REVEALED: PCR’s Top 25 Women in Tech 2020!

From sales, distribution, retail, marketing, PR, manufacturing, and more PCR rounds up the top 25 women in tech, with some of the most innovative ladies both self nominated and recommended by you.

Here’s who made the top 25 (in alphabetical order by surname) but with so many great candidates this list is far from exhaustive.

Lisa Bird
Head of Customer Excellence
Exertis UK

“Since Lisa Bird joined Exertis she has been a breathe of fresh air with the customer being at the heart of everything she does. Lisa is passionate about delivering the best levels of service and is strongly focused on understanding the company’s key objectives, attaining a high level of customer excellence not only within her department but across the board. Her ability to listen carefully to the needs and requirements of the customer and finding solutions that work for both parties makes her a pleasure to deal with. She is an excellent role model for her supply chain team and many others in the business.

As a committed and valued team player she brings a positive energy and great enthusiasm to everything she undertakes. Lisa is much respected by her peers and is an inspiration to work with.”

Jamie Brothwell
Commercial Director
Exertis

“Jamie Brothwell has recently been promoted to commercial director, accessories business. Her responsibilities now extend to accessories and peripherals at Exertis’ Harlow and Basingstoke facilities. Her remit includes vendor relationship management and implementing the strategy for growing the category.

Jamie has been at Exertis since 2014, most recently as business development director. Prior to that she was general manager for the printing division, where she successfully grew the category in revenue and profit by expanding the vendor portfolio and growing the breadth and depth of the customer base.

Jamie is an invaluable member of the consumer board and is also part of the Exertis global diversity steering group. Jamie is passionate about diversity and volunteers in initiatives highlighting the importance and benefits of a diverse workforce. Jamie has also taken on a mentoring role, offering her time and knowledge to those starting their careers at Exertis.”

Vicky Cartwright
Marketing Director UK&I
Kaspersky

“Vicky Cartwright has over 17 years’ experience in the IT Security Industry, with a full range of channel experience ranging from distribution, systems integration and managed services prior to joining Kaspersky. Over the last seven years at Kaspersky, she has proven herself as a dynamic and creative marketer, moving strategically as the company realigned from a traditional AV vendor predominantly operating in the B2C & SMB space, into a true Enterprise player. Vicky is passionate about providing her team with opportunities to advance their skills.

Vicky has been extremely “hands-on” in implementing Kaspersky’s award-winning new brand rollout in 2020 and has seen brand recognition in the UK rise as a result. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Vicky revised the business’ marketing strategy and developed highly successful reactive campaigns to respond to threat outbreaks, resulting in impressive numbers for 2020 so far.”

Carly Cheshire
Head of Consumer at BenQ UK
BenQ

“Carly Cheshire has transformed the sales and operations of the BenQ UK consumer division since she joined the company in 2014. She has been promoted four times within an extremely short period. Her most recent promotion saw her become Head of Consumer in April 2020, after leading the B2C sales division.

Carly has tirelessly launched new products into the channel throughout the pandemic.

As a result of Carly’s dedication and knowledge of the consumer technology market, the 1H 2020 sales figures across the BenQ UK consumer division have experienced a 25% year-on-year growth, with some key accounts seeing up to a 98% increase on LCD sales alone.

Carly pulls her team together with her positive energy. She has created a solid platform for each individual, propelling them to achieve and deliver outstanding results, while also personally maintaining profitability across the division.”

Jennifer Cox
Security Engineer
Tenable

“Jennifer Cox has 14 years experience in tech and is currently involved in the Cyber Security industry. She works with customers across all of EMEA enabling best practices and cyber exposure prevention to protect against every eventuality.

Active within the industry, Jennifer has spoken at several key industry events including Women in Tech in Dublin in Sept 2019. She is also involved in launching a mentoring project and contributing as an interviewee in the Irish Independent women in tech podcast special.

