Sarah Kwon is Head of Product Marketing and Communications at Babylon

Kwon has built her approach to leadership around attentiveness, curiosity and a refusal to be intimidated by the rooms she enters. As Head of Product Marketing and Communications at Babylon, she works across cultures, communities and platforms in an industry where teams are frequently distributed around the world.

Her perspective on women in Web3 is deliberately nuanced. She recognises the compassion and empathy women can bring to leadership. At the same time, she is cautious about treating gender as the defining feature of every professional experience. For Kwon, strong leadership begins with people, competence and an honest understanding of what each person can contribute.

Leadership across cultures

Leading a global team has shown Kwon that a single management style cannot serve everyone equally. People bring different expectations, working habits and cultural reference points to a team. A leader must pay attention to those differences while maintaining clear standards and helping the group move efficiently.

Women, she believes, can carry a valuable combination of professionalism and empathy into that work. Caring about where somebody is coming from can improve communication and help a leader understand what a colleague needs to perform well.

“When you are leading a team spread across the world, you learn quickly that every person needs something a little different from you. That kind of attentiveness comes from real communication and genuine care for where people are coming from culturally,” says Kwon.

Her approach is grounded in service rather than entitlement. She does not assume that a title or position means other people owe her something. Instead, she tries to remain ready to help whoever is asking. This keeps leadership practical and directs attention towards the work and the people carrying it out.

Confidence without intimidation

Web3 is often presented as a meritocracy, although its senior ranks and core technical roles remain predominantly male. Kwon believes the sector is creating genuine opportunities for women, but she does not see meritocracy as the whole explanation. Women also need confidence, the willingness to hold their ground and a clear sense of who they are.

Her own rule is to avoid allowing a room, hierarchy or professional dynamic to intimidate her. That confidence is not performative. It comes from being grounded in her abilities and prepared to participate fully. In her experience, Web3 has felt more equal and less rigid than many of the other industries in which she has worked.

Kwon says she has not felt that her authority was challenged because she is a woman. She also resists placing excessive emphasis on gender in professional settings, particularly when her own experience has included talented male and female leaders working in environments she considered fair.

Identity, for Kwon, should support a person’s development rather than become the only lens through which leadership is assessed. She brings the discussion back to the person someone wishes to become and the values she wants to carry into her work.

Remaining a student

The technical character of Web3 can make the sector appear inaccessible to people in other roles. Kwon’s advice is direct: remain a student. More men currently occupy core technical positions, but this is not evidence that men are better suited to technology.

She believes women must challenge both the assumptions they encounter in the industry and those they may have absorbed themselves. Quietly deciding that a subject is too technical can close a door before anybody else has had the opportunity to do so. Learning creates the readiness to walk through it.

“We have to let go of the prejudice the industry sometimes holds, and just as importantly, the prejudice we might quietly hold against ourselves,” says Kwon. “Learn, and be ready by being a student in any setting.”

She would offer the same advice to a man entering a more emotionally driven area of the industry. The principle is consistent: do not assume an aptitude belongs naturally to one gender. Study the work, remain open and develop the ability required for the role.

Finding the place to contribute

Web3 extends from informal grassroots communities to institutional, regulatory and policy environments. Kwon moves between communities in four languages and across different platforms, following the areas that engage her curiosity. Her advice is to find the setting in which a person feels most fully herself.

Belonging, in this sense, is active rather than passive. It is the environment in which someone can show up comfortably, contribute something real and allow her strengths to become visible. Women can help shape grassroots and institutional spaces by understanding where their skills are most useful and then participating with confidence.

Kwon applies the same preference for balance to the relationship between artificial intelligence and blockchain. She does not believe AI governance should be treated as a question of one gender leading a particular part of the discussion. The need is for balance across technology, ethics, policy, applications and the frameworks that connect them.

Competence before categories

Asked about the communities and support systems required for the next generation of female leaders, Kwon returns to self-knowledge. People should identify what they genuinely do well, what they enjoy and what they can bring to the table. She considers Web3 unusual because many participants are motivated by the philosophy and possibilities of the sector as well as by earning a living.

Women’s groups can create important professional relationships, but their value depends on the substance within them. Kwon has watched many groups and circles form over the years. The effective ones empowered their members because the women involved were capable and able to help one another develop.

“The ones that actually empowered anyone did it because the women in them were competent, not because they were competent women. That distinction matters to me,” says Kwon.

Her position offers a useful challenge to familiar discussions about representation. Opportunity matters, and confidence matters, but neither replaces preparation. Kwon’s leadership philosophy combines care for individuals with clear-eyed self-assessment. It asks women to enter Web3 without accepting assumptions about what they can do, while remaining humble enough to keep learning.

Three Tips

Stay humble: Confidence is strongest when it is accompanied by openness, self-awareness and a willingness to keep learning.

Know what you know: Understand your abilities and the value you can contribute, while remaining honest about the areas you still need to develop.

Harness yourself: Use your strengths with purpose, hold your ground and do not allow a room or professional dynamic to intimidate you.