Sophie Raptis in Woman’s month comments: The number of senior female decision makers still needs to improve

As March is a month when women are celebrated, AdHugger asked a few professionals with a remarkable career to tell us their views on developing their career as women working in the communication industry.

Sophie Raptis is Client Director at The Ozone Project. She has over 20 years’ experience in the media industry, building and selling multi-platform advertising solutions for international news organisations. Prior to The Ozone Project, Sophie was part of News UK’s client sales leadership team, covering a range of sectors including financial and professional services, technology, telecoms, auto, fashion and luxury.  She has also served as the Publisher of WSJ Magazine in New York where she was responsible for growing its advertiser base and winning luxury advertisers that were critical for the long-term success of the magazine.

Regarding her career development over time and working in the very dynamic media & communication sector, Sophie commented for us:

“As a woman working in media sales teams across international news organisations and now The Ozone Project, building and nurturing internal and external business relationships has played a central role in my progression.

“Throughout my career I’ve been lucky to be surrounded by some very influential, smart and collaborative women at all levels of the business hierarchy who have acted as a support network, mentoring and helping me to develop the skills required in a competitive industry and ultimately making my advertising experience a positive one.

“However it’s evident that improvements still need to be made across all businesses regardless of sector, such as increasing the number of senior female decision makers. It’s not just a tick-box exercise – it’s well documented that diverse teams get better results, but this is often not reflected when you look at female board representation. We must all share a responsibility to continue raising awareness of the fact that diversity of all kinds drives business success.”