ARN Women in ICT Awards 2022: and the winners are…

ARN is proud to announce the winners of the Women in ICT Awards (WIICTA) in 2022, honouring female excellence within the technology channel following an industry-defining celebration in Sydney.

Played out in front of more than 600 attendees at Hyatt Regency in Sydney — once again the largest ever in-person audience for the market's leading gender diversity and inclusion (D&I) awards program — the entire Australian ecosystem came together under the ARN roof to set a new industry benchmark for female achievement and accomplishment.

In total, 240 finalists (220 individuals and 20 companies) were honoured as finalists from a pool of over 120 organisations and more than 325 nominations, spanning partner, telco, vendor and distributor businesses.

Following an intensive judging process — selected by an executive panel of more than 150 industry judges — 25 winners were selected across eight categories, in addition to 14 highly commended acknowledgements.

The collective aim of WIICTA is to ensure as many outstanding women are endorsed through this unique awards program as possible, aligned to the collective goal of providing a platform upon aspiring female talent can shine across Australia.

"To all our finalists, highly commended and winners, congratulations from ARN," said Cherry Yumul, vice president of channel at Foundry. "This is an inspiring example of the deep levels of emerging and established female talent in Australia."

In total, WIICTA honoured the channel across eight categories, spanning Innovation, Technical, Entrepreneur, Graduate, Rising Star, Shining Star, Achievement and D&I Champion (Company and Individual) awards.

All career stages were in the spotlight from graduate-level entrants to well-established CEOs, in addition to inspiring entrepreneurs, creative thinkers and technical experts, as well as talent rising through the ranks and consistent high-performing individuals. This was also supported by both individual and company champions of D&I initiatives.

ARN congratulates all winners, highly commended and finalists and thanks all organisations and individuals for supporting this initiative.

INNOVATION

This award recognises a creative-thinking candidate who is a standout in bringing innovation to life through a big picture and out-of-the-box approach to business. This individual is unrivalled at converting embryonic ideas into viable working solutions through a unique thought process designed to continually push the envelope.

— presented by Chelsea Rossney – commercial channel director, HP

Partner (National):

• Jessica Thompson – 8Squad
• Elena Green – ASG Group
• Erica Smith – Blue Connections IT
• Annabel Preacher – Cevo
• Courtney Marx – Data#3
• Sara Watkins – DevOps1
• Parinaz Mohsenpour – Empired
• Danielle Buchner – Interactive
• Carla Kaine – Kaine Mathrick Tech
• Gill Walker – Opsis
• Santana Pham – Outcomex

Highly Commended: Parinaz Mohsenpour – Empired

Winner: Erica Smith – Blue Connections IT

Bringing 20 years of industry experience to the table, Erica wins this award for thinking outside the square when developing programs. Her efforts in engaging and connecting with stakeholders since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have been integral to Blue Connections' recent success, taking in the form of a variety of online events and surpassing the overwhelming air of meeting fatigue.

Partner (Multinational):

• Geraldine Triveno – Deloitte
• Nisha Trivedi – Exigo Tech
• Lisa Kirby – Kyndryl
• Danielle Dungo – Lacework
• Holly Popovic – Logicalis
• Joy Chua – MeldCX
• Sugam Mehta – Publicis Sapient
• Sanya Turkalj – Sourced Group
• Loretta Cain – Versent

Highly Commended: Sugam Mehta – Publicis Sapient

Winner: Geraldine Triveno – Deloitte

A pioneering space futurist with both knowledge and contacts within the space sector, Geraldine was the lead technology strategist for Deloitte's project to support Saber Astronautics to design Australia's space Mission Control Centre. This was a flagship project of the federal government's $19.5 million Space Infrastructure Fund where Deloitte's role included designing the go-to-market strategy and operating model, customer experience, cyber design and implementation.

