Sachini Imbuldeniya, Co-Founder and CEO, House of Oddities

"Winning CEO of the Year at the Campaign Inspiring Women Awards was incredibly special, but honestly, the most meaningful part came afterwards. The following week, I was inundated with messages from women of colour across the industry – many of whom I’d never met – all saying versions of the same thing: that they’d been seriously considering leaving the industry because it felt toxic, unfair, and impossible to navigate, but seeing someone like them win gave them hope that maybe the industry is changing for the better.

No pressure, obviously.

But those messages meant far more to me than the award itself, because they were a reminder of why these awards matter so much. In an industry where the gender pay gap still exists, the ‘mum tax’ is still very real, and visibility of women in senior leadership roles is still moving at a frustratingly slow pace, representation genuinely matters.

We have to celebrate the women who are breaking through, not just because they deserve recognition, but because for the next generation coming into this industry, seeing it is often the first step to believing they can be it too."