CELEBRATING WOMEN LEADING TECH
Technology is transforming industries all around the world – and none more so than the media and marketing sector. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen digital transformation go from a nice-to-have to must almost overnight. To add to this, it has also led to the biggest shift in consumption habits of a lifetime and has seen many media businesses forced to change their entire business model.
Driving this technological change are talented and creative individuals that understand how technology can be used to help the industry progress. Unfortunately, technology remains a heavily male-dominated industry. According to the European Commission’s Women in Digital Scoreboard from 2019, only 17 per cent of ICT specialists are women, while women in ICT earn 19 per cent less than men on average.
To help create the change that is needed to address these inequalities, we’re bringing back our Women Leading Tech Awards again in 2021. By recognising all of the brilliant female tech talent in our industry, we hope that these women will no longer be excluded from the conversation.
We again thank all our sponsors for supporting this incredibly important initiative and look forward to seeing you all for the awards on the 20 April 2021!
Winners 2020
Data Science
Mohadeseh Ganji
Mondo
Design
Sally Woellner
Canva
Engineering
Ellie Shin
Canva
Entrepreneur/Founder
Kath Blackham
VERSA
Executive Leader
Kate Quirke
Alcidion
Marketing
Rachelle McDermott
Blackmores
Mentor
Jessica Box
Girls in Tech Australia
Product
Greer Ambrose
Foxtel Media
Sales
Kristine Celona
Verizon Media
Advocacy
Canva
Highly Commended 2020
Data Science
Anjuli Bedi
Edelman EPIC
Design
Ronnie Golec
CancerAid
Entrepreneur/Founder
Ally Watson
Code Like a Girl
Executive Leader
Rachelle St Ledger
EML Payments
Marketing
Liz McKenzie
Canva
Mentor
Jo Gaines
Salesforce
Advocacy
VMware ANZ
Network. Recognise. Learn.
Award
Categories
Advocacy
Open to companies who have supported the cause of getting more women into tech.
Data Science
They could be rocket scientists if they so desired, yet instead they are explaining our world in ones and zeroes.
Design
Sponsored by:
Working together with engineers, data scientists, product managers, sales and customers, these women make things beautiful, functional and frictionless.
NEW – Education Provider
This category is open to any tertiary education provider which offers STEM based degrees/courses, and has demonstrated a holistic and long-term commitment to the recruitment and retention of female students.
NEW – Education/Research
This category is open to women who are currently in roles such as lecturing, researching or teaching within a technology discipline at either high school, tertiary or post graduate levels.
Engineering
This category is for the coders and builders. Not only are they curious and passionate, they have some serious technical skills to boot.
Entrepreneur/Founder
Sponsored by:
This category is for the pioneers and risk takers – the women who bet the house on starting a new venture. Open to all female founders within a broad tech business.
Executive Leader
Sponsored by:
This category is open to C-suite leaders – including, but not limited to CEO, CIO, CTO, CMO, CRO, COO and any other “C” position.
Marketing
Sponsored by:
The women working in the trenches, guiding a product within a category and working to make it an inclusive product.
Mentor
The women who provide guiding hands and encouraging words to help others be a part of an incredibly diverse and inclusive tech future.
Product
Sponsored by:
Working alongside product and sales, these brand champions are connecting with customers on all levels.
Sales
If a product sits on a shelf (or the other side of a payment gateway), does it really exist?
Key
Dates
Entry deadline
5pm AEDT, 1 March, 2021 - $99 + GST per entry
Late entry deadline
5pm AEDT, 8 March 2021 - $149 + GST per entry
Awards Gala Lunch
12-3pm, 20 April, 2021 - Doltone House - Jones Bay Wharf, Sydney
Thanks to our amazing
partners and sponsors
Amazing
Speakers
As well as an awards presentation over lunch, attendees will also hear from these inspirational speakers.
Rae Johnston – MC
Rae Johnston is a multi-award-winning STEM journalist, Wiradjuri woman, mother, broadcaster, voice actor and MC. Rae is the first ever Science and Technology Editor for NITV, host of That Startup Show and voices “Janali Banks” in the upcoming children’s animated series for ABC & Nine, Space Nova.
Rae is a founding mentor with The Working Lunch program, supporting underrepresented entry-level people in STEM. At the recent Australian Game Developer Awards, Rae was the recipient of the first “Lighting The Way” award for advocacy and support of the local games industry.
Rae is a part of the prestigious “brains trust” Leonardos group for The Science Gallery Melbourne, and an Ambassador for St Vincent De Paul.
Macinley Butson – Keynote Speaker
Macinley Butson is one of Australia’s foremost young inventors who devotes herself to improving the world through STEM and, being an inspirational voice to youth and industry urging them to work towards solutions for global challenges by asking big questions.
Internationally recognised for her scientific and engineering endeavours, Macinley has developed many devices which have aided humanity across a number of sectors including, cancer treatment, water sanitation and, renewable energy. Believing there is no better investment than in people, she equally fosters this curiosity in other students and industry motivating them as a role model and constantly encouraging exploration.
Alisia Muscat – Moderator
As Managing Director of AKQA Melbourne, Alisia has been a trusted advisor to clients including Officeworks, AustralianSuper, HESTA, NAB & Bunnings, helping them navigate the new normal in a rapidly changing digital world.
