Julie Sommerfreund

Background

About Julie Sommerfreund

My path to becoming an impact-driven business and people leader started as an environmental scientist and public policy researcher. Working in public health, I quickly realized that the most effective solutions we created were those that combined scientific analysis with community collaboration. I’ve taken that insight and for the last decade applied it to product and service design with The Moment, a design consultancy specializing in addressing complex societal challenges. As a strong believer in the power of co-creation to realize change, I’ve had the opportunity to work with forward thinking social impact driven organizations like Evergreen, World Vision International, Scouts Canada, Elections Ontario and Manulife. My role is to facilitate and bridge diverse perspectives which means systematically convening and learning from large groups about their experience of a challenge and designing solutions with them. For example, in my work with World Vision International, to transform their global giving product and service experience we co-created with millennials in 4 countries, marketing and product teams in 19 Support Offices along with the global leadership team. We created the global fragile market product that reflected the motivations and donation behaviours of this untapped demographic resulting in over $20 million growth in donations. Currently as Principal, I am a leader in our in-house design team and contribute to overseeing the strategic business operations in our self-managed business. During the pandemic, as President of The Moment, I led our team and worked with other client leadership teams to navigate economic uncertainty and team resilience challenges through values based leadership and establishing practices to surface diverse perspectives and drive disciplined decision making during challenging times. Outside of work, I serve as Co-Chair of the Board for Findhelp | 211, which provides a vital navigation system to our social services sector. This reflects my commitment to helping people access the resources they need to thrive. I also strive to keep myself on my toes, currently learning pottery – a humbling practice in staying present and working with what emerges. I am always looking to connect with other leaders working on tough societal challenges where stakes are high. If this is you, please connect or DM me here on LinkedIn.