Vendor:

• Brearna Leopold – Crowdstrike
• Le Tran – Dropbox
• Stefanee Lovett – Google Cloud
• Kim Cook – Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Natalie Garman – HP
• Naina Nair – Lenovo
• Tiffany Wright – Microsoft
• Anne Tran – Palo Alto Networks
• Jenana Roper – Schneider Electric
• Selena Theol – Telstra
• Brooke Witchard – Veeam Software

Winner: Tiffany Wright – Microsoft

Tiffany is a founding partner of the Institute of Applied Technology for Digital Technology (IATD), which aims to address the digital skills shortages in areas such as big data, cyber security and artificial intelligence. She also always looks for new ways of working, new partnerships and better outcomes. 

Distributor:

• Maria Furnari – Dicker Data
• Meenakshi Kakar – Ingram Micro
• Emma Davidson – Nextgen Group
• Rachel Albrecht – Rhipe

Winner: Emma Davidson – Nextgen Group 

Emma has pioneered methods of procurement for AWS, working across both the higher education and non-profit sectors. Combining her extensive knowledge of AWS’ partner programs and passion for the channel, Emma is always seeking new ways to help partners make better business decisions and strive for better business outcomes. 

TECHNICAL

This award recognises excellence in the form of technical and engineering expertise, honouring deep domain knowledge in relation to technology products, solutions and services. This candidate has provided business value through specialised skills and competence, spanning technical, pre-sales and support roles.

— presented by Jamuna Jettigari – lead service manager, DevOps1

Partner (National):

• Yulin Zhou – Arinco
• Sonia Vadera – Brennan IT
• Ane Hellman – CMD Solutions
• Swati Verma – Data#3
• Michelle Phan – DevOps1
• Betty Chen – Empired
• Laura Flynn – InfoTrust
• Nici Sindhav – Interactive
• Elena Kosobrodova – Kablamo
• Lizzie Reid – Kasna
• Erika Orozco – Tecala
• Avril Frost – The Missing Link

Winner: Erika Orozco – Tecala

Initially working exclusively with Microsoft technologies, Erika expanded her technical nous into modern delivery technologies gaining accreditations across Microsoft, Citrix, VMware and Netskope. Her skillset has been an invaluable asset to Tecala and its customers, in many cases orchestrating 'bleeding edge' projects and seizing the opportunity to develop new skills along the way. 

Partner (Multinational):

• Susan Webb – DDLS
• Praveena Gatram – Exigo Tech
• Arushi Tyagi – Insight
• Vicky Rose – Kyndryl
• Eliza Parish – Publicis Sapient
• Saranyah Shanmugam – Slalom
• Lenka Bednarikova – Telstra Purple
• Celina Tang – WalkMe

Highly Commended: Arushi Tyagi – Insight

Winner: Vicky Rose – Kyndryl

As an executive IT architect, Vicky is renowned at Kyndryl for her ability to take on an unfamiliar topic, learn from the specialists in her team and make rapid critical technical decisions. She is highly sought after both as the lead architect on an engagement or project and during critical situations when a customer needs fast resolutions. 

Vendor / Distributor:

• Corien Vermaak – Cisco
• Jodi Favaloro – Cradlepoint
• Audrey Jacquemart – Daltrey
• Aruna Kolluru – Dell Technologies
• Leah Kaplan – Google Cloud
• Ranjeetha Hegde – HP
• Kavyashree Virupakshappa – Lenovo
• Thasmika Gokal – Microsoft
• Beate Konrad – NEXTDC
• Rhiannon Markham – Palo Alto Networks
• Meethu Francis – Ping Identity
• Nilam Patel – Westcon-Comstor

Highly Commended: Corien Vermaak – Cisco and Audrey Jacquemart – Daltrey

Winner: Leah Kaplan – Google Cloud

Leah is an expert in all aspects of Google Cloud's analytics stack and has an in-depth understanding of the entire predictive analytics market. Deeply committed to her craft, Leah regularly experiments in a sandbox environment and constantly transforms questions from partners into tangible solutions. 

ENTREPRENEUR

This award recognises an enterprising candidate with a risk-taking mentality, honouring excellence in launching new ventures, products or services. This individual has a proven background in building innovation from the ground up, evident through converting market-leading ideas into viable business offerings.

— presented by Renee Cathcart – group owner of marketing, enterprise and commercial steering, Telstra. 

