttede familien med til New York | IN". Mainlifestyle (in Danish). 2016-04-13. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
  9. ^ issue 4, Magali Robathan | CLAD mag | Published in CLADmag 2017. "Interview: BIG's CEO Sheela Maini Sogaard on addressing the gender balance at the top | CLAD". www.cladglobal.com. Retrieved 2021-04-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ "8 Lessons On Succeeding as a Firm, From the Business Mind Behind BIG". ArchDaily. 2017-04-13. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  11. ^ Campbell-Dollaghan, Kelsey (2017-11-14). "3 Insights From The CEO Of BIG, A 21st-Century Superfirm". Fast Company. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  12. ^ "Cathrine Huang – Responsive Cities 2019". Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  13. ^ Xie, Jenny (2017-03-27). "Bjarke Ingels Group's female partner defends firm after social media backlash". Curbed. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
  14. ^ "BIG-direktør: Kvinder bør klatre op ad karrierestigen trods usikkerhed – for den fortager sig". www.kmd.dk. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
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