Top 50 UK women in technology announced

The Inspiring Fifty UK awards, hosted by accelerateHER, has announced 50 trailblazing women in technology. 

Female co-founders and founders of dynamic, fast growth start-ups were amongst the winning 50 including Tessa Clarke, Co-Founder & CEO of food sharing app OLIO and Melinda Nicci, sports psychologist founder and CEO of Baby2Body, the health and wellbeing coaching app for pregnancy and motherhood.

The Inspiring Fifty awards exist to spotlight women excelling in technology careers across the UK and take place at London Tech Week, the largest and most influential tech event in Europe, from 20^th – 24^th September.

The Inspiring Fifty are important role models for encouraging more girls and women in technology, as well as inspiring future leaders and entrepreneurs to follow in their footsteps. 

Supporters of Inspiring Fifty, both men and women, champion women and minorities in tech and value the positive impact that increased diversity has on everything from business growth and innovation to culture and productivity.

Says Elka Goldstein, Interim co-CEO at accelerateHER:

 “We are delighted to announce such an impressive array of winners for this year’s Inspiring Fifty UK competition. The judges were blown away by the calibre of entries. It is fantastic to see so many inspirational women excelling in their fields and increasing gender diversity in technology businesses.

“Becoming more inclusive is essential for the tech industry to thrive and evolve. Inspiring Fifty highlights just how many women are the backbone of UK tech businesses today and through this competition we seek to raise awareness of these incredible women that are driving change.”

Adds Natalia Pawlak, COO, MY WARDROBE HQ, COO & Co-Founder, MY VENTURES:

“To be listed alongside such accomplished women is humbling and I’m very grateful to be considered a winner of this year’s Inspiring Fifty. It is a privilege to chosen and I’m delighted to be amongst game-changing women who are not afraid to push boundaries and help make women role models more visible in what is a very male-dominated and hugely competitive sector.”

Inspiring Fifty UK winners 2021

1. Mei Chen, Director, Head of Fashion & Luxury, Alibaba Group

2. Karen Blackett OBE, Country Manager, WPP, CEO, GroupM

3. Dr Larissa Suzuki, Data/AI Practice Lead UKI, Google Cloud

4. Linda Knutsen, Division Head, Exploration, Defence Science & Technology Laboratory

5. Sheree Atcheson, Global Director of Diversity & Inclusion, Valtech

6. May Al-Karooni, CEO & Founder, Globechain

7. Mikela Druckman, CEO & Co-Founder, Greyparrot

8. Melissa Di Donato, Chief Executive Officer, Member of the Management Board, SUSE

9. Kathleen Breitman, Co-Founder, Tezos

10. Tessa Clarke, Co-Founder & CEO, OLIO

11. Yodit Stanton, CEO & Founder, OpenSensors

12. Priya Guha MBE, Venture Partner, Merian Ventures, Member of InnovateUK Council

13. Sherry Coutu CBE, Serial Entrepreneur, Mother, Non-Executive Director, Investor and Philanthropist

14.  Maria Pasquale, Co-Founder, UpSpark

1. Tanya Suarez, Founder & CEO, IoT Tribe & BluSpecs

2. Dr. Verena Rieser, Co-Founder & Head of NLP, ALANA AI

3. Natalia Pawlak, COO, MY WARDROBE HQ, COO & Co-Founder, MY VENTURES

4. Kayleigh Oliver, Founder & Developer, Junction 5 Studios

5. Dr Marzia Bolpagni, Head of BIM International – Associate Director, Mace Group

6. Melinda Nicci, CEO, Founder & Chair, Body Collective Group

7. Triin Linamagi, Co-Founder, Sie Ventures

8. Dr Bhavagaya Bakshi, General Practitioner, Obama Leader, Co-Founder & CEO, C the Signs

9. Ana Bakshi, Executive Director, Oxford Foundry, University of Oxford

10. Sonali De Rycker, Partner, Accel

11. Rita Martins, FinTech Partnerships Lead, HSBC

12. Marta Jasinska, CTO, Bloom & Wild

13. Rachel Murphy, CEO, Difrent

14. Marija Butkovic, Founder & CEO, Women of Wearables, Forbes contributor

15. Saswati Saha Mitra, Research Leader, WhatsApp

16. Evelyn Ngatia, Founder & CEO, TechaWatt Ltd

17. Tanu Chellam, VP Product, Seldon, Chair of the Board of Directors, Rosetta Digital

18. Stephanie Eltz, CEO & Co-Founder, Doctify

19. Rebecca Sparrow, Delivery Director, Centrica

20. Hera Hussain, Founder & CEO, Chayn

21. Dee Saigal, CEO & Creative Director, Erase All Kittens

22. Alison Loehnis, President, Luxury & Fashion, NET-A-PORTER, MR PORTER and THE OUTNET

23. Rashmy Chatterjee, CEO, ISTARI

24. Tania Boler, CEO & Founder, Elvie

25. Chloe Macintosh, Founder & CEO, Kama

26. Eshita Kabra, Founder & CEO, By Rotation

27. Sonya Barlow, CEO & Founder, LMF Network

28. Katie Grosvenor, Head of Sales, Buy Side, Northern Europe, IAS

29. Yin Noe, CEO & Co-Founder, Savium

30. Renee Watson, Founder & Head of Explosions, The Curiosity Box

31. Chantal Epp, Founder & CEO, ClicknClear

32. Sophie Neary, Group Director, Facebook UK & Ireland

33. Anushka Sharma, Founder, Naaut, Co-Founder, London Space Network

34. Sarah Jane Thomson, CEO & Founder, Discover.film, CEO, First News, Director, Priority One IT Limited

35. Dr Devaki Bhatta, Co-Founder and Director, multiple healthtech/agritech startups

36. Cathy McCabe, Co-Founder & CEO Proximity Insight, Board Member for AIOTI, & Quantum Industry Consortium

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