Sandy Beky: challenging the status quo as a female entrepreneur

It’s hard to describe Sandy Beky in one word. She’s the president and founder of the managerial innovation start-up KyoSei Leadership, a partner for the leadership consultant IMV Management Partners, and a director at the adaptive software company JCLIP. A graduate of the EMBA program at HEC Paris, Beky has built a career out of challenging norms and questioning the status quo — and she hopes that other female entrepreneurs will follow in her footsteps.

A BARRIER-BREAKING CAREER

A native of Madagascar, Sandy grew up in a multicultural environment that played a major role in shaping her worldview. “There was never one thing that I wanted to be when I was little” she recalls. “I wanted to do so many different things, and that’s exactly what I ended up doing."

Her studies would take her to the US, the UK, and France, where she began working in a range of different sectors, including IT, pharmaceuticals, and sustainable development. Her career advanced quickly, though she soon realized that the playing field was far from even.

Women in business today still face the same challenges they’ve faced for years. Look at the numbers and you can only realize that achieving gender equality in the workplace is a long path with many meanders. I work with both women and men to change that!” 
– Sandy Beky

As president of the Paris branch of PWN GLOBAL, a leadership development network for businesswomen, Sandy worked to inspire other women to embrace entrepreneurship and break through the glass ceiling. “For women who want to be entrepreneurs, it’s really all about courage” she says. “You can’t let fear hold you back from challenging the status quo.”

“THE CONFIDENCE I NEEDED TO TRY NEW THINGS”

She enrolled in the HEC PARIS EMBA program in 2012 at an important juncture in her career. “I felt like I had reached a plateau” she says. “And I knew that if I wanted to continue to advance, I would have to go back to school.” She considered different programs at HEC Paris, but ultimately decided on the EMBA because she had recently become a mother, and it offered the flexibility she needed.

Her year at HEC Paris would prove to be transformative, both professionally and personally. “I was able to meet and engage with so many people from such different backgrounds” she says. "And that gave me the confidence I needed to try new things.”

She used that experience to launch KyoSei Leadership, a startup that focuses on managerial innovation, and she’s constantly looking for her next project. “No two weeks are the same for me — there are constantly new challenges that I can’t predict” she says. “It can be difficult, of course, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”