WeAreTechWomen is proud to announce the winners of the 2021 TechWomen100 Awards.

Dr Lopa Patel MBE | Diversity UK

Dr Lopa Patel MBE is an inspirational leader and successful Digital Entrepreneur, Non-Executive Chair, NED and Trustee.

The founder of two online media businesses and a data-driven marketing consultancy, Lopa is known for transforming businesses through technology. With strengths in governance and risk oversight Lopa is also the Founder and Chair of nationally recognised equality and inclusion charity, Diversity UK; a Trustee of The Science Museum Group (SMG); a Non-Executive Director of the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and a Council Member of The Open University (OU).

Lopa is an elected Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and the Institute of Data & Marketing (IDM). She is an ambassador for entrepreneurship, innovation and technology and has been recognised with many accolades including an MBE for services to the creative industries in 2009; the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2015 and an Honorary Doctorate by The Open University in 2017 in recognition of her efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in science and technology.

HSBC

HSBC was born from one simple idea – a local bank serving international needs. In March 1865, HSBC opened its doors for business in Hong Kong, helping to finance trade between Europe and Asia.

We have been supporting our customers for more than 150 years. Today, we serve more than 40 million personal, wealth and corporate customers worldwide in 64 countries and territories.

The experiences of the past century and a half have formed the character of HSBC. A glance at our history explains why we believe in capital strength, in strict cost control and in building long-term relationships with customers.

The bank has weathered change in all forms – revolutions, economic crises, new technologies – and adapted to survive. The resulting corporate character enables HSBC to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Rise, created by Barclays

Rise, created by Barclays, is a global community of the world’s top innovators working together to create the future of financial services.

Our mission is to connect technology, talent and trends from across the Rise ecosystem to accelerate innovation and growth in the financial services industry. We do this by operating FinTech workspaces around the world, with a virtual community, where cutting-edge startups and scale-ups can connect, create and scale their businesses, backed by Barclays’ global network of industry experts, mentors, investors and partners.

Nadini Sahabandu | Mitra Innovation

With 12 years of multi-disciplinary experience in the realm of Information Technology, Nadini has worked across verticals from IT Procurement, Strategy, Business Analysis, Product Management, Marketing, Quality Assurance, Client Services, Program Management, etc.

She is an ICT Product Manager and a Business Consultant, and currently serves the dual role of Regional Head and Senior Manager – Client Services at Mitra Innovation.

She is academically sound, with a First Class in Bachelor (Hons) Information and Communication Technology from University of Colombo, and was known to be the “techie girl” in both school and university. She also holds an MBA from University of Wales, Executive Education in Business Analytics from University of Cambridge, and various other professional qualifications including International Institute of Business Analysis, Product School, Agile & Scrum, Sun Certified Java Programmer, Sun Certified Mobile Application Developer, CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing) certifications.

While Nadini was born and raised in Sri Lanka, she has also lived and worked in USA, UK, Australia and Sri Lanka, while serving clients across the globe, from Fortune 500 companies, and across the spectrum of small and medium enterprises, startups and entrepreneurs.

Her domain exposure extends across Healthcare, Financial Services, Insurance, Social Services, Government sector, etc. Having started her career with Ernst and Young as an IT Advisory Associate, she went on to gain experience across procurement, business analysis, marketing, solutioning, product design and management, quality engineering, programme management, client services, etc.

Nadini is a huge advocate of diversity and inclusion, and continuous learning as a whole. She leads and contributes to many such initiatives as well.

Rob McCargow | PwC

At PwC I work across the breadth of our UK and EMEA Technology Consulting business to demonstrate how our human-led and tech-powered award-winning solutions are focused on building trust, producing sustainable outcomes, and ensuring that we deliver lasting value for our clients in alignment with our Global Strategy: The New Equation.

 I love bringing technology stories to life and, in my first 5 years with PwC as a founder of our AI Centre of Excellence, I have had the opportunity to deliver keynote talks in over 40 countries, established myself as one of PwC’s key technology spokespeople and media commentators, and I help to curate our social media community.

I am an Honorary Visiting Fellow at Bayes Business School, a Fellow of The RSA, and a founding advisory board member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on AI. HR Magazine ranks me as ‘HR Most Influential Thinker 2021’, Onalytica cites me as a ‘Who’s Who in AI’, and I was voted ‘Tech Community Leader of the Year’ at CogX 2020. I strive to ensure that the technology workforce is equitable and inclusive and I have had the privilege of judging several awards including We Are Tech Women’s #TechWomen100 and Asian Stars in UK Tech, and supporting the #TechSheCan initiative.