Women in Technology Excellence Awards - meet the judges

With nominations currently open for the Women in Technology Excellence Awards, meet some of our judges - including Sarah Lucas, Head of Platforms and Infrastructure at William Hill and Kate Beverley, VP of Business and Portfolio Management at Pearson - drawn from previous winners and other technology luminaries

The Women in Technology Excellence Awards are open for nominations of outstanding women working in technology from around the world. The nominations process offers a confidence boosting opportunity for nominees to recognise their own achievements, to celebrate those of other women and also to build supportive networks with women working in technology across multiple industries. Nominees can get a huge amount out of the process, regardless of whether or not they go on to win their category. But who judges these awards - and why?

Our judges are drawn from a mix of industry high-fliers, previous nominees and winners. The majority are women. Being on the judging panel involves giving up a fair bit of time to review nominations, draw up short lists, engage with those publicising the event and eventually choosing winners. Why do such busy people choose to give their time to this event?

Sarah Lucas, Head of Platforms and Infrastructure at William Hill sets out her reasoning.

"I've been around this whole process for a few years now and this is an extension of me being involved with the Diversity and Inclusion, but the best way I can explain it is in terms of women's football. We were talking about the BBC getting women's football, and the presenter said you have to see it to be it. That really pretty much sums up why I get involved in this because being a woman in my area of tech is still quite rare. I still tend to be the only woman in the room at a lot of meetings. I think for me, it's all around needing to promote myself in the role, so that other women can see that it's a role that they can do."

The event has also been a springboard for Lucas in terms of her reach into a wider programme to increase the diversity at William Hill.

"We've recently launched our ‘Belong' programme with a William Hill, which is about all forms of Diversity and Inclusion. I'm on the sounding board for that so it was a nice springboard into that."

Lucas is far from the only judge using the experience to inform her membership of groups aiming to improve the rates of representation of women at all levels of technology. Kate Beverley, VP of Business and Portfolio Management at Pearson shares her reasons for being involved.

"I'm a coach of our Women in Technology Employee Resource Group in Pearson. I've been conscious that we ought to actively promote women in technical roles, because if you if you don't see what you can become, I think it's really hard for people to aspire to that. We know what's happening in schools that at 13 or 14 as children decide what they're going to do, lots of girls drop out of STEM subjects so the pool of available women gets smaller and trying to get a gender balance is really challenging. We are keen to try and get better gender parity inside Pearson and I have been for a long time."

Beverley is acutely conscious of her own privilege and is keenly aware that women who weren't raised in an environment or era where there were no constraints of expectation on what women could achieve in more traditionally male dominated careers might need some help in seeing the possibilities.

"I never thought we needed anything special. I've worked in all female environments and I've worked in environments where as far as the eye can see, I was the only girl and everything in between. I was never concerned about it; I just did my best. But I don't think that works for everybody. I started to realise that although I might have been fine in my twenties and thirties and just got on with it, as you get older it gets harder because the difference gets bigger. I was privileged in that I was fine but not everybody is so it's really important that we do something about it and be the voice that we should be for everybody."

In addition to contributing to the momentum of initiatives to increase female representation in technology, being on the judging panel also provides the opportunity to broaden individual horizons by working with other individuals who may hold similar beliefs about the importance of increasing diversity within the technology sphere but also hold different roles and perspectives. There is more to it than simply building out personal business networks. Kate Beverley certainly found this to be the case.

"I don't often feel like I'm with my fellow people, people who think like me and who would work like me, which is good because diversity is good, but I met another two judges to review nominations (in person pre-Covid.) It felt great because we really connected, and I thought - people who think like me and who understand my reactions to certain things. That was a wonderful experience - I didn't want to leave!"

Beverley's enthusiasm underlines the fact that being involved with the awards can be an incredibly positive experience, because of the inspiring nature of so many of the nominees. Jane Deal, CTO at The Law Society, now in her second year on the panel explains that this lies at the heart of her involvement.

"I really enjoyed doing the judging last year because there were a number of examples in those applications where I thought, just, wow! There were women who had combined really challenging personal circumstances with very high-powered careers. I must admit I don't know if I could have done all that and I regard myself as somebody who's had a few challenges over the years to contend with and got on and dealt with it. But there were some really inspiring stories, and these are the role models that people need to see."

The Women in Technology Excellence Awards are open now, nominate yourself or a colleague today!