Passionate about strategic communication solutions, Alisia brings a wealth of knowledge and experience across all major industry verticals. She operates best in a collaborative environment of diverse thinking, thriving alongside people who challenge conventions.
Alisia is passionate about creating environments where people constantly grow, learn and thrive. She seeks to inspire the 170 strong team in Melbourne to create powerful digital and offline brand experiences for clients, ensuring empathy with the individual remains at the heart of that experience.
Suzanne Steele – Panellist
Vice President, Australia and New Zealand, Adobe.
Suzanne is a customer-centric leader who understands the importance of client relationships to competitive differentiation and growth.
Adobe ANZ is at the forefront of a market where no industry is immune from digital disruption. In her role, Suzanne is responsible for driving the ANZ business to new levels as well as supporting customers realise their mission of delivering exceptional experiences.
She has 25+ years’ experience in leading and motivating management teams across data, software and analytics businesses, with her work abroad in North America, the UK and Singapore including senior roles at Visa Europe, CACI London and Morgan Stanley.
Prior to joining Adobe at the end of 2017, Suzanne spent two years leading Experian’s ANZ operations as Managing Director, with proven success in driving high-performance and engagement through a period of significant business transformation.
Aisling Finch
Director of Marketing, Australia and New Zealand, Google
As Google’s Director of Marketing, across Australia and New Zealand, Aisling looks after the Google and YouTube brands, connecting Aussie and Kiwi consumers and businesses with the range of Google’s products. This includes products like Search and Maps, YouTube, Pixel and Nest, and Google’s ads platforms.
Aisling has over 20 years marketing experience across telco, tech and media sectors. Joining Google nine years ago in Europe, she helped to grow the Android ecosystem in its early years and driving consumer engagement with core Google apps like Search and Maps.
Aisling returned home from London to lead Google’s media buying division across the Asia-Pacific region, ensuring Google marketing delivered best-in-class media strategy and execution.
Prior to Google, Aisling spent 10 years at Telstra, where she held various leadership roles in strategy, finance, marketing, and retail and online channels.
In 2019, Aisling was included in the annual CMO50 list, recognising Australia’s most innovative and effective marketing leaders. Aisling is also a Director on the Board of AANA (Australian Association of National Advertisers).
Aisling lives in Sydney with her husband and their two children. She loves kayaking, travelling, languages and spending time with family and friends. Her vices are chocolate and wine!
Sarah Adam-Gedge
Managing Director – Publicis Sapient Australia
Sarah Adam-Gedge is a prominent business leader specialising in digital transformation and technology disruption. Sarah has worked in project and service-based consultancies for more than 25 years across Australia and New Zealand, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Currently, Sarah is the Managing Director of Publicis Sapient Australia, which is the digital business transformation hub of the Publicis Groupe. Publicis Sapient consists of 20,000+ employees in 53 offices around the world. Publicis Sapient’s expertise spans technology, data science, management consulting and creative enabling the ability to deliver on complex transformation initiatives that accelerate clients’ businesses through the creation of the products and services their customers expect.
Ally Watson
CEO & Founder, Code Like A Girl
As founder and CEO of Code Like a Girl, Ally Watson is a passionate advocate for aspiring female coders. Her highly acclaimed education startup empowers women and girls to play an equal part in building the future. Once ‘the only girl in the room’ as a software engineer, she’s now an award-winning entrepreneur and spokesperson for the future of women in technology.
Shruti Shetty Rai
Experience Design and Product Strategist
Shruti has over 10 years of experience, designing, delivering product and service innovations across a variety of award-winning projects for local and global brands such as Toyota, Nike, Google, Macquarie Bank and Telstra.
She’s motivated by the endless possibilities of a better community created by the convergence of culture, human behaviour, design and technology.
She’s also always tried to champion solutions that look beyond biases so more people can benefit from better design. Being a new mum, she’s been recently navigating a whole new world and a new identity, while juggling a job, a pram and a baby. This has furthered her passion in pursuing good design diversity that needs to be empathetic to a broader spectrum of society. Because good design is good business.
Tea Uglow
Independent Creative Director, Google Creative Lab
Tea Uglow is a writer, LGBTQ activist, and a speaker on innovation, inclusion, and digital futures.
Tea founded Creative Labs for Google in Sydney (2011) and London (2007) and focuses on projects with cultural organisations to enable artists, writers, dancers and other cultural practitioners to digitally augment or interpret their work. As a queer activist she is co-author of the proposal for a trans pride flag emoji, and authored a compilation of LGBTQ activist speeches called Loud and Proud.
Her writing includes: Loud & Proud [Quarto, 2020] and A Curiosity of Doubts [Penguin, 2016]. In 2018 she was awarded a Peabody for digital storytelling for ‘Editions at Play’ a series of digital books with Visual Editions including We Kiss the Screens [2019] & A Universe Explodes [2018].
She currently advocates for mental health and transgender awareness and mentors queer, female and other intersectional creators and writers worldwide. She likes pop-physics, neuroscience for beginners, queer twitter, and shopping.
Her pronouns are She/They.
