Sonya Dufner, FASID
STRATEGIC PLANNING
Director of Workplace Strategy, Principal
Gensler
Sonya Dufner is a Principal and Director of Workplace Strategy at Gensler. She works with fortune 100 clients to conceptualize strategy for the future of hybrid work that aligns with their company culture and business strategy. With over three decades of experience, Sonya leads transformative projects for a diverse range of industry-leading clients, including Christies, L’Oreal USA, United Nations, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Thomson Reuters, Fidelity Investments, Paramount Global, Verizon, and Warner Music Group. She is sought after as a long-term strategic partner, helping clients to make decisions about not only their real estate portfolios, but how to best support talent through new policy language, as well as work-point analysis to redefine the physical space and support productivity when employees come into the office. Her design choices inform new service design strategies, rethinking amenities that make employees lives better, and location strategies to deliver impact to the business.
Sonya has been featured in various prominent articles and platforms. Her work has been featured in FastCo Design, Entrepreneur, and The Huffington Post, and she has been quoted in Forbes, Bisnow, and HR Outlook. She also frequently speaks at high-profile conferences such as Microsoft's "The Future of Work and Play" and the 2024 “Future of Work Summit”. She has also been involved in industry boards, such as CoreNet NYC, where she serves as Strategic Planning Chair.