The first Women in IT Awards Silicon Valley, part of the world’s largest tech diversity event, brought together over 400 industry leaders last week for a stunning ceremony in San Francisco.
The awards, organised by Information Age and DiversityQ in partnership with Equinix as the headline sponsor and BMC Software as the premium sponsor, serve to showcase the achievements and innovation of women in technology and identify new role models in a sector where US women represent 25%, a steady decline from 35% over the last 15 years.
The Women in IT Awards Silicon Valley is part of the Women in IT Awards Series.
The awards were held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, where Milind Wagle, CIO at Equinix and Katharine Zaleski, co-founder and President at PowerToFly delivered two inspiring keynote speeches.
The awards were hosted by Eva Saha, professional emcee, moderator and presenter, who revealed 16 winners chosen from over 400 nominations.
Niki Dowdall, Managing Director – Events & Marketing and main Board Director at Bonhill Group plc commented: “Our Women in IT Initiative is now a global series taking place in London, Ireland, New York and now Silicon Valley, next year will see launches in Europe, Singapore and Canada. We are working continually to encourage dialogue around the topic of gender parity in the tech industry and our awards are a platform to celebrate the wonderful women at the forefront of change and innovation.”
The Women in IT Awards Series is the flagship event in an ongoing Information Age campaign to tackle technology’s diversity problems. We have also launched three further diversity events in the UK: Tomorrow’s Tech Leaders, a careers fair for female university students, Diversity and Inclusion Summit and Future Stars of Tech, which identifies and promotes the industry’s top female career climbers.
Joining headline sponsor, Equinix, and premium sponsor, BMC Software, at the Women in IT Awards Silicon Valley 2018 are Airbnb, Fireye, Forescout, Google Cloud, Intel, Red Hat, Belvedere Communications and Women to Watch.
Congratulations to Julie Fergerson for winning “Innovator of the Year” at the Women in IT Awards – Silicon Valley. Hats off to all the nominees and winners! pic.twitter.com/jDgMAGSxyQ
— Ethoca (@Ethoca) November 30, 2018
Winners
Advocate of the Year
Anika Balkan – Salesforce
Business Leader of the Year
Myra Nawabi – Lockheed Martin
Business Role Model of the Year, sponsored by BMC Software
Minette Norman – Autodesk, Inc
CIO of the Year
Paula Tolliver – Intel Corporation
CTO of the Year
Mignona Cote – AIG
Data Leader of the Year
Anastasia Zamyshlyaeva – Reltio
Digital Leader of the Year, sponsored by Airbnb
Maricel Cabahug – SAP
Diversity Initiative of the Year
Lauren Hasson – DevelopHER
Employer of the Year, sponsored by Intel
ALOM
Entrepreneur of the Year
Maria Artunduaga – Respira Labs
Future CIO of the Year, sponsored by Red Hat
Rosh Dawes – Equinix
Innovator of the Year, sponsored by Google Cloud
Julie Fergerson – Ethoca
IT Team of the Year
Nicole Oppenheim – FireEye
Rising Star of the Year, sponsored by FireEye
Kristal Murphy – Intel Corporation and Stephanie Yaung – Roche
Security Champion of the Year, sponsored by ForeScout
Sherry Ryan – Juniper Networks
Transformation Leader of the Year
Mona Ved Tongia – Zenefits
Woman of the Year, sponsored by Equinix
Barbara Hewitt – Texas State University and Christina Petersen – Salesforce
