Ten high-profile names from the worlds of business and digital have joined the judging line-up for this year’s Digital Entrepreneur Awards (DEAs).
The UKFast-sponsored awards are now in their 14th year and nominations have been pouring in across 19 categories – from Digital Startup of the Year to Most Innovative use of Digital Technology.
New categories this year include Best use of AR/VR, Tech Platform of the Year and the Tech for Good Award, which honours the technology and innovation driving social change.
“We are known as a nation of innovators and of entrepreneurs,” said tech superstar Jacqueline de Rojas, who has recently agreed to join the judging line-up.
De Rojas (pictured below) is president of non-profit organisation techUK and chair of the Digital Leaders Board and the Institute of Coding.
She also holds a number of non-executive director positions at RightMove, Costain and AO World.
“It is quite simply a privilege to judge the technologies and innovators agitating the frontiers of change,” she added.
“The UK is a nation of technological significance and shining a light on entrepreneurship in this space is a way of investing in our digital future.
“I have seen the smallest of changes make the biggest of differences (Flyt in restaurants for example) and I am looking forward to seeing the creativity of our digital entrepreneurs fix real-world problems that are worth solving.”
De Rojas is joined by Vikas Shah MBE, chief executive of Swiscot Group; House of Coco founder Laura Bartlett; Tech North Advocates co-founder and Capital Pilot chair Naomi Timperley; Heather Waters, enterprise manager at NatWest; Jon Woodall, founder and managing director of Space 48; Susie Ma, founder and CEO of Tropic Skincare; and Richard Law, former chief executive of GB Group and current chair of Zuto and VYPR.
Completing the line-up are Lawrence and Gail Jones, co-founders of cloud and hosting provider UKFast.
The winners of the Digital Entrepreneur Awards are to be announced at a glittering ceremony at The Principal Hotel, Manchester on November 22nd.
Previous winners include Social Chain, Forever Unique, British Heart Foundation, Sainsbury’s and Mothercare.