Launched last night in London during a black-tie gala dinner and ceremony, more than 140 men and women from across the industry gathered together in the name of gender parity.
“We serve an industry full of exceptional and inspirations women and men and we were delighted to bring so many of them together for the Awards,” said Georgia Ermilios, senior product developer, Capacity Media. “Tackling the gender and wider diversity gap is integral to the continued success of telecoms and tech and we’re excited to see everyone bring back the insights from today to their organisations to push for change.”
The Awards, which were judged by an independent panel of judges, included four categories; Disruptor, Projects & Initiatives, Spotlight & Profile and Special Recognition.
Seaborn Networks came away as a big winner, taking home two awards – one for Best Subsea Company and the other for Best Wholesale Carrier Company. CBRE’s Melissa Reid took home the award for Best Woman in Data Centre, while Stream Data Centers won the trophy for Best Data Centre Company.
Alla Goldner was named Best Woman in Network Orchestration, Chandy Ghosh for Best Woman in Wholesale Telecoms and Maggie Parry for Best Woman in Subsea. Representing the tower space was Ir. Kumari Nalini Subramaniam of edotco Group, who won the award for Best Woman in Tower.
In the projects and initiatives category, Recruitment Programme of the Year went to IHS Nigeria, while Intel Corporation took home the trophy for Marketing or Social Media Campaign of the Year and Project of the Year was won by Ooredoo Oman.
Télécoms Sans Frontières came out on top for Company or Organisation of the Year and Agent of Change went to Ribbon’s Bita Milanian.
As for the three Disruptor awards, Outstanding Achievement went to Sally Bament at Juniper Networks, Rising Star to Kuburat Fatomona of IHS Nigeria and Woman of the Year to Caroline De Vos COO and founder of SatADSL.
“The response we’ve received for the launch event has been extremely positive, highlighting the need to facilitate conversations and events such as this one,” added Natalie Bannerman, reporter and head judge of the awards. “Congratulations to all the winners as well as all those nominated, your work is the first of many we hope to celebrate through this initiative.”
For the full list of winners, see the table below:
| Woman of the Year: | Rising Star: | Outstanding Achievement: | Agent of Change: |
Caroline De Vos – SatADSL | Kuburat Fatomona - IHS Nigeria | Sally Bament - Juniper Networks | Bita Milanian – Ribbon |
| Company or Organisation of the Year: | Recruitment programme of the Year: | Marketing or Social Media Campaign of the Year: | Project of the Year : |
Télécoms Sans Frontières | IHS Nigeria | Intel Corporation | Ooredoo Oman |
| Best Woman in Data Centre: | Best Data Centre Company: | Best Woman in Wholesale Telecoms: | Best Wholesale Carrier Company: |
Melissa Reid – CBRE | Stream Data Centers | Chandy Ghosh – Inteliquent | Seaborn Networks |
| Best Woman in Subsea: | Best Subsea Company: | Best Woman in Tower: | Best Woman in Network Orchestration: |
Maggie Parry - Aqua Comms | Seaborn Networks | Ir. Kumari Nalini Subramaniam - edotco Group | Alla Goldner – Amdocs |
>>> Please click here to see pictures from the Summit and Awards <<<
