Official Title:
Sophie Simpson, Managing Director of Ruder Finn Atteline – MENA (and part-time team therapist, tea sommelier, and bad pun enthusiast)
Away from the usual, my bio is:
I once wrangled lingerie samples in Milan, edited fashion pages in London, and started a business in Dubai with no office, no staff, and an unreasonable amount of hope.
I believe in real conversations, excellent shoes, and the kind of networking that doesn’t make you want to fake a phone call.
If I had a tagline, it would probably be: “Be kind, be sharp, and for the love of PR – don’t send PDFs as press releases.”
If I were to nominate anyone on this list it would be, and why:
Whoever invented Google Calendar – because without them, I’d be living in a permanent state of “Oh no, was that today?”
Or Bon Jovi. Because sometimes life really is just living on a prayer.[DS1]
Some of the reasons I should not be on this list are:
Because I don’t own a ring light, I refuse to humblebrag on LinkedIn, and I still think “networking” should involve actual humans and, ideally, cheese.
Also, I tend to build things quietly – behind the scenes, with a lot of grit and even more group chats. So if you’re after glitz over substance, I’m probably not your girl.
The lowest point of my career was / the highest point of my career was:
Lowest: Realising my first “office” was a glorified storage room with decent lighting.
Highest: Realising I didn’t need the perfect office to build the perfect team.
Also high on the list: learning to make my way around the Middle East business scene without losing my mind or my accent.
What I learned from either:
That you don’t need all the answers – just curiosity, people who know more than you, people you trust, and a good WiFi connection.
Also, walking the walk is harder than talking the talk, but infinitely more rewarding; and saying “no” is a wildly underrated superpower.
If there’s one thing on my bucket list I want to do, it would be:
To host a dinner party where all the guests are people I could only dream to cross paths with in this life, a past life, or the future (and none of them check their phones).
Or to write a book called How to Build a Business Without Burning Out or Buying a Ring Light.
