Woman of the Year announced at prestigious tech awards

Electronic Specifier, media partners for the FDM everywoman in Technology Awards, was honoured to attend this year’s everywoman event at the Westminster Plaza Hotel in London to celebrate the diverse talent pool of women in technology, and to encourage future generations of females into the industry.

The 14th annual awards of this prestigious ceremony celebrated with the theme of People. Planet. Purpose. And the calibre of finalists was a testament to how many women are creating and innovating and paving the way for many others, to not only follow in their footsteps, but to also walk their own path within the technology industry.

The venue saw 600 talented people from all backgrounds come together and celebrate the achievements that women have contributed to the industry, and to support and encourage each other to push the boundaries further of what is possible. And to all the men advocating women in technology, not just in the future, but right now.

This year 36 judges deliberated over 87 nominees across 15 different categories – from entrepreneurs to apprentices and rising stars to leaders – to deliver 15 winners, and one FDM Woman of the Year in Technology Award.

Winner of last year’s award, Elenor Harry, Managing Director at HACE (Data Changing Child Labour), commented: “It's an honour to work with Tech for Good in its purest sense. I'm very excited about the theme of tonight's everywoman in Tech Awards [People. Planet. Purpose].

“Since winning Woman of the Year [last year], it's been incredible. We went on to win another five awards. We've expanded our scale of impact and it's been fantastic.

“Congratulations to all of the finalists and the winners tonight. I wish that every single meeting I went into in technology looked like this”.

These words of admiration were echoed in the voice of this year’s winner of the FDM everywoman of the Year in Technology Award, Pamela Maynard, Chief Executive Officer at Avande UK.

“Thank you ... I'm humbled. I'm honoured. I'm overwhelmed. I'm excited. So many different emotions are going through my entire body right now.

“When I think about my career in technology, and especially in the early days when there was no one who looked like me in the room … I struggled to feel like I belonged. When you have that sense … you think ‘maybe I shouldn't be in this career. Maybe I should step away’, but it didn't make me feel like that, what it did was inspire me. It motivated me to work incredibly hard. It drove my passion and my motivation. Because what I want to be able to do is leave the technology industry in a much more inclusive and diverse place than the place in which I found it.

“I know that … passion, [and] energy to make technology more innovative by making it more diverse and inclusive, is shared by all of you in this room.

“A huge thank you for an incredible evening, and thank you to FDM and everywoman for this recognition … It has underlined what I've achieved in my career as the CEO of a huge thank you to team up [for the] way in which they inspire and challenge me every single day.

“Also, huge thank you for all of you this evening. Because what you're doing is you're inspiring me to keep going, to keep driving for that change that we all seek in my own unique and very different way.”