In a momentous celebration of innovation, leadership, and accomplishments, the WeAreTechWomen Awards, powered by Barclays has unveiled its remarkable shortlist for 2023.
The TechWomen100 Awards, now in its sixth year, is dedicated to recognising the extraordinary achievements of women who have made indelible marks in various domains of the tech industry. From software development and data science to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, these awardees exemplify the spirit of creativity, perseverance, and advancement that drive the tech sector forward.
The 216 finalists were selected from a pool of over 1300 exceptional nominees, each of whom has demonstrated exceptional skills, leadership, and a passion for driving change in their respective fields. Their accomplishments have not only elevated their careers but have also inspired others to pursue their dreams and break down barriers in the tech world.
The full shortlist includes individuals from 107 private and public sector organisations such as Amazon, BT, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, UBS, BT, Microsoft, Barclays, TFL, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, GSK, Next, Imperial College, LSEG, IBM, The Cabinet Office, ATOS and many more.
This year’s shortlist showcases remarkable women within the technology sector who are leading incredible initiatives to attract girls to pursue STEM careers. For example, Emily Hall Strutt who has been instrumental in encouraging girls into STEM through Empiric’s social enterprise, Next Tech Girls. Emily’s initiative aims to inspire girls and young women from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue a career in tech. To date, she has engaged 3,100 girls aged 10-18 across the country. The list also features Toni Scullion, a teacher who founded the charity dressCode which aims to help close the gender gap in Computing Science and help increase the uptake of Computing Science in secondary schools. Toni’s charity has also issued 100 Hopper awards to individual girls across Scotland to showcase young STEM role models.
The shortlist also features innovators such as Dr Chun Huang, Senior Lecturer, Department of Materials, Imperial College London. Dr Chun Huang is helping with climate change by using renewable sources such as solar and wind to improve the performance of batteries for electric transportation and electrical energy storage. We also shine a spotlight on the work of Mediha Meltem Limon from Goldman Sachs who developed a smartwatch that could detect Atrial Fibrillation using deep learning models. Mediha also represented Turkey and the Middle East and Africa Region at the Microsoft Imagine Cup World finals where she helped develop “Proland”, a machine learning solution integrated into a mobile app to help farmers use their land more efficiently.
Aside from the individual shortlist of 200 women, the awards also shine a spotlight on several other individuals such as men who are championing women in the sector by demonstrating allyship, leaders of women in tech networks who are creating communities to provide support to women in the industry, companies who are demonstrating impact by supporting the progression of women in tech through their development programmes, and global role models who are creating industry impact in their respective countries.
The awards also offer all short listers (with the exception of our Champion, Company, Men for Gender Balance and Network awards) the opportunity to win our public vote award. This separate award enables the public to cast their vote for one overall winner from our shortlist.
Barclays has been working with WeAreTechWomen since 2015 because they do an exceptional job of shining a light on female tech talent, and recognising those who support and empower these incredible individuals. We know diverse and inclusive teams are more effective and innovative. We know representation leads to better products that serve the needs of our community. This is why we’re committed to investing in and building a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture in Barclays Tech – where it truly is happening here – an environment where our colleagues can achieve their career aspirations and be inspirational role models for future female talent.
Over the past ten years, there has been a glacial increase in the presence of women within the technology sector validating the need to shine a spotlight and to showcase role models who are already working in the industry. Women represent 26% of the UK tech sector, and ONS data has recently report that there has been a decline of 3,000 female employees in over the last two quarters. I truly believe our awards shortlist are the beacon of hope we need to attract and retain women in the industry. I would like to extend a huge congratulations to our shortlist and look forward to announcing our winners on 26 September.
The 2023 TechWomen100 awards are kindly powered by Barclays and sponsored and supported by Accenture, BAE Systems, Bank of America, Funding Circle, Morgan Stanley, Northern Trust, Oliver Wyman, PwC, and Durham University.
We would like to personally thank our judges who all gave up their valuable time to assemble our shortlist and to help WeAreTechWomen recognise the fantastic achievements of all of our amazing nominees.
Congratulations to all of our shortlisted nominees, you are incredible role models for the tech industry. Best of luck to all for the next round of judging.
The winners of this year’s TechWomen100 awards will be announced 26 September 2023 and celebrated on 16 November at the InterContinental Hotel Park Lane.
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