Individual Categories
Allyship Award
Charlotte Schreurs
Open Justice For All
Founder
After my trial for coercive controlling behaviour and rape left me feeling powerless and disbelieved, I became determined to understand what had happened in the courtroom. I soon discovered that accessing transcripts could cost over £20,000. It was shocking. It exposed a wider culture of closed doors. Instead of accepting it, I launche...
Charlie Carrington
Mastercard (UK&I)
Senior Vice President, Integrated Marketing and Communications UKI
Charlie Carrington is a standout force in driving gender equality, using her senior leadership position at Mastercard to redefine how a global brand shows up for women and girls. With more than three decades of marketing experience, Charlie has transformed sponsorship from brand visibility to meaningful action, placing women’s sport an...
CEO of the Year
Sachini Imbuldeniya
House of Oddities
CEO
Sachini Imbuldeniya is a frickin’ unicorn. She’s a woman of colour from a working-class background, living with a disability – which makes her representative of the four most underrepresented groups in the UK’s creative industry, and one of just 0.01% of women of colour to own her own creative agency. And not just any agency. Sh...
Emma Harman
Whalar
Co-CEO
As a flag-bearer for the power of Creators and the Creator Economy, Emma was invited to 10. Downing Street to present her keynote to the government's New Media Unit. And then again for the Prime Minister. It was another example of the standout year Creators have had in the creative industries and beyond. But for Whalar, under Emm...
Louise Johnson
Fuse International
Global CEO
As the first female UK CEO in the sports marketing industry – and the only global female CEO in the category – Louise Johnson is redefining modern leadership. Transforming Fuse into one of the most influential agencies, doubling its size to 450 people, delivering over 20% year-on-year growth, and achieving industry-leading client satis...
Conquering Creativity
Alexandra Taylor
FOUNDER OF THE ART OF ART DIRECTION MASTERCLASSES
CREATIVE DIRECTOR - INDEPENDENT CONSULTANCY
Alexandra is a trailblazer in British advertising, breaking barriers for women in the industry. She was the first woman worldwide to receive the D&AD President’s Award for outstanding contribution to advertising (2014). The first woman in the UK featured in the D&AD Masterclass Art Direction book, she is recognised among a...
Gemma Phillips
Freelance (nominated by Pregnant Then Screwed)
Creative Director
With almost twenty years in advertising, including eight as a Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi, Gemma has built a career at the intersection of world-class creativity and meaningful cultural impact. Her work is driven by a clear ambition: to use creativity as a force to change systems, shift policy and transform how society sees ...
Georgina Hurcombe
Pop Paper City
Founder/ Producer/ MD
Georgina Hurcombe is an award-winning producer, director, and creator of Pop Paper City a globally broadcast craft-adventure series that inspires millions of children around the globe to make, create, and imagine. As the founder of a Dorset-based independent studio, Georgina has built an original children’s IP from the ground up, reach...
Diverse Inclusive Workplace
Kate Higham
Born Social
Managing Director
In a year marked by global backsliding on DEI, Kate Higham stepped into the role of Managing Director at Born Social, determined to prove that inclusion, commercial growth, and creativity don’t just coexist; they fuel one another. When she joined, Born was a 25-person start-up. Today, it’s a 180-strong, B Corp-certified agency across L...
Paige Warnes
isobel
Account Director, Marketing & New Business
Paige Warnes is the driving force behind inclusion and positive culture at isobel. As our DE&I Lead, she has transformed how our agency, and those we work with, think, talk and act around diversity, equality and inclusion. Through agency-wide training and discussion sessions on topics from Female Leadership and Racial Diversity to Ne...
Sachini Imbuldeniya
House of Oddities
CEO
According to the UK Government APPG for Creative Diversity there are four massively underrepresented groups in the creative industries. Women. People of Colour. People from working class origins. People living with disabilities. As an example, the number of women creative directors in the UK sits around 11%. Women who own and ru...
Entrepreneur of the Year
Hannah Mirza
Responsible Marketing Advisory
Founder & CEO
Hannah Mirza never planned to become a founder, she became one because she saw a gap no one else was filling. After two decades leading global media innovation at MediaCom, Mindshare and Isobar, she realised brands were striving to act responsibly but lacked the tools to turn intention into impact. So, she built them.In 2022, Hannah fo...
Jennifer Quigley-Jones
Digital Voices
CEO
Jennifer Quigley-Jones is the founder and CEO of Digital Voices, a global Influencer Marketing agency at the intersection of culture and commerce. Since launching the agency in 2017 with just £500, she has grown it into a global business delivering culture-led, data-driven campaigns for brands such as DoorDash, General Mills, Amazon...
Health & Wellbeing Award
Kerry Parkin
The Remarkables
FounderKerry Parkin is redefining how workplaces support people through the most human of experiences – loss. As a communications leader and trustee of Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (SoBS), Kerry has made it her mission to drive lasting change in how employers, policymakers and society respond to grief, with a focus on suicide be...
