Sonja Van Tichelen turned her strong interest in animal welfare into a career when she joined Eurogroup for Animals as a campaign coordinator in 1992. She applied the experiences gained from her background in marketing, advertising and communication on European advocacy work to protect animals.

Her skill at running successful campaigns soon became apparent and in 1997 she was promoted to deputy director before becoming director in 2004. Working closely together with animal welfare experts, legal advisors and politicians, she has gained proficiency in planning and implementing lobby strategies involving the creation of effective political coalitions, shaping public opinion and mobilizing grass roots support.

Under her leadership, Eurogroup embarked on an ambitious expansion programme to represent animal welfare organisations all over the European Union. It is now the number one organisation for advising European institutions on a wide variety of animal welfare issues from standards livestock to the protection of wildlife and animals used in research. While Eurogroup continues to succeed in getting the Union to adopt higher legal standards the group is also increasingly looking at the development of voluntary industry standards.