Sonia Lawson is the Founding Director of the Palais de Lomé in Togo, an ambitious restoration, cultural, and environmental project that opened in 2019. Sonia oversaw the transformation of the former Governor’s Palace into a center for art and culture after it lay abandoned for more than 20 years. The restoration of the Palais de Lomé won the AFEX prize of architecture and was exhibited at the Venice Biennale of architecture in 2021. In 2017 and 2019, Sonia curated exhibitions of crafts from Togo at Révélations Biennale des Métiers d’art, the international fine craft and creation biennial at the Grand Palais in Paris. She has spoken at numerous conferences in: Germany, France, UK, Netherlands, Czech Republic, South Africa, Morocco, Senegal and the USA. Sonia previously worked in management consulting in Europe and in international brand management at large multinational consumer goods corporations. She holds degrees from Sciences Po Paris and HEC Paris of management.