Her Story
About Sofa
Sophia Rojas serves as Senior Associate of Investor Relations with a focus on small and mid-cap biotech companies. She conducts market analysis, competitive diligence, and investor relationship building to forecast stock movements in a sentiment-driven market. Rojas began her finance career after participating in Project Destined, which shifted her from aspirations in medical journalism to equity sales. She spent three years as a healthcare specialist at Cowan, now part of TD Bank, under mentor Jay Schneider, before joining ArcellX, where she was hired after pitching their stock. Following the company's acquisition, she is pursuing corporate strategy roles in small-cap biotech with long-term goals of becoming chief of strategy or CEO. Rojas earned an Apple Fellowship for a research project on her family's history and cookbook. She studied at Claremont McKenna and worked at the Seaver Theater Complex at Pomona College for four years, directing shows and developing skills in collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving that she applies to her professional work. She is a member of NERI and is exploring legacy membership in Delta Sigma Theta. Rojas attributes her success to her mother, a biotech professional and mentor who started her own business. She values integrity, intellectual curiosity, honesty, winning, and continuous learning. In her personal life, she is learning Russian and French, has traveled to 40 countries, knits, reads, writes plays, and cooks. She has been involved in anti-human trafficking initiatives for a decade, favoring Restore New York City, and received the Virginia Prince House Allen Prize three times along with her Apple Fellowship and recognition as an exceptional Black employee of TD Bank.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sofa
01What do you attribute your success to?
I have to say my mom. She has been such a great mentor for me. She was the original one, and I talk to her every single day. She's been helping me with my career, with my personal life, and she started her own business. She left her consulting firm to chase her own dreams, and she's never once across my entire career so far has she dissuaded me from anything. She's always been super supportive, and watching her be such a brilliant professional is such a driving force. She's also in biotech, so that helps.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
My old boss said, as long as you come in with a smile on your face, then it can't be that bad. So I try every day to be as happy as possible and love what I do. If you stop loving it, then you have to step away, because it's one of those things where once you do stop loving it, you start hating your life, and he said it's never worth it.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
You have to find what you love. Finance and working at a bank and doing these long hours is only possible if there's something that you love about it. Don't give up on the passions that you had when you were a kid, when you were in college. Don't isolate yourself to one career path because you think that that's the only way forward. If you want to go work at the theater, go work at the theater. You never know where the next step is coming.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
You're always gonna deal with a big personality. So much risk on the line. Everyone has such varied opinions about these names. You do so much work, you call the stock move right, but the stock moves against you for various reasons. It's a lot of pivoting, it's a lot of blocking and tackling. It's a lot of patience. You have to be so multifaceted. It's a lot of drinking from a fire hose, it's a lot of doubting yourself. It's a lot of having to stand by your own convictions.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I like to win, and I like to be the best. I don't believe in not being good at something. I love to learn. One of the values that's most important to me is integrity, and intellectual curiosity. I value honesty and integrity more than anything. I'm an awful liar, and I'm really bad at telling when people are lying to me.
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