WeAreTechWomen Unveil their TechWomen100 Award Winners for 2020

What a great way to end the year! And what a year it has been!

Firstly, Women in Blockchain Talks won “The Best Fintech Networking Platform  2020’ earlier this year and now I have been announced as an individual winner of WeAreTechWomen, powered by BAE Systems, 2020 TechWomen100 Awards.

The winners of these awards showcase remarkable women within the technology and STEM sector including 12-year-old Avye Couloute, who, aware of female under-representation in STEM education and careers, founded Girls Into Coding to encourage more female involvement in tech; Susan Jason, a Principal Systems Engineer and Head of Outreach at In-Space Missions, who led the final test phases of the Faraday-1 commercial rideshare nanosatellite; and Heather Black, who founded Supermums, which helps upskill mums (and dads) back into flexible work in the Salesforce ecosystem.

The winners include individuals from leading firms such as the BBC, NatWest, Jaguar Land Rover, IBM, Trainline, Visa, Deloitte, Microsoft, Bank of England and Monzo Bank, amongst many more.

The awards also recognise Champions, Networks and Companies, who are all actively supporting the progression of women in tech and STEM. New for this year, the TechWomen100 awards are also celebrating women in tech from outside the UK, in the Global Award for Achievement category.

Since August 2020, WeAreTechWomen has been searching the UK for the best female tech talent in the country. The TechWomen100 awards are the first of their kind to focus solely on the female tech talent pipeline and to also recognise the impact of champions, companies and networks that are leading the way for future generations of tech talent. This year’s winners join an alumnus of 250 winners from 2017, 2018 and 2019. Highlighting the achievements of these women is part of WeAreTechWomen’s campaign to shine a spotlight on 1,000 future female leaders in technology by 2025.

Vanessa Vallely OBE, Founder of WeAreTechWomen, said, “At WeAreTechWomen we have made it our personal mission to shine a spotlight on women working in tech. Our strategic aim is to highlight 1,000 female future leaders in technology by 2025. The response to this year’s awards has been fantastic and the calibre of entries has been outstanding! I am so proud to see so many women in tech recognised for their achievements and look forward to celebrating our winners and their achievements.”

Theresa Palmer, Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion, BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, said, “Year after year we choose to partner with the WeAreTheCity organisation for one simple reason. They get it. The TechWomen100 awards offers on-going opportunities and membership to a wealth of information and networking to a community of women at the forefront of changing an industry globally. At BAE Systems Applied Intelligence we want to help drive that in any way that we can. Our industry depends on the best and brightest and supporting the growth and development of women in all roles across the technology industry. In a year when we can no longer see the diversity in our meeting rooms and client sites it seemed fitting to step up and headline such an important event. We see the value in celebrating what makes us unique and are very proud to be headline sponsor of the TechWomen100 awards.”

In today’s tech industry only 17 per cent are women. The tech sector needs more women studying, working and sticking with tech skills to ensure that there is enough talent for the future. In 2017, women made up 24 per cent of those working in core STEM industries in the UK. Within the younger generation, only one in 10 females are currently taking A-Level computer studies. This needs to change

The awards were entered by over 700 nominations from across the UK and Ireland and the nominees received over 30,000 votes of support from across the globe. The calibre of entries for these awards was exceptional and all of the judges stated how difficult it was to arrive at a final list, due to the amazing achievements of our nominees.

The awards were entered by over 700 individuals and were judged by a panel of 14 independent judges. The 2020 awards are kindly powered by BAE Systems and sponsored by Accenture, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Oliver Wyman and OpenFin.

Find the full list of winners in alphabetical order click here