Everywoman declares 2026 Girls in Expertise Awards winners
Everywoman has introduced the winners of its 2026 Everywoman in Expertise Awards, sponsored by Salesforce.
For the previous 16 years, skilled community Everywoman has been showcasing gifted ladies within the expertise sector for his or her ongoing work, each to shine a lightweight on the wonderful ladies already within the trade and to encourage others to hunt expertise roles.
The variety of ladies within the UK’s expertise sector, although slowly rising, remains to be under 25%, and with quickly rising applied sciences akin to synthetic intelligence (AI), it’s changing into more and more essential to make sure the make-up of these working in expertise matches its diverse person base.
Rising the variety of seen and accessible function fashions of every type has been cited as being one of many methods to encourage ladies into the tech and digital house, with specialists stating that younger individuals are extra prone to think about these careers for themselves after they can see others like them throughout the expertise sector.
Nicole Goodwin and Sophie Catto, joint managing administrators of AllBright Everywoman, stated: “Outstanding ladies throughout the expertise sector are creating improvements which have the ability to remodel how we stay and work, whereas constructing methods that generate vital worth for the UK economic system. A lot of this yr’s finalists are additionally main inspiring initiatives that equip women with the talents and confidence to make use of expertise as a pathway out of poverty.
“By bringing this highly effective neighborhood of tech leaders and visionaries collectively by way of the Salesforce everywoman in Expertise Awards, we have a good time their achievements and amplify their tales, creating seen function fashions who can encourage the subsequent technology to pursue careers in STEM.”
Everywoman deliberately chooses winners not simply from management or C-suite roles, but additionally college students, entrepreneurs and innovators, rising the visibility of function fashions to assist younger ladies or these exterior of the sector see themselves represented, making them extra prone to think about a tech profession for themselves.
The winners of this yr’s Salesforce Everywoman in Expertise Awards are as follows:
AI Champion
- Nausheen Basha, analysis affiliate, Imperial Faculty London
Apprentice Award
- Kelly Howes, junior software program engineer apprentice, Examine The Market
Cyber Safety Award
- Rebecca Phelps, senior cyber lead, BAE Programs
CTO/CIO of the 12 months Award
- Nicola Emsley, CIO – mortgages, financial savings and insurance coverage (BUK), Barclays
Digital Star Award
- Louise Edwards, automobile specialist, 165 Regiment RLC
Digital Transformation Chief Award
- Kerry Casey-Foulkes, director of transformation enablement, Virgin Media O2
Software program Engineer Award
- Chiamaka Okenwa, software program engineer, Monzo
Entrepreneur Award
- Fiona Roach Canning, co-founder and CEO, Pollinate
Innovator Award
- Ganna Pogrebna, professor, David Trimble chair and government director, AI and Cyber Futures Institute, Queens College Belfast
Chief Award
- Lara Beers, vice-president world gross sales, Kraken
Male Agent of Change Award
- Tim Ibell, dean of the College of Engineering & Design, College of Bathtub
One to Watch Award
Rising Star Award
- Danita Samuel Prakash, IT deskside engineer, HCL Tech
Tech For Good Award
- Yasmin Mohamud, mentor, KastanTech AI
Group Chief Award
- Kripa Balachandran, head of product, Mission Zero Applied sciences
The Girl of the 12 months Award was given to Aji Bawo, head of economic product at Tesco, who has not solely used expertise as a software to push for innovation within the retail house, but additionally to offer women in underdeveloped nations entry to training.
