More than 620 attendees came together under the ARN roof to set a new industry benchmark in for female excellence in Sydney. #WIICTA

ARN is proud to announce the winners of the Women in ICT Awards (WIICTA) in 2023, honouring female excellence within the technology channel following an industry-defining celebration in Sydney.

Played out in front of more than 620 attendees at the International Convention Centre (ICC) 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 IT ecosystem came together under the ARN roof to set a new industry benchmark for female achievement and accomplishment.

In total, 230 finalists were honoured as finalists from a pool of over 148 organisations and more than 390 nominations, spanning partner, telco, vendor and distributor businesses.

Following an intensive judging process — selected by an executive panel of more than 170 industry judges — 23 winners were selected across eight categories, in addition to 11 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," ARN editor Julia Talevski said. "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.

Partner:

• Amanda Stenson – Barhead Solutions 
•  Rachael Waters – Best Technology Services
•  Vicky Andrews – Business Aspect
•  Jessica Mansur – Deloitte
•  Stephanie Gray – InfoTrust
•  Kate Raulings – Logicalis 
•  Pauline Thomas – Macquarie Cloud Services
•  Daphne Dominic – MobileCorp
•  Sanya Turkalj – Sourced Group

Winner: Rachael Waters – Best Technology Services

Rachael is an exceptional problem solver with a collaborative and iterative approach to convert ideas into working solutions. In her capacity as talent manager, she tackled the ongoing IT skills shortage with an innovative recruitment strategy to scale field service resources by 300 per cent in four months.

Vendor:

• Carmen Lyons – BlackLine
• Julie Bateman – Dynatrace
• Julie Zheng – Google Cloud
• Felicity Purdham – HPE
• Yvonne Patze – Lenovo
• Crystal Jordan – NextDC
• Gabe Marzano – Palo Alto Networks
• Amy Badger – Salesforce
• Jenana Roper – Schneider Electric
• Carly Rees – Vocus

Winner: Gabe Marzano – Palo Alto Networks

Balancing her day job as a channel business manager with being a public-facing cyber security evangelist, Gabe operates outside of the box. Her approach to innovation is through collaboration and activation, which resulted in her co-hosting the cyber security-focused Dark Mode podcast.

Distributor:

• Kristal Wheeler – Comstor
• Meenakshi Jaglan – Dicker Data
• Deanna Jenkins – Exclusive Networks
• Louise Bristow – Nextgen oSpace
• Crystal Ting – Pax8

Winner: Crystal Ting – Pax8

One of the first hires for Pax8 in the Asia Pacific region last year, Crystal was tasked with building the company's service desk solution, processes and team from the ground up, with no direction given on the creation process. As she was new to the industry, Crystal needed to upskill herself and then create a process to upskill new hires as the team was built over time.