More recently she attended the Women in Cybersecurity Awards in London as a finalist, was featured on the ‘women in security podcast’ with Lifen Tan and has been featured on Canadian podcast on e-channelnews.com. Tenable has also featured her for International Women’s Day in their celebrations. In 2019 she was shortlisted for a number of awards with Women inTech and Women in IT.”

Katharina Damm
Team Leader
Synaxon UK Central Trading

“Katharina Damm started her career in the IT Channel just two years ago after finishing her Master´s in Management & Organisation at Universities in Düsseldorf and Bangkok, as management assistant to the managing director of the purchasing business unit.

Over this short period she has become the youngest team leader in the company’s history, and now leads Synaxon’s Central Trading Business Unit in the UK.

A dedicated team player Kati’s superpower is understanding what people need and finding a way to deliver it. She excels at communicating and connecting the right specialists from different disciplines to deliver multi-faceted complex projects on time. In just two years, Kati has initiated multiple projects and driven them to successful completion, gathering support from across the business and the channel along the way.

A hard worker she is a valued team member with a bright future ahead.”

Amanda Gascoyne
Head of Sales, UK & Ireland
Westcon-Comstor

“As Head of Internal Sales, Amanda Gascoyne has spent the past 12 months building her team, implementing a competency framework and career development plans for them all. This has resulted in impressive sales growth for the business as well as increased her team’s morale. At the start of the year, Amanda expanded her role to managing both sales and vendor teams across both Westcon UK Sales offices. Following this, her team has expanded further in the last month, meaning that Amanda is now responsible for a team of 46 people focusing on the wider partner end to end process.

Amanda’s peers recognise her dedication to her work and she is commended for her efforts. Admired for her excellent advice and encouragement, she is supportive and focused on developing confidence in her team’s own abilities and is widely respected within the company.”

Rachel Gawley
Chief Innovation Officer
Whitespace

“Rachel Gawley joined Whitespace earlier this year as Chief Innovation Officer, where she is leading the research and development of Whitespace’s new products and setting the on-going innovation strategy for corporate collaborations. Rachel previously held a position in Corporate Venture Design at PWC. On day one of joining Whitespace, Rachel was set the task to create an operational model, nurture and grow a newly formed not-for-profit organisation, Emergent Alliance.

Rachel oversees the Alliance, working alongside researchers and data scientists within the Alliance, who are working in cross-industry teams, using location data as a thread to analyse both traditional economic, business, travel and retail data sets and behavioural and sentiment data. In her first few months as Chief Innovation Officer of Whitespace, Rachel has revamped the overall process and strategy to research and development of new products and business ventures.”

Amanda Harris
Business Unit Manager – Private Sector
Centerprise International

“Amanda Harris joined Centerprise in 2017 to establish its Asset Retirement business, which involved getting Centerprise accredited by ADISA as one of only thirty-five authorised IT asset deposal companies in the UK.

Amanda’s hard work was quickly recognised and in 2018 she was promoted to Business Unit Manager – Private Sector as part of Centerprise’s growth strategy. Her determination to succeed has delivered year on year growth in revenue and has increased her company’s net margin position through ongoing efficiency and process improvements.

Respected by her peers Amanda is personable manager and provides the right balance between driving her team to achieve its business objectives as well as supporting individuals from a personal prospective. In a relatively short period she has developed a collaborative team, which is producing great results with substantial 20% growth over the coming financial year.”

Jayvian Hong
Senior Commercial Associate
Miniclip

“Jayvian Hong is committed to her cause and strives to create recognition within the channel. Working in collaboration with a fellow industry member from King, she co-founded Game Changers, an online fireside panel discussion by women for women in the games industry. Topics of discussion range from female career progression in the games industry, spotlight focuses on specific roles ranging from Game Designer, UX/UI, Legal, to handling a toxic work environment.

The first panel discussion kicked off in July and centred on the topic of “Crossing the COVID-19 Bridge: impact, outlook and the silver lining”.

136 people attended the discussion from 25 companies from senior executive level to intern. The next panel discussion is currently in the planning!

