Information Age’s Future Stars of Tech awards programme aims to celebrate and empower the next generation of female leaders in the technology industry.
The award for Digital Leader, which this year went to Charlotte Summers — COO at Diabetes Digital Media — aims to recognise an entrepreneurial woman who has contributed to a successful digital transformation initiative and been in the tech industry for less than five years.
Speaking of her recent award, Summers said: “I am delighted to have been awarded this prestigious Future Stars Award for Digital Leader, particularly since I was up against seven other talented nominees. I’d like to thank my fellow colleagues at DDM who have supported, encouraged and inspired me along the way to pursue my passions in creating and delivering digital education programs which result in behavioural change, proven health outcomes and cost savings.”
Future Stars of Tech — the awards
The awards ceremony took place on Thursday 27th June at The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London. Guests were treated to a star-studded ceremony which included a banquet dinner, networking drinks and awards ceremony. The evening was sponsored and supported by leading global brands, including: London Stock Exchange Group, Sky Betting and Gambling, Rolls Royce, J.P Morgan, Just Eat and Frank Recruitment.
Information Age would also like to thank the judging panel, which comprised of five industry-leading businessmen and women, including Marianne Calder, Global Head of Insite Sales at BT and David Ivell, Chief Technical Officer at Semta.
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The Digital Leader
Summers was up against seven other high-flying, entrepreneurial young women, including Verena Paprik, CMO at UK-headquartered MusicGIF network TuneMoj who is listed on Forbes 30 Under 30.
She is a published clinical author and expert in digital health interventions and behavioural change/psychology. She is also Chief Operating Officer and the driving force behind DDM, based in the heart of England at the University of Warwick Science Park.
Starting out in 2003 as Diabetes.co.uk, the world’s first peer-to-peer online support community for people with diabetes, DDM has evolved to become Europe’s largest and most engaged diabetes community, providing peer-to-peer support, information, and education to over 40 million users annually. Summers’ focus lies in creating and delivering digital education programs with proven health outcomes and cost savings. Her passion lies in creating offline accountability and behavioural change in a digital age.
In 2015, she was responsible for the launch of the award-winning Low Carb Program. So far over 416,000 people have downloaded the program which shows people how to lose weight, reduce their HbA1c, become active and in some cases put type 2 diabetes in remission. And the 2019 Digital Leader continuously drives this project forward, and in 2018, the Low Carb Program secured QISMET and CE accreditation, meeting all the requirements for delivery within the NHS. A three-year study following the one-year outcomes of 1000 patients for type 2 diabetes, prediabetes and general wellbeing is published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research Diabetes, an industry leading diabetes journal.
At just 29 years old, she has been accredited with a number of accolades and this Future Stars of Tech award adds to a growing list. A disruptor in the Sunday Times Maserati 100 List 2017, Finalist for the First Women of Healthcare from First Women Awards, Management Today as one of their “35 Women Under 35” and Finalist in the 2018 NatWest Great British Entrepreneurs Awards.
