Interview: Gaby Paul, Sedex, Women in Tech Excellence Awards finalist

‘Seeing teams rally around a shared mission, deliver at pace and re-establish pride in our product is something I’m hugely proud of’

The Women in Tech Excellence Awards celebrate the outstanding contributions of women in all areas of technology, from software development and engineering to AI, cybersecurity, and beyond.

Gaby Paul is a self-taught Product Leader with more than a decade of experience inspiring cross-functional teams to create innovative SaaS solutions that tackle real customer problems while driving business success. Alongside her product leadership, Gaby is passionate about coaching and mentoring emerging talent, supporting the next generation of product thinkers.

Gaby is a Women in Tech Excellence award finalist in two categories – Transformation Leader of the Year and Woman of The Year.

We talked to Gaby to find out more about the company's challenges and achievements over the past year.

Why do you think awards like the Women in Tech Excellence Awards matter? What would winning mean to you and your company?

Awards like Women in Tech Excellence shine a light on contributions that often go unseen, particularly from women who continue to be underrepresented in senior roles. They help inspire the next generation, build visible role models, and encourage organisations to invest in creating more inclusive workplaces.

For my company, winning these awards would be a testament to the ambition and resilience behind the major transformation programmes and new product initiatives we’ve delivered this year, many of which required bold decisions, rapid execution and cross-functional alignment. It would also validate the hard work of the teams who collaborate with me to deliver the outcomes that made this recognition possible.

What would you say is your company's proudest achievement over the past year?

Our proudest achievement has been delivering one of the most significant platform transformations in the company’s history — a full migration from our legacy system to our modern platform after several previous attempts had stalled. In just seven months, we transitioned the entire customer base, retired years of accumulated technical debt and enabled faster, more stable delivery across our engineering organisation.

This shift unlocked substantial cost savings, restored customer confidence and created a foundation that now allows us to innovate far more quickly. It wasn’t just a technical achievement; it was a company-wide shift in mindset and collaboration. Seeing teams rally around a shared mission, deliver at pace and re-establish pride in our product is something I’m hugely proud of.

What have been the biggest challenges of 2025 so far and how have you overcome them?

2025 has brought a mix of challenges. The most difficult was managing the risk to key customers who relied on bespoke features built over many years. Even small changes had the potential to disrupt their supply chain due diligence processes and impact customer trust.

We overcame this by being transparent and hands-on — joining strategic customer conversations, building tailored transition plans, and keeping a tight internal feedback loop so nothing slipped through the cracks.

Our people were instrumental: engineers, designers, product managers, delivery managers and customer facing teams worked together with shared accountability. Their resilience and willingness to adapt made it possible to deliver major change without compromising relationships or quality.

How do you think the industry has changed over the past year and what changes do you think it still needs to make?

The tech industry has shifted rapidly towards product-led operating models, with organisations placing far greater emphasis on customer insight, measurable outcomes and continuous delivery.

The rise of AI has accelerated expectations — not only for smarter user experiences but also for improved internal efficiency, helping teams automate manual analysis, speed up discovery and make decisions grounded in better data. Customers increasingly expect clear ROI, ethical use of data and products that adapt faster to their needs.

There is still work to do, especially around responsible AI and ensuring diverse voices influence product decisions. Women are still underrepresented in many senior product and technical roles and increasing that representation is essential for building solutions that reflect the diversity of the people who use them.

The next step for the industry is fostering inclusive product teams, strengthening data quality and embedding structured insight-led practices that drive meaningful innovation.

What do you see as the main opportunities for the industry in the coming year?

The coming year offers major opportunities to use AI to enhance both product experience and internal efficiency — from improving data quality, to automating operational tasks, to enabling product teams to focus more time on understanding users and solving high-impact problems. As more organisations shift towards product-led, insight-driven delivery, the opportunity is to build solutions that are shaped continuously by customer feedback and clear value metrics.

We plan to stay ahead by deepening our discovery practice, using data to guide prioritisation and ensuring our platform is ready to support responsible AI capabilities. We’re also committed to championing diversity — ensuring women play a central role in shaping future developments, mentoring emerging talent and creating an environment where product decisions benefit from a wide range of perspectives. This combination of inclusive leadership, insight-led development and responsible innovation will help us deliver products with stronger ROI and long-term impact.

Women in Tech Excellence Awards will take place on 27th November in London. Click here to view the shortlist and here to book your table.