2023 Rise Awards winners announced with BBC Sport’s Barbara Slater taking Woman of the Year

Lise Cosimi, external head of SVG Europe Women, Barbara Slater, BBC director of sport, and Heather McLean, SVG Europe editor and head of SVG Europe Women, together on stage at the SVG Europe Women BT Sport event in January 2020

Rise, the award-winning advocacy group for gender diversity in the media technology sector, has announced the winners of its 2023 Rise Awards. At Troxy in London winners in fourteen categories were celebrated, while Rise also presented a Special Recognition Award and the Rise Woman of the Year Award.

Winner of the SVG Europe Women Achievement Award 2020, BBC director of sport Barbara Slater, won the Rise Woman of the Year Award.

Read about Barbara Slater and the SVG Europe Women Achievement Award 2020 here

Over 400 nominations were received from around the globe, citing the talents and achievements of inspirational women working in a variety of media and broadcast technology roles.

The winners of the 2023 Rise Awards, and those shortlisted, are:

Technical Operations Award – Sponsored by NEP

Winner: Morag McIntosh, Design Director, Studio Automation, BBC

Shortlist:

• Ale Gonzalez Galartza, Senior Product Specialist, farmerswife
• Bridget Young, Operations Manager, Evolutions
• Pilar Granados, Global Workflow Operations Manager, DAZN
• Sandy Isnard, Video Solutions Architect, Telstra Broadcast Services
• Sarah Adams, Senior Technical Supervisor, Sky

Product Innovation Award – Sponsored by Clear Com

Winner: Kate Vandy and Anna Holligan, BBC Senior Journalist and BBC Foreign Correspondent, The Bike Bureau

Shortlist:

• Anais Painchault, VP Product Compression & Processing, Ateme
• Hitomi Hamaba, Head of Product, Sony
• Kaia Tufteland, Senior Technical Product Manager, DAZN
• Sabrine Farnes, Product Owner, Bedrock Streaming
• Saskia Hook, Product Manager (Sports), WBD
• Teresa Demel, Principal Product Manager, Adobe

Business Operations Award – Sponsored by Telestream

Winner: Amanda Wall, Director of Operations, VITAC

Shortlist:

• Crystel Pham, Vice President Operations and Product Management, TPN
• Fauzia Mulla Stanyard, Director of Service Operations, Arqiva
• Joanne Lewis, Production Manager, Ross Video
• Kahleah Webb, Head of Operations, Gravity Media
• Pernilla Wraneus, VP Culture and People, Accedo
• Tami Hoffman, Director of News Distribution and Commercial Innovation, ITN

Student of the Year Award – Sponsored by SMPTE

Winner: Sophie Humphrey, Solent University

Shortlist:

• Esme Murphy, Global Academy
• Jess McMahon, Global Academy
• Nikoleta Kallipoliti, Marketing Intern, Accedo
• Rochelle Karabulut, Global Academy

Marketing and PR Award – Sponsored by Deluxe Media

Winner: Doris Retfalvi, Product Marketing Manager, disguise

Shortlist:

• Amber Burke, Communications Manager, Clear-Com
• Emily Pryor, Head of Marketing, Base Media Cloud
• Leanne Tomlin, Senior Marketing Manager, Perifery
• Lizzie Lawrence, Head of Marketing, M2A Media
• Zoe Mumba, Senior Manager PR & Communications, Bitmovin

R&D Engineer Award – Sponsored by Ross Video

Winner: Swetha Sridhar, Software Application Engineer, BSI/NEP

Shortlist:

• Caileen Dolan, Software Developer, Ross Video
• Francesca Pieri, DevOps Developer, Red Bee Media
• Manasa Vemulapati, Performance Engineer, Sky UK
• Natalia Lira, Software Engineer, Accedo
• Sailaja Vaddadi, Software Architect, Red Bee Media

The Ally Award – Sponsored by Vizrt

Joint Winners:
Adam Tilbury-Eld, Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer, OVY
Rich Welsh, Senior Vice President Innovation, Deluxe Media

Shortlist:

• Kieran Farr, Consultant
• Phillip Farinha, Director People and Culture, North America, Accedo
• Rohan Mitchell, ESG Director, EMG