• Linda Connolly – Azenix
• Xara Tran – Champions of Change
• Nazia Mastali – CSO Group
• Katharine Duncan – Deloitte
• Tiffany Townsend – Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Patricia Russell – RingCentral
• Rebecca Hall – Roma Computers
• Tracey Kingston – Taleka
• Angie Keeler – Zella DC

Winner: Xara Tran – Champions of Change

After various roles and ventures in the first 10 years in the IT industry, Xara launched Champions of Change in 2016. The organisation was born from Xara’s experience and deep understanding of the IT industry, in particular some of the challenges faced by businesses in how they adopt new technologies. Champions of Change takes a transformative approach to services, which has propelled the company to record revenue in new contracts. 

GRADUATE

This award recognises a standout graduate candidate who has leveraged apprenticeship programs to start a career within the ICT industry. Open to all roles and responsibilities, this individual has made an immediate and positive impact on the business through providing a fresh perspective and high levels of professionalism.

— presented by Bryan Stibbard – A/NZ director channel and alliances, Palo Alto Networks. 

Partner:

• Pallavi Tanjavur – Adactin Group
• Kiara Barbis – Blue Connections IT
• Tiana Douroudis – Clade Solutions
• Vanessa Kong – CMD Solutions
• Adrianna Naofal – CNS
• Vella Liu – CCNA
• Madeleine Stewart-Teh – Cyconsol
• Emily Jensen – Data#3
• Caitlin Lawrence – Deloitte
• Michelle Owen – Empired
• Tina Gray – Interactive
• Carine Lim – Publicis Sapient
• Lilly Stephenson – The Missing Link

Highly Commended: Tina Gray – Interactive and Lilly Stephenson – The Missing Link

Winner: Vanessa Kong – CMD Solutions

Vanessa entered into parent company Mantel Group's Traineeship program as part of its June 2021 intake and was promoted to Base Cloud Engineer in only six months. Since joining the company, she exceeded expectations by developing an innovative framework to assess security risk benefits of cloud migrations on her first client engagement.

Vendor / Distributor:

• Emerald Williamson – Cisco
• Olivia Dilanchian – Dell Technologies
• Sabriina Costa – Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Shirley Huang – HP
• Tanya Filipcic – Ingram Micro
• Jamie Irawan – Microsoft
• Lavanya Krishnamurthy – Nintex
• Sanah Uberoy – Palo Alto Networks
• Bec Barford – Schneider Electric
• Marina Deletic – Spotify (formerly of Google Cloud)
• Mary Nikolakopoulos – Telstra
• Sarah Chalwell – VMware

Winner: Sanah Uberoy – Palo Alto Networks

Sanah joined the Palo Alto LEAP program after graduating from UNSW in 2021 and made an immediate impact as an associate channel business representative. She was studying and working full time, starting out as an inside sales representative and was promoted multiple times before landing as a renewals account manager where she managed the maintenance and contract portfolio of more than 80 accounts in A/NZ, delivering 20 per cent year-on-year growth.

RISING STAR

This award recognises a standout candidate rising through the ranks within the ICT industry, acknowledging significant advancement during the early stages of her technology career. This individual is growing in stature and importance through demonstrating outstanding business acumen, deep market expertise and high levels of professional integrity. This award is open to candidates with 10 years or less experience within the ICT industry.

— presented by Matt Maw – A/NZ director of channel, Nutanix

Partner (National):

• Dorota Martinez – 8Squad
• Akanksha Malik – Altis Consulting
• Olivia Radocchia – Best Technology Services
• Nina Zivkovic – DigIO
• Meryl Palma – Hosted Network
• Stephanie Gray – InfoTrust
• Hayley Jope – Interactive
• Madeleine McKenna – Kaine Mathrick Tech
• Frances Demetriou – Outcomex
• Jill Taylor – Security Centric
• Sita Bhat – Sekuro
• Karen Collins – Subnet
• Jemma Healy – Tecala

Highly Commended: Akanksha Malik – Altis Consulting and Stephanie Gray – InfoTrust

Winner: Hayley Jope – Interactive  

Starting her Interactive career as a receptionist, Hayley has quickly risen through the ranks to now lead its customer success team. Indeed, Hayley was the brainchild behind establishing Interactive's national customer success team, whom she continuously coaches to become Interactive's highest achievers. During the pandemic, she was instrumental in guiding customers during some of their most difficult periods.  

