What a night! Last week WeAreTheCity welcomed over 350 guests to The Intercontinental Hotel in Mayfair to celebrate the winners of this year’s Rising Star awards. Recognising excellence across a diverse range of industries, the Rising Star Awards celebrate the achievements of women who have made a significant impact and overcome hurdles, inspiring others to follow in their footsteps. This year’s winners are shining examples of courage, resilience, and innovation, and we are honoured to acknowledge their extraordinary contributions. You can see pictures of the event here.
This year’s awards were entered by over 1,445 individuals and were judged by a panel of over 40 independent judges. Over 15,000 public votes of support were received for the 200 shortlisted nominees from across 115 countries over a two-week period.
During the evening, guests were also invited to take part in a charity raffle, in support of Refuge. We are delighted to announce that the raffle raised over £2,000!Funds raised from the raffle and everyone’s generosity will help to save and change the lives of women and girls affected by domestic violence and abuse.
We would like to once again thank our guests for you amazing generosity!
The awards are headline sponsored by the Royal Bank of Canada, with support from Barclays, BAE Systems, Merkle, 3M, Citi, Northern Trust, LSEG, National Grid, Lloyd’s, Bloomberg, Wellbeing of Women, CMI Women, WBS, IHG, HSBC, Accenture, ReedSmith, Dentsu, Oliver Wyman and Marie Claire.
Our celebrations were expertly hosted by the incredible Julia Streets, CEO of Streets Consulting. Guests were entertained by ex-Strictly Come Dancing stars, Kristina Rhianoff and Robin Windsor, and power duo Old Hat. There was ample advice from the keynote speakers, which included “don’t whisper your wins”, and “own your success” as well as words of encouragement to use the awards as a platform to do more! Vanessa Vallely OBE, founder of the awards also encouraged the companies in the room to continue to open doors of opportunities for the winners via mentorship and sponsorship.
This year’s list of winners showcases remarkable women within the UK representing different industries and professions. Those highlighted include Natasha Day in our Defence category who is a Paramedic in the British Army. Natasha set up a breastfeeding network when she realised that there was nothing in place to support women integrating back into the forces after maternity leave. Another winner in our entrepreneur category is Dr Pearl Jarrett, who has built a “Sustainable Water Ecosystem” that has Air-To-Water technology, allowing water to be pulled from the humidity in the air. Krsna Mohnani, in our Healthcare category, was also recognised as a winner for her work designing and implementing the first mental health pathway for asylum-seeking children at the Imperial NHS Trust and for her work improving the management of homeless patients attending A&E. Zoe Henley, in our Science and Engineering category, utilised her synthetic and medicinal chemistry skills to enable the identification of potential drug candidates, one of which reached Phase two clinical trials in patients.
WeAreTheCity’s Rising Star awards are not just a one-time celebration and our support for our winners doesn’t stop here. Through our partnerships, our Rising Stars are also given the opportunity to attend a number of networking and learning opportunities throughout the year via a gifted membership from the Chartered Institute of Management, they are also invited to attend a knowledge day with our partners at Warwick Business School at their Shard campus in September.
Our 2024 Rising Star awards open in January 2024. For all enquiries regarding sponsorship, please email [email protected]