Given the heavy male-dominated industry and the few females in leadership roles, Jayvian believes diversity is a much-needed discussion for everyone within the industry to partake.”

Laila Hede Jensen
Chief Commercial Officer
ZetaDisplay

“Laila Hede Jensen has over 15 years of global sales and marketing experience at director level in the AV and technology sectors, with leading brands including Unilumin, SiliconCore and Samsung.

Most recently Laila held the position of Vice President of Sales at Unilumin Group, building a new international sales and support organisation in EMEA.

In February Laila joined ZetaDisplay as Chief Commercial Officer and was tasked with leading the global sales team, bringing together a number of specialist divisions into one organisation and expanding the business internationally.

Laila volunteers at board level at the Digital Signage Organisation, offering learning support to its members. She was the face of the online Digital Signage Summit, partaking in two panels and co-hosting the event alongside the organisers and will partake in LAVNCH EMEA by rAVe [PUBS] and Futuresource Consulting, taking place this September.”

Estelle Johannes
UK and Benelux Community Director
CompTIA Ltd. 

“Estelle Johanes heads up both the UK and Benelux Business Technology communities for CompTIA. Described by her colleagues as an engaging head of community she is an energetic team player who constantly comes up with new and exciting ways to add value for community members and to raise the profile of Executive Council leaders. Estelle works very hard to achieve maximum results and constantly tries to find new and innovative ways to do this. This has been demonstrated over the past year by her pulling together agendas and speakers for CompTIA’s live community meetings.

Estelle’s teammates describe her as an absolute inspiration to other women as well as being a pillar of support and a pleasure to work with. A real team player and an advocate for women in tech and diversity Estelle always aims to embrace diversity within her speaker program.”

Emma Lattimer
Marketing Manager
TP-Link UK Ltd. 

Lockdown put tremendous strain on life and home WiFi. Using social listening techniques it was clear that standard issue ISP routers struggled to cope with the demands of working, schooling and socialising from home. Seeing an opportunity to genuinely help people overcome WiFi performance and reach issues, Emma developed an educational campaign under the banner of #BetterWiFi.

Using the targeting options across the Facebook portfolio Emma Lattimer offered Top Tips based on peoples interests and location. For example, using publicly available information about average WiFi speeds she was able to target content about mobile WiFi solutions to people in areas with typically poor broadband connections speeds. The 3 month campaign resulted in a 38% increase in positive brand mentions, 8%+ engagement rate across all social platforms across the campaign lifespan and 18% increase in the number of followers across all social platforms.

Lucy Lincoln
Senior Channel Marketing Manager
BullGuard

“Lucy Lincoln joined BullGuard in 2013 and has built the channel marketing strategy from the ground up. Lucy has been instrumental in implementing a solid tiered partner program, defining and enhancing BullGuard’s channel partnership.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Lucy has contributed to setting up a hugely effective lead generation tool in the form of an extended Small Office Security customer trial. This was to help small businesses with an immediate need for protection due to the unprecedented uptake in remote working.

As a result of the combined efforts of the channel marketing function and sales, BullGuard’s business has witnessed double digit growth year on year as well as three consecutive accolades of best ‘Software, Services and Support Vendor’ in the PCR Awards 2018, 2019 and 2020. BullGuard was also awarded ‘Company of the Year’ in PCR’s 2020 awards.”

Hannah Lloyd
VP Channel Sales
inSOC Inc.

“As a young woman in the tech sector, Hannah Lloyd has really stepped up to the mark to share her knowledge and expertise through very active participation in the UK community where she volunteers her time. She is also a well-known and respected individual within the global channel markets, working to on-board and support channel partners across the world. Her CompTIA involvement includes serving on the UK Executive Council for several years where she is now Vice Chair.

She has hosted Community meetings as well as taken part in sessions and is always a willing volunteer. Hannah has an incredible knowledge of channel sales and growth strategies, helping In-Soc become established as a new company. Hannah is a strong advocate for women in tech demonstated through her attendance at diversity events and putting herself forward but also by just being who she is.”