Partner (Multinational):

• Bianca Isaacson – Accenture
• Emily Steele – CNS
• Rachel Welsh – CCNA
• Emily Horton – Deloitte
• Rebekah Malone – Exigo Tech
• Erandhi Mendis – Kyndryl
• Ami Mullenger – Lacework
• Morgan Tobin – Logicalis
• Eliza Marks – Publicis Sapient
• Natalie Anagnostopoulos – Sourced Group
• Gina Lam – Stax

Highly Commended: Emily Horton – Deloitte

Winner:  Natalie Anagnostopoulos – Sourced Group

Natalie wins this award in recognition of her work across numerous projects and initiatives as the delivery lead. In the space of three years she was promoted from cloud associate to solutions enablement consultant and co-wrote the first of three Agile learning modules to assist co-workers. She also scored Sourced Group MVP of the year award in 2021 for her consistency and recognition among her peers and clients.

Vendor:

• Jessica Rose – Appian
• Bridget Maritz – Aruba, A Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company
• Kelly Sabo – Cisco
• Karen Zhang – Google Cloud
• Lynette Ma – JAMF
• Elizabeth Fuller – Microsoft
• Delia Deng – SAP
• Lily Clarke – SAS
• Yassmin Hijazi – Telstra
• Alexandra Montgomery – Veeam Software
• Carolynn Zuzartee – VMware
• Christina Chung – Zscaler

Winner:  Lily Clarke – SAS

Quickly climbing the ranks has led Lily to her current role as systems engineer and harnessing her passion in SAS Data for Good projects across health and life sciences. She led a project in assisting child safety workers to identify early warnings of abuse and neglect through deploying an AI solution, analysing case notes. She also led SAS' business advisory team to improve the operations of The Kids Cancer Project's analytics ecosystem with a far-reaching impact across the organisation.

Distributor:

• Ash Barron – Arrow ECS
• Jun Lee – Ingram Micro
• Lisli Laanemets – Nextgen Group
• Ruth Lavelle – Rhipe

Winner: Ruth Lavelle – Rhipe

Kick starting her career in Dublin, Ruth moved to Australia in 2019 and joined Rhipe, project managing multiple initiatives such as the launch of its enterprise-grade encryption solution SmartEncrypt and the integration of distributors EMT and Crayon. Her exceptional project management skills have enabled her to drive many projects from start to finish, delivering positive outcomes. 

SHINING STAR

This award recognises an established candidate with a strong record of achievement, acknowledging excellence in spearheading company initiatives and driving strategic change. This individual is a consistent high performer who regularly achieves standout business results and continues to assume increased levels of seniority within the organisation. This award is open to candidates with between 11-20 years' experience within the ICT industry.

— presented by Mary Armstrong – regional manager of partner organisation, Cisco

Partner (National):

• Amy Reynolds – APCD
• Maree Bilalovic – ASG Group
• Jayati Gulati – blueAPACHE
• Chanel Egan – Brennan IT
• Lisa Applegarth – Cevo
• Sandra Arena – Cube Networks
• Jamuna Jettigari – DevOps1
• Sara Napier – GBM Technology
• Melissa Swanepoel – Kablamo
• Samantha Konieczka – Orro Group
• Demelza Green – Patient Zero
• Jane Nguyen – Pretzel Lab

Highly Commended: Jane Nguyen – Pretzel Lab

Winner: Jayati Gulati – blueAPACHE

Headhunted to join blueAPACHE in 2018 to manage key NSW customers, Jayati was recognised as a natural leader and was promoted to head of sales in March this year. She is also responsible for the launch of the Social Committee, The Winning Framework, which has been instrumental to the company's sales team's success over the last couple of years.

