ARN Women in ICT Awards 2019: and the winners are…

The ARN WIICTA 2019 winners

ARN is proud to announce the winners of the 2019 ARN Women in ICT Awards (WIICTA), playing host to the leading female front runners across the channel.

Unveiled at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney during the largest ceremony in the Awards’ history, with over 500 guests, 13 outstanding individuals won awards, out of more than 110 finalists representing over 65 organisations -- the most competitive line-up for WIICTA ever. 

This year saw a record number of submissions -- totalling more than 230. 

Last year, the awards were expanded to include six new awards in recognition of the quality of nominations, with both the Rising Star and Shining Star categories split up to cover Partner, Vendor and Distributor awards, highlighting the depth of emerging and established talent in the Australian market.

In response to the wealth of standout submissions, all categories exceeded the traditional six finalist limit, showcasing the very best of what the IT sector has produced.

Overall, this year’s ARN WIICTA event honoured the channel across seven categories, spanning: Achievement; Entrepreneur; Innovation; Technical; Community; Rising Star; and Shining Star.

Since launching in 2012, ARN WIICTA has acknowledged the achievements of a talented group of female leaders and innovators who are on the path to becoming, or have become, influential figures across the local ICT industry.

Finalist submissions were selected by a shortlist panel consisting of ARN associate publisher and sales director, Cherry Yumul and ARN senior journalist, Julia Talevski.

The winners were selected by a panel of more than 40 industry judges, acknowledging the remarkable creativity, innovation and excellence on display.

ARN congratulates all winners, highly commended and finalists, and thanks all organisations and individuals for taking the time to submit nominations.

COMMUNITY

The Community award recognises the candidate with exemplary service to the technology sector, through philanthropic initiatives and efforts to foster a positive working environment for women in ICT. The goodwill ambassador will be actively making a difference in the community, working towards the advancement of women in ICT, and going above and beyond to give back to the community.

Winner: Emma Reid, Cisco

Highly Commended: Kerry Soussou, Veeam

Emma won this award for going over and above in her day job to create programs that help bridge the gender diversity gap. Her dedicated focus for diversity is centred on three key programs: Cisco Connected Women, Women of Influence and Women Rock IT - a program that provides access to self-study courses to build skills through Cisco’s Networking Academy. 

ENTREPRENEUR

The Entrepreneur award recognises the candidate who has achieved outstanding results in the ICT industry, an enterprising individual who has achieved success through risk-taking and proven initiative, often challenging the status quo in business in order to set up new ventures, products or new services.

Winner: Sharon Melamed, Matchboard

Highly Commended: Kellie King, Lean Automation

Sharon began pursuing her entrepreneurial dream in 2012 after leaving a high-flying corporate gig. She set about changing the way in which buyers find their ‘perfect match’ suppliers of software and services and, within seven years, Matchboard has helped more than 3000 companies find suppliers across hundreds of categories.

INNOVATION

The Innovation award recognises the candidate who is a stand-out in delivering ‘big picture’ ideas and vision in the ICT industry, thereby responding to change and discovering unique and challenging business opportunities. The candidate will show a proven track record of finding new and better ways of doing business, continually pushing the envelope in the ICT industry.

Winner: Emma Pudney, Rackspace

Highly Commended: Cassandra Wallace, Kiandra IT

Emma won this award in recognition of her work on the concept and development of Service Blocks, which was taken from a locally pioneered innovation and became a globally developed solution under her guidance. Service Blocks allows customers to deconstruct the traditional managed services model into smaller ‘blocks’, reducing cost and wastage. 

TECHNICAL

The Technical award recognises the candidate who has excelled in the technical and engineering segment of the ICT industry, demonstrating a proven depth of knowledge and abilities. The candidate will demonstrate excellence in problem-solving and decision-making skills, and an exemplary level of accomplishment in job performance.

Winners: Melody Lei, The Missing Link, and Natalie Piucco, Google

Melody won this award in recognition of her deep security expertise, which includes red and purple teaming - a proposition that few security consultants have undertaken in the Australian market. During her time at The Missing Link she has used her expertise in web application development and cloud technology to win significant business. 