Samehra Malik
Channel Marketing Manager
Seagate Technology

“Samehra Malik has an outstanding nine-year career in specialised marketing roles for IT/Tech & the channel. In her recent role she has played a pivotal part in helping to lead the EMEA North region to success. Since joining the company, Samehra has helped change and improve the synergy between sales and marketing for the better, ensuring a consistent drive towards change throughout the business and having one unified goal. As a result, she is a mentor to others and is involved in the EMEA SSD elite team and also the UK social committee.

Samehra is a highly driven and ambitious professional, who thrives on motivating and supporting all her colleagues, with outstanding organisational and project management skills. Constantly pushing the boundaries within a highly engaged EMEA Channel Marketing group, Samehra delivers exceptional partner and alliance projects while simultaneously delivering unbelievable creative campaigns.”

Jodie Masson
Marketing Executive
Ingram Micro Cloud

“Jodie Masson is a dedicated and innovative marketer who strives for high levels of campaign excellence. Ingram Micro won Microsoft’s prestigious title of ‘Partner of the Year’ 2020; Jodie was responsible for much of the work which supported this win, delivering forward-thinking campaign proposals that positioned Ingram as trail blazers within the Channel.

She started at Ingram just two years ago with limited experience in Marketing. Despite this, her experience and capabilities go far beyond her few years within the industry. This is now being fortified by her studies at London South Bank University where she recently achieved Firsts in her H1 set of assignments– all while working fulltime!

Beyond this, her relationship management is second to none, skilfully navigating difficult conversations and driving towards proactive and fulfilling outcomes.

Jodie’s colleagues are proud and inspired and know the future is bright for her.”

Janet O’Sullivan
Channel Program Manager
Fire Eye

“Janet O’Sullivan volunteered and was appointed to the Executive Council of the UK Community in 2015. In Jan 2018 Janet was elevated to the Chair position and in that position helped grow the UK Community numbers.

Janet is now in her fourth year serving and volunteering in the CompTIA UK Community. She leads the charge as a women in Tech, advocating for diversity and inclusion, and collaborating with other companies in the industry to deliver value to clients.

She is seen as a valued colleague that brings inspiration to her workmates and to other women. Janet is committed to her work and brings energy and passion to everything she undertakes.”

Olivia Orozco
IoT Carrier Network Manager
Wireless Logic

“In the last year, Olivia Orozco has been promoted from Network Infrastructure Specialist to IoT Carrier Network Manager. She has helped to design the next generation of Wireless Logic’s secure IoT network to deal with the challenge of over 3 million devices connecting. She has also been instrumental in the upgrade of multiple endpoints, as well as setting up two major products for the company that help its customers secure their data transmissions across public mobile networks. Both of these products have had a material impact on its customers.

Olivia has also taken on the overall management of the support team, integrating support staff from around Europe and across six different languages into one highly capable function within the company, that now supports close to 4.5 million devices connecting around the world.”

Kathy Quashie
Head of Indirect Business, UK
Vodafone

With a highly successful career in tech, telecoms, software, retail and banking, Kathy Quahie now leads Vodafone’s Indirect Business. In her role, Kathy has delivered strong performance growth for the channel, transformed the operating model, relaunched the strategy and go-to-market. She’s also built valuable relationships with channel CEOs, helping them market and sell Vodafone’s leading range of intelligent connectivity, including 5G, convergence and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to businesses of all sizes across the UK.

Kathy has been a key member of tech for women programs over the years, mentoring and contributing to the diversity and inclusion agendas of the companies she has worked for. In light of these efforts, Kathy was recognised by Women to Watch 2019, Cranfield University’s spotlight on BAME Board future talent; and more recently, she featured on the EMpower Ethnic Minority Executive Role Model 2020 listing.

Tanith Russell
Senior Sales Manager London
CMS Distribution Ltd.

