Role Players 2024
Sonica Aron
Founder and Managing Partner
Marching Sheep
Sonica Aron, is the most respected and sought after facilitator and HR consultant not just in India but globally today. Seen as a thought leader and trusted advisor, her opinions and work are frequently published in leading publications like TOI, HT, Hindu, Live Mint, Statemen, Pioneer, Business World etc. An alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur, a certified Coach, certified in psychometric instruments, she has a unique style of facilitation wherein she engages with her audience and draws out deep reflections and participation. She has over 20 years of experience at leadership roles in companies like Philips, AkzoNobel, Roche Diagnostics, Vodafone and Pepsi. She started Marching Sheep in 2013 with a vision of delivering interventions that truly move the needle.
She has engaged with several organizations and has helped build long term capability, diversity and leadership strategy. She has helped client organizations systemically achieve desirable behavioural outcomes by streamlining relevant people management processes and delivering bespoke developmental programs. Diversity interventions are her forte. Women @work and Unleash, the two programs focusing on life stage transition and gender bias have been very well received by the industry. Sonica insists on picking up unconventional topics that need to be brought to the fore, be it consideration of menopause as a life stage and therefore inclusion in medical benefits, systemic approach towards addressing needs of new mothers, or questioning the use of the term ‘working mother’ when a term like ‘working father’ does not exist. Known for her unbridled, charismatic thoughts and speech she is a regular speaker at conferences and symposiums. She frequently speaks at forums like FICCI, Transformance, Gain Skills, NHRDN conferences. She is frequently seen on TV channels as a panellist.
A Mother of two, Sonica considers Marching Sheep her third child and is extremely passionate about what they deliver as a team. The values at Marching Sheep are Integrity in everything they do, Client orientation, Responsiveness, and Attention to detail. In the last ten years, Marching Sheep has focused on designing and delivering customized and curated solutions to their clients and building long-term relationships based on trust and credibility. “Once a client of Marching Sheep, always a client of Marching Sheep” is something she is very proud of. She started as a solopreneur from one city, and today the firm has a thriving team of passionate, committed and highly knowledgeable HR consultants. They are working with clients across the globe and across industries.
Over the years, Sonica has designed and delivered several research based interventions on topics like career intentionality, financial independence, claiming your space, shattering stereotypes and barriers and has positively impacted lives and careers of thousands of people. With evolving times, she and her team started working on inclusion of LGBTQIA+ community and people with disabilities. With the world becoming a global village post pandemic, cross cultural inclusion and competence is an area they believe is extremely critical for organisations to succeed. Sonica firmly believes that organisations are a sub-unit of society and our employees, managers and leaders come from the same society. Hence in addition to working with clients, she runs several non-commercial awareness creating campaigns. She also works closely with an NGO in India that helps acid attack survivors get rehabilitated.
Her exemplary contribution has been recognised by many platforms. She has been listed among the top 10 women entrepreneurs in 2020 by Forbes India, Among India’s Most Valued Leaders by Forbes India 2021, among Inspirational Leadership Icons by Fortune India, among the top 100 digital influencers by YourStory, as the Women Entrepreneur of the year at the 62nd National Summit on Atma Nirbhar Bharat: Vision of New India, organized by Indian Achievers Forum, Dynamic Achiever 2022- Business World, Most trusted HR consultant 2023- Business Connect, Business Leader to follow 2023- World’s Leaders Magazine, India’s Influential women Leaders- Outlook 2023, Top 5 women Influencers- CIO 2022 & 2023, Recipient of Black Swan Women Empowerment Leadership principles award by UN Women, among Top 100 Women Leaders in Asia and HRAI 50 under 50 award 2023.
Her favourite Quote-"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why."–Mark Twain. With Marching Sheep, she found her Why.
She has engaged with several organizations and has helped build long term capability, diversity and leadership strategy. She has helped client organizations systemically achieve desirable behavioural outcomes by streamlining relevant people management processes and delivering bespoke developmental programs. Diversity interventions are her forte. Women @work and Unleash, the two programs focusing on life stage transition and gender bias have been very well received by the industry. Sonica insists on picking up unconventional topics that need to be brought to the fore, be it consideration of menopause as a life stage and therefore inclusion in medical benefits, systemic approach towards addressing needs of new mothers, or questioning the use of the term ‘working mother’ when a term like ‘working father’ does not exist. Known for her unbridled, charismatic thoughts and speech she is a regular speaker at conferences and symposiums. She frequently speaks at forums like FICCI, Transformance, Gain Skills, NHRDN conferences. She is frequently seen on TV channels as a panellist.
A Mother of two, Sonica considers Marching Sheep her third child and is extremely passionate about what they deliver as a team. The values at Marching Sheep are Integrity in everything they do, Client orientation, Responsiveness, and Attention to detail. In the last ten years, Marching Sheep has focused on designing and delivering customized and curated solutions to their clients and building long-term relationships based on trust and credibility. “Once a client of Marching Sheep, always a client of Marching Sheep” is something she is very proud of. She started as a solopreneur from one city, and today the firm has a thriving team of passionate, committed and highly knowledgeable HR consultants. They are working with clients across the globe and across industries.
Over the years, Sonica has designed and delivered several research based interventions on topics like career intentionality, financial independence, claiming your space, shattering stereotypes and barriers and has positively impacted lives and careers of thousands of people. With evolving times, she and her team started working on inclusion of LGBTQIA+ community and people with disabilities. With the world becoming a global village post pandemic, cross cultural inclusion and competence is an area they believe is extremely critical for organisations to succeed. Sonica firmly believes that organisations are a sub-unit of society and our employees, managers and leaders come from the same society. Hence in addition to working with clients, she runs several non-commercial awareness creating campaigns. She also works closely with an NGO in India that helps acid attack survivors get rehabilitated.
Her exemplary contribution has been recognised by many platforms. She has been listed among the top 10 women entrepreneurs in 2020 by Forbes India, Among India’s Most Valued Leaders by Forbes India 2021, among Inspirational Leadership Icons by Fortune India, among the top 100 digital influencers by YourStory, as the Women Entrepreneur of the year at the 62nd National Summit on Atma Nirbhar Bharat: Vision of New India, organized by Indian Achievers Forum, Dynamic Achiever 2022- Business World, Most trusted HR consultant 2023- Business Connect, Business Leader to follow 2023- World’s Leaders Magazine, India’s Influential women Leaders- Outlook 2023, Top 5 women Influencers- CIO 2022 & 2023, Recipient of Black Swan Women Empowerment Leadership principles award by UN Women, among Top 100 Women Leaders in Asia and HRAI 50 under 50 award 2023.
Her favourite Quote-"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why."–Mark Twain. With Marching Sheep, she found her Why.