We sat down with L.E.K. Consultant Sofi Leroux to talk about her global career journey, her work in the Industrials sector, and how sustainability and personal growth are shaping her time at the firm.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your journey to L.E.K.
I’m originally from Vancouver, Canada, and grew up ski racing competitively. After high school, I moved to the US. I spent a year living in Idaho and four years attending the University of Colorado Boulder, where I completed a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and skied for the USCSA team. Once I graduated, I moved back to Canada and worked in the mining industry as a project manager for close to four years. It was a very small company, and I had a lot of responsibility considering it was my first job out of university. Essentially, all the tasks that the CEO and VP of operations didn’t have time for fell on me, so I managed everything from HR to construction applications to logistics for the site. The coolest part of my job was getting to visit our mine site in Greenland!
I’d always thought about combining business and engineering thanks to my dad ; therefore, after a few years of work, an MBA seemed like the natural next step. I grew up speaking French, as my father is French Canadian and I went to French school through grade 12, so I looked at programs abroad and ended up at HEC Paris. I started my MBA in 2021 and joined L.E.K.’s Paris office in September 2023.
How has your experience in the Paris office been?
I’ve really enjoyed being in the Paris office and appreciate the strong in-person office culture. Though we have the option to work from home two days a week, I love that case teams feel inclined to come into the office; it increases camaraderie and builds stronger working relationships. I spend a lot of time going to my analysts’ desks, working through things with them, and they know they can always come talk to me.
The biggest adjustment for me was learning to work in French. Though I’m comfortable in the language, it’s still my second, and it took a few projects for me to gain confidence in my ability to present in case team meetings and client presentations. On the flip side, my native English is a real asset since most of our client presentations are produced in English.
Overall, I feel like I’ve done a good job integrating into the office. I’ve made good friends and am constantly increasing my participation in various activities. Recently, I participated in our first padel night with about 15 people from the office. I’d never played padel before, a mix between tennis and squash, and it was a super fun evening.
You’re aligned with the Industrials sector—how has your previous experience in mining and logistics informed your approach to consulting?
I aligned with Industrials because of three things: my background in mechanical engineering, my work experience in mining and logistics, and a purely personal interest. The projects in Industrials are based on tangible goods and tend to be B2B oriented. Therefore, most of the time, if a product or service works and it is priced right, it tends to succeed, and it depends less on creative marketing or consumer behavior. Also, I like the idea of being involved in improving industrial goods and making them more sustainable, as the impact of small changes can be much more widely felt due to their widespread usage.
I think my previous work experience helped me develop a strong desire to understand the technical and operational aspects of the projects I work on. I am fully invested in understanding how everything works before starting to apply various consulting frameworks. Furthermore, I think having experience on an operating mine site makes me unique, as most lateral hires in the Paris office seem to have previous consulting experience.
You’re part of the Going Greener Committee. Can you tell us about your involvement and how sustainability plays a role in your work or life at L.E.K.?
Working in mining gave me an interesting perspective on sustainability: essentially, we’re not going to get rid of oil and gas or mining tomorrow, but we can make major improvements in production processes and supply chains to drive change. At L.E.K., I try to merge sustainability into case work, and I strive to educate my colleagues on various levers that can help the transition. I’m involved in the Two Tons Climate Workshop specifically, which is part of our Going Greener initiatives. The Two Tons workshop is a three-hour game-based workshop that helps people understand individual and collective actions to reduce CO₂ emissions. The goal is to get the average French person from nine tons to two tons by 2050 to meet climate objectives. It’s quite eye-opening, and people really enjoy it. Fanny (head of Knowledge Management) and I host these every few months to raise awareness and help people stay accountable.
Looking back at your time with the firm, what have been some defining moments or projects?
One that stands out was a project in January on safety systems for transformers. It was the first time I really felt I’d mastered my job. Being a lateral hire with no prior consulting experience is tough, and that project gave me real confidence. Specifically, I was heavily involved in client management, and the client was very happy in the end. One of the senior partners even personally congratulated me on the success of the project and my progression at L.E.K. Overall, it really solidified that this was the right career move for me.
What advice would you give to someone making a lateral move into consulting?
Be proactive about getting up to speed and learning to do the job well. Take the initiative to explore the different positions on a team early, understand what everyone does, get your hands on a model, and walk through every step of a project. The quicker you gain exposure, the better you’ll understand the different facets of a project and the easier it becomes to contribute to a team effectively.
At the same time, take advantage of the guidance and feedback available from all directions: your manager, the partners, and the analysts you work with. Their input helps you recognize strengths, identify areas for growth, and navigate the transition more smoothly. Consulting is very different from business school case studies; it’s more detailed, analytic, and hands-on. With both team support and your own initiative, you can own your transition and set yourself up for success.