Natalie won this award for becoming the first local female Google Cloud customer engineer, and for her leadership in some of Australia’s largest transformation projects. She has helped customers transform their business through machine learning, big data, IoT, serverless computing, Google collaboration tools, Chrome and Android. 

Read more on the next page...

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ACHIEVEMENT

The Achievement award recognises the candidate showing outstanding commitment to the ICT industry through continuous career development and professional achievements. The candidate will have risen to a senior ICT role, earned a reputation as an esteemed thought-leader and recognised as a leader in the industry, and may also act as a role model/mentor to other aspiring female managers.

Winner: Jo Masters, Tquila A/NZ

Highly Commended: Victoria Kluth, Araza

Jo has risen through the ranks of each company she has worked at to securing her credentials as CEO of Sydney-based startup Tquila A/NZ. She has been instrumental in growing the company from six to 64 staff, expanding its geographical presence and delivering year-on-year revenue growth of 71 per cent in FY18. 

RISING STAR

The Rising Star awards recognise the candidate with a commitment to continuous career advancement and a proven desire to reach the next level of professional development. The candidate - who has been working in the ICT industry for less than eight years - is growing quickly in importance in the ICT field, demonstrating outstanding business acumen and professional integrity.

Rising Star (Partner)

Winner: Trisita Saha, NTT

Highly Commended: Angela Moutinho, Deloitte

After completing her Masters degree in Mobile, Wireless and Broadband Communications at the University of Westminster in the UK, Trisita began her ICT career in network engineering roles prior to joining NTT in 2017, where her first remit was focused on the largest wireless network projects ever delivered in Australia. 

Rising Star (Vendor)

Winner: Emily Baker, CrowdStrike

Emily began her IT career in 2017 and quickly rose through the ranks at CrowdStrike, becoming the company’s first corporate channel account manager in the APJ region, experiencing 45 per cent in net new business as a direct result of her efforts. 

Rising Star (Distributor) 

Winner: Vanessa Loayza, Rhipe

Since joining Rhipe in 2013, Vanessa has experienced multiple promotions due to her achieving outstanding results for the distributor and pursuing the idea of setting up a customer experience team, which eventually led to her role as head of partner experience in 2017. 

SHINING STAR

Due to an overwhelming number of strong female contenders in the Rising Star category, a new category was created to recognise great performers with more than eight years in ICT. The successful candidate will have shown noted achievements in the ICT industry, demonstrated areas of success (either through promotion or successful project/company initiatives), and highlighted noted achievements in the ICT industry.

Shining Star (Partner) 

Winner: Delice Coop, Datacom

Highly Commended: Meile Worrad, Optus

Delice began her ICT career 20 years ago and joined Datacom in 2005. She has achieved a string of successes during her time and has been instrumental in the outsource partnership win with the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Queensland, and securing a spot for the second term in a row on the government’s preferred supplier list. 

Shining Star (Vendor) 

Winners: Marleese Attilakos, Cisco, and Natasha Lambert, Sophos

Marleese has been in the ICT industry for more than 19 years, with a diverse set of skills under her belt as an analyst, sales executive and sales leader. She was recently promoted to regional sales manager and is the number one seller for public sector across A/NZ, achieving 300 per cent of her goal. 

Natasha’s career spans 16 years, taking on her first role at Software Express, where she developed key business and communication skills that laid the foundation for her career. In 2017, she moved to Sophos where she was promoted to channel director in September, achieving a 34 per cent increase in technical enablement across Australia.

Shining Star (Distributor) 

Winner: Sarah Loiterton, Dicker Data

Sarah’s experience spans 14 years, and since taking over as Dicker Data’s senior business manager for Microsoft, she has delivered 23 per cent growth in its overall Microsoft business. She also led the successful bid for Dicker to become the sole Citrix distributor in Australia, which netted incremental revenue for the distributor.