Women in Technology & Data Awards 2025: All the winners and why they won

The highest-profile category of this year’s awards—WatersTechnology’s woman of the year—was won by Tanya Bartolini (Jacobi), while Moody’s Louise Hopkins won the Sandra Villena unsung heroine award.

Below are this year’s 36 category winners:

• Above and beyond award (end-user) – Franky Biles, Lloyds Banking Group
• Above and beyond award (vendor) – Naomi Begum-Inglis, Accenture
• Best company for diversity and inclusion (end-user) – BNP Paribas Portugal
• Best company for diversity and inclusion (vendor) – Versana
• Consultant of the year – Áine Walsh, First Derivative
• Data science professional of the year (end-user) – Lydia Lu, Bank of America
• Data science professional of the year (vendor) – Kaja Zupanc, Duco. Click on this link to view Kaja’s winner’s interview.
• EDM professional of the year (end-user) – Kiran Bal, Lloyds Banking Group
• Engineer/programmer of the year – Raji Krishnan, T. Rowe Price
• Exchange professional of the year –Valerie Bannert-Thurner, Nasdaq
• Gender equality/diversity professional of the year (end-user) – Jessica Lai, Bank of America
• Gender equality/diversity professional of the year (vendor) – Emmakate Cashmore, Bloomberg
• Legal/compliance professional of the year – Devi Shanmugham, Tradeweb
• Market data professional of the year – Rebecca Edwards, Société Générale
• Rising star (end-user) – Vili Hadzhieva, Société Générale
• Rising star (vendor) – Hannah Sayson, S&P Global Marketplace
• Rising star (vendor) – data, engineering & product development – Kyra Coyne, ADS Securities
• Rising star (vendor) – sales, marketing & UX – Lise Grant, Horizon Trading Solutions
• Risk professional of the year – Anne Leslie, IBM Cloud
• Startup professional of the year – Prosasty Chaudhuri, Cuspide Data
• Support professional of the year (end-user) – Sukhy Gosal, Legal & General Investment Management
• Support professional of the year (vendor) – Anushree Mallick, Derivative Path
• Technology innovator of the year (end-user – Ruchi Acharya Saraswat, RBC Capital Markets
• Technology innovator of the year (vendor) – Theo Bell, Rimes
• Technology leader of the year (end-user) – Kathryn Zhao, Cantor Fitzgerald
• Technology leader of the year (vendor) – Mary Cecola, Broadridge Financial Solutions
• Vendor partnership or alliance professional of the year – Robin Hanlon, CanDeal DNA
• Vendor professional of the year (business development) – Ripple Bhullar, Kyndryl
• Vendor professional of the year (data and operations) – Pooja Padgavkar, SmartStream Technologies
• Vendor professional of the year (trading and risk) – Eva Sehic, Lime Trading Corp.
• Wellness/work-life balance award (end-user) – Sarah Mears, MUFG Investor Services
• Wellness/work-life balance award (vendor) – Magali Ternier, Finastra
• Trailblazer (lifetime achievement) award (vendor) – Maureen C. Downs, Connamara Technologies. Click on this link to view Maureen’s winner’s interview.  
• Trailblazer (lifetime achievement) award (end-user) – Kavya Vibhu, M&G Investments
• WatersTechnology woman of the year – Tanya Bartolini, Jacobi
• The Sandra Villena unsung heroine award – Louise Hopkins, Moody’s