From an intern to MD in five years: The power of young women leaders

When Samantha Sakr started as an intern at the PR agency Taurus, she did not imagine she’d progress to managing director in just five years, managing relationships with Australian billionaires like David Dicker of Dicker Data, and entrepreneurs like Peter Kazacos and Bernie Brookes.

At just age 26, she’s one of Australia’s youngest managing directors, demonstrating the power of putting young women professionals into leadership roles.

“I started interning at Taurus at the tail end of 2017,” Sakr tells Women’s Agenda. “It was also the final semester at university where I started to question everything I had studied for three years, wondering if I had just wasted time studying a field I may not even want a career in.”

Having studied a bachelor of advertising and public relations, Sakr decided to give the career path a chance before walking away by applying to the TaurusAcademy Internship. It was the internship where she says she got a unique, hands-on and practical experience, that gave her clarity.

“I wanted to love my job,” said Sakr. “I was willing to be challenged, get through the hard days because I always had people from the Taurus world around me who were supporting, mentors and genuinely cared for the business and for me.”

Under the mentorship of Sharon Williams, her boss and Founder of Taurus, Sakr says she felt her leadership style was “very much supported” and helped her to grow to where she is now as managing director.

Developing female leadership within companies is crucial to Australia’s workforce success, so positive stories like Sakr’s should be highlighted.

According to a study conducted by McKinsey & Company, companies with a higher representation of young women in leadership positions tend to outperform their peers.

The research found that businesses in the top quartile for gender diversity in executive roles were 25% more likely to experience above-average profitability compared to companies in the bottom quartile.

Embracing an age-diverse workforce that actively includes the perspectives of young women professionals represents untapped potential in Australia’s corporate culture.

Sakr hopes that more companies can begin to place a greater emphasis on an employee’s “genuine output” and “care for their business and customers” before passing them up for a leadership role based on gender or age.

And for young women who are still having to navigate barriers to leadership opportunities at work, Sakr has some valuable advice from her own experience.

She says “to trust your instincts, learn and observe from professionals in your workplace, stick out the tough times – then you become your own case study and validation to others that you can achieve anything”.

“You need to be gutsy, with grace and trust your instincts.”

This article was first published by Women’s Agenda.