Making Media Matter
Sangeetha Mahadevan
Omnicom Media Group- OMG UNITE
Managing Partner
For 14 years, Sangeetha has built an international career, across South Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, and the UK, focused on making media matter, as a driver of equity, inclusion, and commercial impact for her organisations and clients. Her media journey began in India, where she led the Tata Group’s Cannes-shortlisted campai...
Laura Rowe
OMD UK
Managing Partner, Head of Decisions Science
“You can be a commercial, inclusive AND effectiveness-driven powerhouse.” From building a research programme—The Real Britain Series—to drive authentic representation in client work, to uniting the industry in challenging outdated socio-economic profiling through reCLASSified, Laura Rowe is pushing media forward. Coupled with del...
Mentor of the Year
Jo Blake
MI Media
Head of Investment
Jo Blake embodies what it means to be a mentor, empowering others to grow with purpose, confidence and resilience. With over 30 years of experience in media with leadership roles at Zenith, Carat and Havas, Jo now sits on the senior leadership team at MI Media as Head of Investment and Head of People. Her dual focus on commercial excel...
Transforming Technology
Alex Dalman
VCCP
Managing Partner and Head of Social & Innovation
Alex Dalman embodies a rare blend of creative vision, innovation and organisational expertise. Alex, as our Head of Social and Innovation, thrives on turning challenging briefs into impactful, contemporary work. Alex leads VCCP’s AI agency faith. Having worked with Virgin Media O2 for 6 years, O2 came to Alex with another conundr...
Donia Baddou
Lumen Research
Global VP of Partnerships
Donia’s Moroccan parents moved to France after she was born, working hard to provide for her under tough circumstances within the Parisian social housing system. She was the first in her family to go to university before moving to the UK to pursue her dreams. But media, and tech in particular, is vastly under-represented in terms of wo...
Visionary Business Leader
Katie Mitchell
Seen Studios
Managing Director
Katie exemplifies visionary business leadership: delivering exceptional growth, redefining understanding of female leadership, and extending her influence both within Seen Studios and the wider industry. Her innovative thinking has transformed Seen Studios' positioning and capabilities, leading to the agency's most ambitious year yet, ...
Lucy Daramola
Microsoft Advertising
EMEA Group Account Director
“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” – Estée Lauder. This quote captures Lucy Daramola’s 18-year journey as a visionary leader committed to commercial excellence, equity, and representation. Born in East London, Lucy forged her path through resilience and bold decisions, creating opportunities rather than waiting for them....
Rising to the Top
Rising to the Top - Advertising
Gursharan Panesar
Seen Studios
Senior Creative Strategist
Gursharan became Seen Studios' first in-house strategist towards the end of 2024. Within just 12 months, she elevated the framework that defines the agency's strategic IP and product, transforming how strategy is delivered. Her approach rejects algorithmic trends and buzzwords in favour of genuine human insight, grounding brand strateg...
Alba Abelló Balmes
Twitch Brand Partnership Studio
Senior Creative
Alba Abelló’s journey into advertising has been shaped by curiosity, resilience, and a love for creativity. Originally from Barcelona, she took a leap of faith during two of the most uncertain moments in recent history—moving abroad amid the pandemic and Brexit. That bold step laid the foundation for a career defined by openness to cha...
Rising to the Top - Marketing
Kanisha Jhaveri
Uncovered
Marketing Manager
Kanisha stepped into Uncovered as its first ever B2B Marketing Manager with a blank canvas and a big brief: build a marketing engine that elevates the agency’s reputation and accelerates growth! With experience across brands including Mercedes-Benz Vans and NordVPN, Kanisha quickly aligned leadership and creative teams to help shape a ...
Alexandra Kirk
UKTV
Senior Digital Creative
Alex Kirk is an absolute tour de force in the world of entertainment marketing. With her never settle attitude, she’s consistently advocates for better creativity across all formats, overdelivering against campaign KPIs and driving significant business success. At A+E Networks, on her own initiative she led the charge for Sky Histor...
Rising to the Top - Media
Kenya Williams
Digital Cinema Media
Project Manager
Kenya’s hallmark calmness under pressure has seen her secure roles at McCann Manchester, HydraFacial and now, DCM Studios, where she quickly turned a fixed-term contract into a permanent position. Since then, she has delivered standout experiential work for leading brands including LEGO, JD, Little Moons, Channel 4 and Kia. A na...
Hollie Lamond
TravelDesk MMGY Global
Head of Account Management
Throughout my career, I have focused on empowering emerging talent and creating environments where people can grow with confidence. As an Associate Director at WPP Media, I’ve led on major accounts across EssenceMediacom, while ensuring my team receive the tailored training, exposure and support they need to progress. My leadership app...
Rising to the Top - Technology
Hannah Arnold
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry
Head of Practice, Cybersecurity & Critical InfrastructureHannah is part of the new guard shaping the future of technology communications; a generation of women who enter the industry with depth, confidence and a clear sense of purpose. At 28, she has already established herself as a meaningful presence in a sector that remains highly t...