“Tanith Russell is recognised by her sales team as a motivational leader, bringing over 20 years’ experience in Technology and Consumer electronics.

She is passionate about her team, their growth and career development. Her Organisation skills are paramount to her success, providing structure to daily tasks and processes and are key to how she manages her dynamic young team, in a busy fast paced sales environment. Allowing everyone involved to constantly push for success, hit sales targets and deliver on KPIs.

Tanith motivates, coaches and supports her team to create their own personal development plan (PDP) to set achievable short and longer-term goals.

Throughout 2020 Tanith continues to keep her team motivated, focuses on monthly targets, gives her full support and does everything possible to ensure each one succeeds, even in these difficult times with challenging targets to reach.”

Clare Shipston
Distribution Partner Account Manager
Kaspersky

“With a decade of experience across channel, software technology and technical services, Clare Shipston is a great asset to Kaspersky. Clare is highly respected within the business and as a self-motivated professional she encourages proactivity amongst her team. Claire provides excellent service and is a valuable team player. Joining Kaspersky at a time of critical change, she has realigned the company’s distribution and implemented reseller recruitment days with incentives for webinars and meetings.

Over the past year Clare has successfully increased the renewal rate on her remit from 69% to 81%. Since joining the team, she has also seen one distributor increase all business by 114% and another by 45% YTD.

Clare’s vision for the future of channel distribution in the UK is a harmonious relationship with Kaspersky and distribution, increasing new business and renewals to 50/50 share.

Helen Simpson
Director of Inside Sales and Renewals, EMEA
Poly

“Helen Simpson heads up the Inside Sales team at Poly, which brings together the team from Plantronics and Polycom.

Helen’s contribution to revenue generation across EMEA has been significant, with her EMEA team exceeding sales expectations for FY20, achieving 122% of the target. Importantly, all three key hubs — UK&I, Netherlands and Germany — all exceeded regional targets. Individually, two-thirds of Helen’s Inside Sales Account Managers secured more than 100% of their personal target.

Helen believes in championing advancement and to challenge limitations that her team members put on themselves. This is largely down to the highly successful, best in-class onboarding program created by Helen, which offers new starters an imprinting window that stays with them for the duration of their career. Helen has also created a career development program to provide structured growth and advancement within her team.”

Sonia Urdiales
UK territory manager
Wasp Barcode Technologies

“Sonia Urdiales has worked for Wasp for 14 years, bringing to the company strong commitment and unrivalled dedication. From grass roots she began her career at the company joining as a Sales Rep. After mastering this role she worked her way up to channel account manager for distribution within the UK, and through her success was promoted to UK territory manager to head the UK region. Within this role she managed the UK management team in respect of Sales, Accounts, Technical, Marketing and HR.

Sonia has made a positive impact in the industry over the past year and continues to achieve new goals within her career. She is an all-round team player and brings great passion and energy. She undertakes everything with dedicated professionalism and supports her teammates with great industry insight gained from her years of industry experience.

Valerie Vacante
Director of Strategy, LiveArea and Founder, Collabsco
LiveArea/Collabsco

“Valerie Vacante architected LiveArea’s accelerated innovation solutions, allowing brands to rapidly ideate, design, test and learn products or services before investing big.

She also co-founded retail innovation “LiveArea Scan&Go,” a web-based, app free scan and go experience to alleviate queuing in retail stores and enhance overall consumer experiences.

Valerie was instrumental in evolving Collabsco’s ground breaking Connected Play Landscape, showcased at CES 2020 and featured in ToyNews,VentureBeat, The Drum, VRScout among others.

She was also consulted on the book, “Taming Gaming” by UK Journalist Andy Robertson, about educating kids and families on the power of positive gaming and play, featured on BBC Click.

Valerie was nominated 40/Forty and Mojo Nation 100 Design Champion 2020 and serves on the SXSW Innovation Advisory Board as a CES KAPi Awards Judge and is a Global Expert to MassChallenge.”

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