2013 Judges

Maggie Berry, Founder, The Women in Technology Network

Maggie Berry is the Managing Director of womenintechnology.co.uk, a leading online job board and networking forum for women working in the technology profession in the UK. She has been involved since the organisation’s inception in the autumn of 2004 and manages all aspects of the website and their networking activities. The network now has over 7,000 members and the job board helps a wide range of firms to recruit more women into their IT divisions. Her background is in technology recruitment and she previously worked for NatWest as a Graduate Banking Manager. Maggie is a graduate of the University of East Anglia.

Eileen Brown, CEO, Amastra

Eileen Brown is CEO of Amastra which specialises in social media strategy to engage customers and gain advocates for companies. After 10 years as Shell Tankers first female Deck Officer, Eileen managed containerships, IT support, training, consultancy, and technology management at Microsoft. She is an international speaker on Social Media and technology and an advocate for the advancement of women in technology. She is part of BCSWomen, BCS Essex, fellow of the RSA and Chairs Intellect’s Women in Technology committee.

Melissa Di Donato, VP, EMEA and Asia Pacific, OEM & ISV Programs, salesforce.com

Melissa Di Donato is the Vice President of ISV programs for salesforce.com for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Melissa has a long history of technology leadership, starting with PwC/IBM after earning her B.A.  double degree in Russian Linguistics and Political Science from Manhattanville College and MBA and MA from American University. In addition to spending a total of 10 years with PwC/IBM, Melissa joined Oracle Corporate to run Oracle Services in the western US in which she was awarded Sales Director of the Year in 2004. Melissa joined Salesforce.com in 2010 with the mission to build and lead the ISV team across the EMEA region. She currently chairs a European ISV Advisory Innovation Board, is a Board member for EuroCloud in the UK and sits as an advisoryto various technology companies in the UK and in the Silicon Valley, looking to further cloud based technology and the PaaS market.

Sheila Flavell, Chief Operating Officer, FDM Group

Sheila Flavell is the Chief Operating Officer, Founder Director and part owner of the international IT services provider, FDM Group. Sheila has enjoyed a hugely successful business career spanning over 25 years in the public and private sectors of IT. Sheila was a key instigator in the flotation of FDM on AiM and the management buyout in 2010 and spends the majority of her time travelling around the world, spearheading FDM’s global expansion. Sheila won the Corporate Leader of the Year at the everywoman in Technology Awards 2012 and is the driving force behind FDM’s Global Women in IT initiative.

Rebecca George OBE, Chair, BCS Policy and Public Affairs Board and Partner, Deloitte

Rebecca has been involved in a variety of activities to increase the participation of Women in the IT industry for over 10 years.  She chaired the Women in IT Forum, the Intellect Shared Services working group and is currently Vice Chair, Policy and Public Affairs Board for the BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, where she is a Fellow. Rebecca joined Deloitte as a Partner in September 2006 and leads the Firm’s Public Sector Health practice in the UK.  Before joining Deloitte, Rebecca spent nearly 20 years at IBM in a variety of sales, HR and business process re-engineering roles. 

Virginia Hodge, Senior Technology Strategist, NATS

Virginia Hodge is a Senior Technology Strategist at NATS (formerly National Air Traffic Services) defining the company’s Technology Strategy out to 2025-2030 alongside her operational colleagues to meet European Commission requirements.  Prior to this she has worked as a Software Architect, Test Architect, Project Manager and in a management role mentoring 60 younger engineers having started her career as a software engineer.  Virginia is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and is one of their Charity Trustees.

Stephanie Liston, Senior Counsel, Charles Russell LLP

Stephanie Liston, an acknowledged international expert, is a member of Charles Russell's Technology & Communications group as Senior Counsel. A qualified lawyer in the US and UK, Stephanie served as a Non-Executive Director of the Office of Communications (Ofcom) from 2005 to 2008, a Director of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) from 2000 to 2005 and co-chairman of the Communications Committee of the International Bar Association from 2004-2006. Stephanie co-founded and Chairs Women in Telecoms and Technology (founded in 2000 - with current membership of over 600) and has been a senior partner in a number of leading law firms. Stephanie has advised on strategic regulatory issues, contractual negotiations and commercial transactions for numerous companies in the European and international communications sector since 1990 when she was a senior lawyer for MCI Communications Corporation. Highlights include advising MCI on its joint venture with BT, Energis on its Metro Holdings joint venture with France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, One.Tel in the 3G Auctions, the UK Telecoms Adjudicator appointed by Ofcom and Cable & Wireless on Ofcom's 2004/2005 strategic review of the telecoms market.

Audrey Mandela, Founder & Director, Mandela Associates

Audrey Mandela is an entrepreneur and consultant. She chairs the Locus Association, a group that campaigns for a fair trading environment in public sector information; Informilo, a technology news site that links business with innovation; and Women in Telecoms & Technology, a networking group. Audrey runs Mandela Associates, which provides consulting services for select clients in the telecom, internet and geographical information sectors. She was Co-Founder of Multimap, one of the world’s leading online mapping providers (Multimap was sold to Microsoft in December 2007). Audrey was also Senior Vice President, International, for the Yankee Group, a leading IT research firm.

David Parry-Jones, Regional Director for UK and Ireland, VMware

As Regional Director for UK and Ireland, David Parry-Jones is responsible for driving VMware’s business strategy and growth across the region, helping its customers accelerate their journey to the Software Defined Datacentre and the cloud. Parry-Jones joined VMware from Microsoft where he held a number of senior leadership roles, including senior director of emerging product sales for UK and France, General Manager for enterprise search and Senior Director for the UK enterprise partner group. With a successful career in IT spanning two decades, Parry-Jones also worked at BT Rich Media, Omnibus Systems, Lazy Software, VerticalNet and Lotus Development/IBM.

Cathryn Riley, Chief Operations Officer, Aviva Plc

Cathryn is Chief Operations Officer, Aviva plc and is responsible for IT, business change and shared services across the group.  She is an experienced business leader having held multiple Executive level roles over the last 25 years, across a number of industries.  Throughout her career, Cathryn has led transformational change enabling both culture and technology and has championed the role of women in business, particularly in Aviva.

Jacqueline de Rojas, Vice President & General Manager UKI & Ireland, CA Technologies

Jacqueline is the Vice President and General Manager for CA Technologies UK & Ireland. Her role focuses on driving revenues, delivering shareholder value, aligning with key partners, growing market share & delivering value to CA Technologies customer-base. Jacqueline is an experienced business leader with over 20 years of experience in the technology sector. Prior to taking up her position with CA Technologies, Jacqueline held executive roles at McAfee, Novell, Cartesis, Business Objects, Computer Associates, Legent & Informix.  She is an Advisor to the board of Bazaarvoice, a social media software company and is also a non-executive director for a number of major UK organisations, advising on technology strategy and innovation.

Tim Skinner, Director UK Enterprise, Cisco UK & Ireland

Tim leads Cisco’s Enterprise sales and technical teams across the UK, helping customers from the Retail, Manufacturing, Utility, Industrial and Financial Services sectors to enhance productivity, profitability and lower costs through better use of network based services and solutions. After joining Cisco in 1999 Tim has held various roles including sales management, vertical business development andaccount management. Tim has been in the networking and data communications industry for 20 Years and has a wealth of IT experience gained from  Newbridge Networks and Case Communications where he held various engineering, sales and management roles.