Partner (Multinational):

• Deepti Wadhwa – Cognizant
• Leanne Chang – Logicalis
• Nicola Dowe – Publicis Sapient
• Fatemah Beydoun – Secure Code Warrior
• Radhini Sivanathan – Slalom
• Sasha Jensen – Sourced Group

Winner: Fatemah Beydoun – Secure Code Warrior

As a founding team member of Secure Code Warrior, Fatemah wore many hats from operations to marketing, human resources and bootstrapping through to the latest Series B funding round of US$47.6 million led by Goldman Sachs. She has been instrumental to the success of the company, building its customer success function with strong relationships along the way. She is currently leading the biggest team in the business as Chief Customer Officer. 

Vendor:

• Catherine Unali – Cisco
• Helen Wilkinson – Dell Technologies
• Tanya Hovagimian – ExtraHop
• Amelia Seow – GitLab
• Nerissa Penfold – Google Cloud
• Helen Roberts – Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Rajalakshmy Nair – HP
• Penelope Feros – Ivanti
• Samantha Said – Microsoft
• Kate Basten – Palo Alto Networks
• Astrid Groves – Schneider Electric
• Olga Specjalska – VMware

Highly Commended: Kate Basten – Palo Alto Networks

Winner: Astrid Groves – Schneider Electric

Harnessing more than 18 years experience across the IT industry, Astrid has built her career from the ground up. One of her top achievements was establishing a new customer support team, looking after 70 per cent of its corporate customers. Her open and empathetic leadership skills has led her towards building a great team, developing a new partner program and kicking off an impact challenge across the ICT landscape. 

Distributor:

• Donna Dowton – Arrow ECS
• Amanda O'Brien – Ingram Micro
• Larissa Crabb – Westcon-Comstor

Winner: Larissa Crabb – Westcon-Comstor

Starting her career as a business development manager, Larissa has been promoted many times throughout. Since taking on her current role as national sales manager at Comstor, focused on the Cisco business, she has taken the unit from strength-to-strength through her leadership, cadence and drive. Not only has she produced impressive sales results, she also overhauled the forecasting system, raised the skill and energy levels in her team, built a stronger winning and collaborative culture, as well as stronger relationships, which is translating into tangible results. 

ACHIEVEMENT

This award recognises a standout candidate who has delivered an unrivalled contribution to the ICT industry, evident through outstanding professional and personal achievements. This individual has earned a reputation as an esteemed thought leader following a distinguished career as both a business leader and role model for aspiring executives. This award is open to candidates with 21 years or more experience within the ICT industry.

— presented by Angela Coronica – director of partnerships and alliances, Google Cloud. 

Partner:

• Veronica Coyle – Altis Consulting / Data4Good
• Claudia Pirko – BlackLine
• Jane Murphy – Blue Connections IT
• Jane Baldock – Business Aspect
• Janelle Phillips – Data#3
• Jo Poirrier – Empired
• Jean Smith – Interactive
• Rima Yammouni – Kyndryl
• Kate Raulings – Logicalis
• Theresa Eyssens – Optus 
• Lisa Papli – Somerville

Winner: Theresa Eyssens – Optus

Theresa is a passionate and outspoken advocate for women in leadership roles in technology companies, particularly across cloud and SaaS.  She actively partakes in events and delivers speeches and presentations championing the cause of women in technology and arguing for organisations to allow policies that support greater diversity.

Vendor:

• Iris Chan – Autodesk
• Lynn Nicol – Dell Technologies
• Helen Stewart – Google Cloud
• Yvette McEnearney – GoTo
• Julie Barbieri – Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Elizabeth James – HP
• Lorraine Costello – Okta
• Lisa Sim – Palo Alto Networks
• Tanya Song – Telstra
• Marie Holmes – VMware

Winner: Lisa Sim – Palo Alto Networks

Lisa wins this award for leading the company's cross-functional Cyber Safe Kids program from its inception through to launch in early 2021, taking it across the JAPAC region in a company first. This program sparked numerous other cyber youth initiatives across the region and government partnerships with Lisa playing a key role in promoting digital safety and wellbeing. 

