The Inspiring Fifty UK awards, hosted by accelerateHER, has announced the 50 trailblazing winners of this year’s contest. 

With over 500 entries received, the calibre of entrants was higher than ever with women from the world’s biggest tech brands featured on the winning list.

Female co-founders and founders of dynamic, fast growth startups were also amongst the winning 50 including Tessa Clarke, co-founder and CEO of food-sharing app OLIO and Melinda Nicci, sports psychologist founder and CEO of Baby2Body, the health and wellbeing coaching app for pregnancy and motherhood.

The Inspiring Fifty awards exist to spotlight women excelling in technology careers across the UK, encouraging more girls and women into tech as well as inspiring future leaders and entrepreneurs to follow in their footsteps. 

Elka Goldstein, interim co-CEO at accelerateHER, said: “We are delighted to announce such an impressive array of winners for this year’s Inspiring Fifty UK competition. 

“The judges were blown away by the calibre of entries. It is fantastic to see so many inspirational women excelling in their fields and increasing gender diversity in technology businesses. Becoming more inclusive is essential for the tech industry to thrive and evolve. 

“Inspiring Fifty highlights just how many women are the backbone of UK tech businesses today and through this competition we seek to raise awareness of these incredible women that are driving change.”

Inspiring Fifty winner Natalia Pawlak, COO of MY WARDROBE HQ and MY VENTURES, said: “To be listed alongside such accomplished women is humbling and I’m very grateful to be considered a winner of this year’s Inspiring Fifty. 

“It is a privilege to be chosen and I’m delighted to be amongst game-changing women who are not afraid to push boundaries and help make women role models more visible in what is a very male dominated and hugely competitive sector.”

Inspiring Fifty UK winners 2021

  • Mei Chen, Director, Head of Fashion & Luxury, Alibaba Group
  • Karen Blackett OBE, Country Manager, WPP, CEO, GroupM
  • Dr Larissa Suzuki, Data/AI Practice Lead UKI, Google Cloud
  • Linda Knutsen, Division Head, Exploration, Defence Science & Technology Laboratory
  • Sheree Atcheson, Global Director of Diversity & Inclusion, Valtech
  • May Al-Karooni, CEO & Founder, Globechain
  • Mikela Druckman, CEO & Co-Founder, Greyparrot
  • Melissa Di Donato, Chief Executive Officer, Member of the Management Board, SUSE
  • Kathleen Breitman, Co-Founder, Tezos
  • Tessa Clarke, Co-Founder & CEO, OLIO
  • Yodit Stanton, CEO & Founder, OpenSensors
  • Priya Guha MBE, Venture Partner, Merian Ventures, Member of InnovateUK Council
  • Sherry Coutu CBE, Serial Entrepreneur, Mother, Non-Executive Director, Investor and Philanthropist
  • Maria Pasquale, Co-Founder, UpSpark
  • Tanya Suarez, Founder & CEO, IoT Tribe & BluSpecs
  • Dr. Verena Rieser, Co-Founder & Head of NLP, ALANA AI
  • Natalia Pawlak, COO, MY WARDROBE HQ, COO & Co-Founder, MY VENTURES
  • Kayleigh Oliver, Founder & Developer, Junction 5 Studios
  • Dr Marzia Bolpagni, Head of BIM International – Associate Director, Mace Group
  • Melinda Nicci, CEO, Founder & Chair, Body Collective Group
  • Triin Linamagi, Co-Founder, Sie Ventures
  • Dr Bhavagaya Bakshi, General Practitioner, Obama Leader, Co-Founder & CEO, C the Signs
  • Ana Bakshi, Executive Director, Oxford Foundry, University of Oxford
  • Sonali De Rycker, Partner, Accel
  • Rita Martins, FinTech Partnerships Lead, HSBC
  • Marta Jasinska, CTO, Bloom & Wild
  • Rachel Murphy, CEO, Difrent
  • Marija Butkovic, Founder & CEO, Women of Wearables, Forbes contributor
  • Saswati Saha Mitra, Research Leader, WhatsApp
  • Evelyn Ngatia, Founder & CEO, TechaWatt Ltd
  • Tanu Chellam, VP Product, Seldon, Chair of the Board of Directors, Rosetta Digital
  • Stephanie Eltz, CEO & Co-Founder, Doctify
  • Rebecca Sparrow, Delivery Director, Centrica
  • Hera Hussain, Founder & CEO, Chayn
  • Dee Saigal, CEO & Creative Director, Erase All Kittens
  • Alison Loehnis, President, Luxury & Fashion, NET-A-PORTER, MR PORTER and THE OUTNET
  • Rashmy Chatterjee, CEO, ISTARI
  • Tania Boler, CEO & Founder, Elvie
  • Chloe Macintosh, Founder & CEO, Kama
  • Eshita Kabra, Founder & CEO, By Rotation
  • Sonya Barlow, CEO & Founder, LMF Network
  • Katie Grosvenor, Head of Sales, Buy Side, Northern Europe, IAS
  • Yin Noe, CEO & Co-Founder, Savium
  • Renee Watson, Founder & Head of Explosions, The Curiosity Box
  • Chantal Epp, Founder & CEO, ClicknClear
  • Sophie Neary, Group Director, Facebook UK & Ireland
  • Anushka Sharma, Founder, Naaut, Co-Founder, London Space Network
  • Sarah Jane Thomson, CEO & Founder, Discover.film, CEO, First News, Director, Priority One IT Limited
  • Dr Devaki Bhatta, Co-Founder and Director, multiple healthtech/agritech startups
  • Cathy McCabe, Co-Founder & CEO Proximity Insight, Board Member for AIOTI, & Quantum Industry Consortium