Over 1,200 business and technology leaders gathered at the UK Women in IT Awards in London last night as award winners were crowned across 21 categories.

The winners of the fifth annual Women in IT Awards UK have been revealed at a gala ceremony in Grosvenor House, Park Lane.

UK Women in IT Awards: the 2019 winners

The awards, organised by Information Age (IA) in partnership with Amazon Web Services, serve to showcase the achievements and innovation of women in technology and identify new role models in a sector where female representation stands at only 19% — a definite improvement since the awards programme began.

Tracey Anne Neville MBE, head coach of the England national netball team, delivered the evening’s keynote speech…

The awards were held in Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane and were hosted by Gadget Show presenters, Ortis Deley and Georgie Barrat, who revealed 21 winners chosen from over 800 nominations.

Niki Dowdall, MD of Events at Bonhill Group Plc, opened the event by celebrating the fact the Women in IT Awards have gone global.

“We have held magnificent events in New York, Ireland and San Francisco and this year will see launches in Singapore, Europe, Eastern Europe and Canada, with content led daytime summits also being added. We’re also committed to recognising and supporting younger women in the technology space. Before today’s awards we ran our fourth annual all female careers fair for students looking at a career in IT, Tomorrow’s Tech Leaders.

“To give you an idea of this commitment, we brought together 25 school girls from AWS’s Get IT programme, and 30 shortlisted women from tonight’s awards, so that they could share their experiences and inspire these young girls. This is what the Women in IT Awards is all about! On top of this, last year we launched Future Stars of Tech, an awards programme focused on celebrating female rising stars in the IT and tech sector.”

“Here, at Information Age and DiversityQ, we are working continually to encourage dialogue around the topic of gender parity in the tech industry and these events and summits are a platform to celebrate the wonderful women at the forefront of change and innovation.”

She also paid tribute to Cheryl Willis from NetApp, who was nominated for Woman of the Year, but unfortunately died before the ceremony.

“Cheryl believed that part of her role was to drive consistency and under her inclusive and open leadership, her team delivered great improvements to the overall customer experience. As part of her role, Cheryl implemented a successful cultural program across the global support centres, focusing on several key values that define the support culture.

“It is this spirit – her spirit – that continues to inspire men and women alike. She will be greatly missed by her colleagues at NetApp, but her light shines on. Ladies and Gentlemen if you could all stand and join me in a standing ovation in honour of her.”

Global reach

The Women in IT Awards UK is the flagship event in an ongoing Information Age campaign to tackle technology’s diversity problems.

Now, the Women in IT Awards Series — originating in London — has become a global initiative. In 2018, IA launched two US editions of the event in New York and San Francisco, while hosting an event in Dublin, Ireland. The event will also be in Singapore later this year, for the first edition of the Women in IT Awards Asia, with further events planned in Europe, eastern Europe and Canada.

In the UK, IA run two further diversity events: Tech Leaders Today, a careers fair for female university students, and Future Stars of Tech, which identifies and promotes the industry’s top female career climbers.

Joining headline partner, Amazon Web Services, as sponsors at the Women in IT Awards 2019 are: Alix Partners, BMC Software, Frank Recruitment Group, Oracle, Salesforce, Six Degrees, YOOX Net-a-Porter Group, arm, BP, DAZN, DocuSign, Fasthosts, HSBC, NFU Mutual, Rolls-Royce, SAP Concur, Schroders, Red Hat, SailPoint and The Economist Group.

And the winners are:

DATA LEADER OF THE YEAR

Katia Walsh, Vodafone

E-SKILLS INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR– sponsored by fasthosts

Mahek Vara, Code Camp

GLOBAL LEADER OF THE YEAR– sponsored by Schroders

Monica Eaton-Cardone, Chargeback Company

DIGITAL LEADER OF THE YEAR– sponsored by DAZN

Amy Johnson, Anglian Water

SECURITY CHAMPION OF THE YEAR– sponsored by DocuSign

Carly West, Bank of England

YOUNG LEADER OF THE YEAR– sponsored by Alix Partners

Tara Annison, Lendingblock

EDITOR’S CHOICE– sponsored by Information Age

Dr Alessandra Sherman, United Konsultants

ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR– sponsored by Yoox Net-a-Porter Group

Avril Chester, Cancer Central AND Emma Margetts,Alpha Exchange

INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR– sponsored by Oracle

Priya Lakhani, CENTURY

DIVERSITY INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR – sponsored by HSBC

Debbie Forster MBE, Tech Talent Charter

EMPLOYER OF THE YEAR– sponsored by Arm

Accenture AND Thoughtworks

RISING STAR OF THE YEAR– sponsored by The Economist Group

Laura Drysdale,News UK

BUSINESS LEADER OF THE YEAR– sponsored by BP

Zoe Cunningham, Softwire

TRANSFORMATION LEADER OF THE YEAR– sponsored by Six Degrees

Nina Monckton,NHS Business Services Authority

ADVOCATE OF THE YEAR– sponsored by NFU Mutual

Sian Allsopp,Morgan Stanley

IT TEAM OF THE YEAR – sponsored by Rolls-Royce

Anglian Water

FUTURE CIO OF THE YEAR– sponsored by Frank Recruitment Group

Laura Yeaman, National Crime Agency

BUSINESS ROLE MODEL OF THE YEAR– sponsored by BMC Software

Bijna Dasani, Lloyds Banking Group

CTO OF THE YEAR – sponsored by SAP Concur

Katie Nykanen, Adstream

WOMAN OF THE YEAR– sponsored by Salesforce

Anne Doherty, JP Morgan

CIO OF THE YEAR– sponsored by Amazon Web Services

Tiffany Hall, Cancer.org.uk

>See also: The Women in IT Awards Ireland 2018