Distributor:

• Rhonda Robati – Crayon
• Angela Aspropotamitis – Ingram Micro
• Veronica Kruse – Nextgen Group

Winner: Rhonda Robati – Crayon

Establishing a 20-year career in the IT industry has led Rhonda to where she is today as Crayon’s current executive vice president of Asia Pacific. Under her guidance, the company achieved 174 per cent year-on-year revenue growth, making the regional profitable for the first time in Crayon's history. She has also helped shaped Crayon's diversity and gender equality culture by leading, lifting and supporting fellow women in IT.

D&I CHAMPION - Company

This award recognises the standout company in driving diversity and inclusion (D&I) across all aspects of the business, spanning employees, customers and key stakeholders. This organisation has gone beyond a surface-level commitment through the introduction of policies and programs to meet D&I goals, evident through targeted initiatives, strong leadership and clearly defined deliverables. This award is open to all aspects of diversity and inclusion (gender, race, age, disability, sexual orientation etc).

— presented by Todd Parsons – A/NZ director of channel and alliances, Okta. 

Partner:

• Altis Consulting
• Araza
• Deloitte
• InfoTrust
• Logicalis
• Mantel Group
• Orro Group
• Outcomex
• Powernet IT Solutions

Highly Commended: Araza

Winner: Logicalis

In the past 12 months, Logicalis has bumped up its parental leave policy, revamped its recruitment strategy to be more inclusive and has created a company-wide D&I calendar. The latter includes increased diversity and inclusion education and training for all employees, a focus on attracting, recruiting and retaining more diverse talent and increased D&I management training. 

Vendor / Distributor:

• Access4
• Dell Technologies
• Dicker Data
• Fluent Commerce 
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• HP
• Microsoft
• Nextgen Group
• Palo Alto Networks
• Schneider Electric
• VMware

Winner: Dicker Data

With a Board gender ratio of 57 per cent female to 43 per cent male, diversity and inclusion is front of mind for Dicker Data, with policies enshrined since its foundation allowing mothers to return to the workforce in hours that suited them on a casual basis with rates above industry standards. The diversity and inclusion vision is a constant work in progress for the company, resulting in hiring the best people for the role regardless of race, gender, age or otherwise to reach their full potential. 

D&I CHAMPION - Individual

This award recognises an influential individual who actively drives diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives through mentoring and thought leadership across the ICT industry. This candidate acts as a role model for aspiring executives, cultivating diverse teams to drive change both internally and externally. This award is open to all aspects of diversity and inclusion (gender, race, age, disability, sexual orientation etc).

Partner:

• Sheeza Shakeel – Accenture
• Sukanya Suryakumar – Adactin Group
• Tanya Manderson – ASG Group
• Heidi Mangan – Data#3
• Anle-Marne Pretorius – Empired
• Katherine Clayton – Insight
• Bronwyn Grantham – Kyndryl
• Regina Melamed – Linktech
• Fiona Patrick – Logicalis
• Jen Glass – Slalom
• Leah Cerinich – Sourced Group

Winner: Heidi Mangan – Data#3

Heidi wins this award for her crucial role in providing advice and guidance to senior management around D&I initiatives, creating and leading the company's D&I Embrace program and offering mentorship and counsel to both junior and senior employees. She has built a comprehensive program of work including parental leave policies, domestic and family violence policy along with campaigns to promote D&I topics. 

Vendor / Distributor:

• Courtney Connolly – Appian
• Holly O’Toole – Cisco
• Phoebe Gunter – Google Cloud
• Simone Filetti – Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Nicola Clancy – HP
• Sonia Phillips – Ingram Micro
• Sally McIntosh – Nextgen Group
• Delia Deng – SAP
• Monica Keith – Schneider Electric
• Nadine Russell – Telstra
• Heidi Savva – VMware

Highly Commended: Courtney Connolly – Appian

Winner: Simone Filetti – HPE

An influential voice in the D&I space, Simone consistently finds ways to increase female representation in the ICT, as well as ways to empower their growth and development. Practicing what she preaches, Simone regularly provides mentoring for HPE's younger employees and for women across multiple industries through the Business in Heels initiative.