Scotland Women in Technology Awards 2023 Winners Revealed

Originally published by DIGIT

Scotland’s women in technology and diversity champions were celebrated at a prestigious awards ceremony in Glasgow, compèred by STV’s Laura Boyd.

The Scotland Women in Technology (SWiT) awards recognised individuals and organisations from the financial services sector as winners in four of the ten award categories, with Gillian McLennan, managing director leading capital management technology at JP Morgan taking home Leader of the Year. Gillian was commended by the SWiT judges for her “make-it happen” attitude and for being a “great communicator and role model” as well as “getting in at the grassroots”.

“Being in a room of amazing trailblazing women is inspiring, and we still have a lot of work to do,” Gillian said to the supportive room of attendees.

“Being seen,” she added, “Allows others to be seen, and do more.” The touching sentiment cemented how supportive the SWiT awards were to women in the industry who for years, decades, centuries, felt overlooked in an industry they helped and continue to help pioneer and innovate.

Other big winners from the financial services sector included M&G which was named as Large Employer of the Year, M&G data scientist, Debbie Kerr who was recognised as Technology Rising Star and Iain McNiven, Head of Talent Management at Morgan Stanley who was awarded Gender Diversity Ally of the Year.

Some additional winners this year include:

Lauren Lawson, software engineer at Leidos won the award for Young Tech Champion of the Year, with the judges calling her out for her mentoring of school pupils and being a STEM ambassador. She was also commended for her work in creating math resources for schools to encourage STEM learning.

“Honestly, I’m just very grateful,” a bashful Lauren said. “I graduated uni and won this award in the same week, so its been a very great week.”

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