Born in Guyancourt, France, Sophie Helenek has lived with great passion in her life from an early age. Enjoying the art of music with playing the flute, Sophie used as well sports as a medium to express herself.

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At age 12, Sophie was competing with the adult team in tennis.  At age 15, Sophie discovered Judo. Eager to learn, she was dressing up her music holder with her judo kimono to practice for hours her judo moves in her garden. Such training paid off quickly. Within a year, she had gained three judo belt colors' levels, accumulated judo competition-winning trophies, and to be one of only three athletes across discipline and age to be nominated for the "rising star" award in her city in France.

 

At age 22, Sophie obtained her Master's degree at La Sorbonne Business School. Subsequently, for the next two years, Sophie received top accolades in various areas: Academic – Assistant Professor at the IUT Paris V, Student working on a complementary thesis of her second Master's in "Audit and Risk"; Sports – Fencer competing at the national level; Corporate – Performing risk studies on the decision process as part of the Risk Group for the French bank Credit Lyonnais.

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At age 25, Sophie Helenek, who did not speak a word of English at the time, moved to New York City in 2004 to work for Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, where she eventually became a portfolio manager. Once she mastered the language and got used to her daily routine, she picked up Rugby at age 26 to follow up with her passion for sports. Within a couple of months, she was creating new Rugby plays that involved the weak side in her rugby team strategy. She has been featured in Rugby Magazine, and her Village Lions team finished third (2006) and sixth (2008) in the Division II American National Rugby Championships. However, she still had new heights to scale.

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Before 2006, Sophie had never climbed, nor trekked in her life. Discovering climbing, she fell in love with this sport, and her passion for it has been growing ever since. In May 2008, she succeeded in scaling Mount Everest (29,000+ feet) and becoming only the fourth and youngest French woman to accomplish the feat. In 2009, Sophie successfully made two ascents that had never been climbed by a female. In 2010, she opened five new climbing routes, which later were referenced in the honorable American Alpine Journal. In 2010, Sophie resigned from her high-level banking position in New York City to pursue climbing full time. A year later, she became a world top-ranked mountaineer. That is to say that she was successful in taking on the nearly impossible challenge of climbing five mountains above 8000m (26,000ft) in only five months.

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Aside from her amazing accomplishments in the mountains, Helenek, former representative of the "G-Movement" 2008 (a partnership between Gatorade and Action Against Hunger), had been named the Goodwill Ambassador for Nepal Tourism 2011. She also had been chosen by France Amerique magazine to be in the top 50 French people the most influential in the USA in 2011.

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Sophie Helenek became a new mom in 2013, and she embarked on the new journey of writing a baby book series, which includes four delightful board books Fruits, Sky wonders, Shapes, and Musical instruments. This fresh and unique board book was developed based on the ultra-complex and rapid development of newborns, babies, and toddlers. ​My First Book series is a recipient of several prestigious national awards. 

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In 2016, Sophie became an advocate for women in divorce, helping them with their financial strategy and emotional roller-coaster. Subsequently, she wrote Divorce to Love, a book to help children cope with their parents' divorce process, and a ​new "must-have" in parenting bibliotherapy.  

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In addition to her athletic and professional accomplishments, she is a sought after motivational speaker and panelist around the world. Eager to share her mindset to empower others to climb their own Everest, she has an Executive Leadership Certification from Cornell University. She is embracing her new