The Influencer Award – Sponsored by disguise

Winner: Carina Schoo, Education Program Manager, Pixotope

• Shortlist:
  Anita Erskine, Executive Director, AE Media
• Carolyn Giardina, Technology Editor, Hollywood Reporter
• Chloe Britton, Talent Recruitment Manager, MOOV TV
• Laura Davis, Managing Director, The Crewing Company
• Niki Whittle, Business Development Director, MOOV TV
• Ria Hebden, CEO, Wonder Women

Project Management or Delivery – Sponsored by ES Broadcast

Winner: Rachel Baldwin, Head of Programme & Project Delivery, BBC Technology Group

Shortlist:

• Abi Hemingway, Managing Director, Jackshoot TV
• Amber Barnett, Senior Solutions Specialist (Sports & Live Events) Ross Video
• Meghna Londhe, Project Manager Digital Video Solutions, Magnifi
• Nikki Perugini, UX and Design Director, Accedo
• Rachel Deas, Programme Manager, Red Bee Media
• Sylviane Lecomte, VP Growth and Solutions, Bedrock Streaming

Sales Award

Winner: Melissa Davis, Regional Director of Sales, Evertz

Shortlist:

• Alexandra Giusto, Senior Director, Strategic Accounts & Strategy, Zixi
• Helen Jeffrey, International Sales Director, NEP Connect
• Katri Sillaste, Commercial Director, TV3 Group Estonia
• Stacey Moorcroft, Director of Business Operations, Ross Video

Production Support Engineer Award – Sponsored by Riedel

Winner: Zoe Mendelsön, Technical Supervisor, SKY

Shortlist:

• Anna Masko, Senior Graphics Operator, MOOV TV
• Emily Bergun, Production Support Engineer, Sky
• Kathleen Gray, Senior Broadcast Engineer, NEP
• Suzanne Sharman, Production Artist, Singular.Live

Rising Star Award – Sponsored by Harmonic

Winner: Hollie Keen, Product Professional, BT Media & Broadcast

Shortlist:

• Eileen Kennedy-MacDonald, UX Researcher and Designer, Ross Video
• Emily Bergun, Associate Technical Specialist, Sky
• Jeremina Akrofi-Daniels, Multiskilled Operator, NEP Bow Tie
• Lauryn Fuller, Graphics Operator, MOOV TV
• Ray Kasprzyr, Product Specialist – Routers, Evertz
• Shola Russell, Productions Coordinator, EMG
• Sophie Kneeshaw, Associate Developer, Sky
• Holly Choules, Multi-Skilled Operator and Project Manager, Zest4TV

Business Leader Award – Sponsored by LiveU

Winner: Hannah Barnhardt, COO & Co-Founder, TMT Insights

Shortlist:

• Idunn Sofie Riise, Co- Founder & MD, Zille Media
• Rebekah Wilson, CEO & Technical Co-Founder, Source Elements
• Claire Wilkie, Founder, Limitless Broadcast
• Shannan Louis, Owner and Head of Studios, Fatbelly VFX
• Charlotte Layton, COO, Racoon Post

The Company Award for Investment in Women – Sponsored by Red Bee Media

Pixotope – Winner

Shortlist:

• Accedo
• Adobe
• disguise
• Newsbridge

The Rise Special Recognition Award

Winner: Claire Wilkie, Founder and Managing Director, Limitless Broadcast

Woman of the Year – Sponsored by Zixi

Winner: Barbara Slater, Director of Sport, BBC

The Woman of the Year award recognises the inspirational role Barbara Slater has held in advancing gender diversity within the broadcast industry. She competed as an international gymnast and Olympian before joining the BBC as a trainee assistant producer in 1983. Throughout her impressive career at the BBC she worked as head of production, head of general sports, and was appointed as director of sport in April 2009.

Slater was awarded the OBE in 2014 for services to sport broadcasting, as well as many other awards during her career, including SVG Europe Women Achievement Award 2020, the Women in TV & Film Inspirational Women Prize in 2012, following the London Olympics which was the biggest sporting TV event in British broadcasting history. In her 14 years as director of sport, Slater transformed BBC Sport and she became one of the most respected figures in the industry. Most notably, she changed attitudes to womens’ sport, generating enthusiasm from fans and enhancing its broadcasting profile.