CRN Women in Channel Awards: Meet the judges

ollowing the launch of our inaugural Women in Channel Awards, we are delighted to be able to introduce the first nine judges who will be responsible for picking the winners.

Although we are still finalising our judging line-up, those who have already kindly agreed to give up their time to be on the panel are:

Annabel Berry, CEO, Sapphire

Appointed as Sapphire's chief executive in 2015, with a career spanning over 20 years in the cybersecurity industry, Annabel has recently been recognised by CRN as one of the most influential women in the UK IT channel and included in its 2018 A-List.

Annabel's expertise lies in the development and implementation of new strategies and identifying emerging technologies. As a member of everywoman.com, Annabel takes an active involvement in encouraging more women into the cybersecurity industry and is proud to have recently been invited to become a Leadership Fellow at St George's House, Windsor Castle.

Denise Bryant, distribution director, Mitel EMEA

With a 30-plus-year track record of success in sales and management, Denise is now distribution director for Mitel EMEA.

Denise is also a non-executive director of The Association of Professional Sales where she was formerly the group managing director.

Prior to that, as Arrow UK sales director, Denise managed circa £1bn p.a. of sales into partners and SIs. 

Within the IT channel, the efficacy and capability of a vendor or partner's salesforce and technical staff are key differentiators and therefore Denise has long been a passionate advocate of celebrating top talent - especially women.

Denise is married with two sons and lives in Nottinghamshire.

Lindsey Fish, founder, Mum's Enterprise

Lindsey started her career as an apprentice in 2000 where she worked in various exhibition and event roles for a number of years before entering the IT Industry in 2006. Her last corporate role was Channel Marketing Manager for city network & cloud business Exponential-e. She worked there for a number of years before leaving to have her first daughter in 2013, which marked the start of her entrepreneurial journey.

During her maternity leave, Lindsey launched a successful corporate events management agency in 2014 which led to the eventual formation of her current business; Mums Enterprise Ltd in 2015.  Mums Enterprise is now spearheading the growing gender diversity, flexible working and mum economy movement through the organisation of the Mums Enterprise Roadshow.

Mum's Enterprise Roadshow (the UK's only child-friendly flexible work and business show) anticipates an audience of over 10,500 in 2018 across its two dates in Manchester and London this year. The event witnessed exponential growth and Lindsey has plans to add a further event to the portfolio and reach Scotland in 2019.

With over 18 years event, sales and marketing experience Lindsey is very passionate about developing the work done through Mums Enterprise and facilitating real change across the nation. Her ultimate goal is to prove that Mum's Enterprise Roadshow is having a direct, positive impact on the UK economy by helping more women find and return to work, increase the number of female startups and boost job creation through growing female led businesses.

Miriam Murphy, senior vice president of Advanced and Specialised Solutions, Tech Data EMEA

In this role, Miriam holds regional responsibility for Tech Data's Advanced Solutions go-to-market strategy, which includes products and services for datacentre and next-generation technologies including cloud, Internet of Things, analytics, security and associated services. 

An Irish native, with a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from University College Dublin, Miriam has been based in five European countries through her career, relishing the learning experience of immersing herself in different cultures throughout that time. She regards herself as a true citizen of Europe unless Ireland is playing rugby when her allegiance is left in no doubt. An avid cook and art lover, she regularly combines those passions with her love of travel.

She is currently based in Brussels, Belgium. 

Apay Obang-Oyway, director, cloud & software, Ingram Micro UK

Apay has worked in the IT industry for over a decade, both within the channel and large corporate enterprise resellers. Over the past two years he has been instrumental in developing the UK Cloud strategy for Ingram Micro and building the value business strategy across software, telecommunications and cloud.

His focus is the partners, and understanding and addressing their needs is key to delivering valuable partnerships.

Apay has a keen interest in geopolitics, hockey and skiing. He holds an MBA from the University of Liverpool, which has strengthened his passion for delivering ITC solutions that address business challenges for today and tomorrow. 

Emma de Sousa, senior vice president UK & marketing EMEA, Insight

With over 800 staff, covering three UK offices and a distribution centre, Emma is responsible for implementing growth strategies, managing costs and improving the profitability of the business. In the last financial year Emma and her team were successful in generating the UK business's biggest revenue figure, as well as accelerating strategic revenue streams in cloud and services.

In February 2017 Emma's role was expanded and she was appointed vice president marketing EMEA, alongside her MD responsibilities.

Prior to joining Insight, Emma served as regional manager at Aldi GmbH and Japanese & Central Asia revenue manager at British Airways. She graduated with a BA Hons in European marketing and French from Humberside University.

Neil Sawyer, commercial channel, SMB & education director, HP UK & Ireland

Neil is responsible for the UK&I channel & education/SMB sales organisation at HP, which focuses on all aspects of HP's Printing, Personal Systems, Mobility and Software Solutions portfolio.

Over the last 15 years he has worked in a number of roles from an operations, strategy, marketing and sales perspective for HP, Samsung and Vodafone.

Helen Slinger, CEO, BT Product Supply Business

Helen Slinger is CEO of BT's Product Supply Business - the IT arm of BT's Business and Public Sector organisation. As well as leading this growing end-to-end IT business which employs around 225 people, Helen is also chair of BT's regional board in the North West; Trustee of the Greater Manchester Academies Trust; and a member of the North West Business Leadership Team.

Aged 44, Helen's career has seen her tackle challenging roles in both distribution and reseller organisations, working across lots of different disciplines including customer service, sales, product management, marketing and of course, in a lead team board environment.

Helen has twice been a finalist in the Institute of Directors' North West Director of the Year Awards, and was triumphant in winning the North West Young Director of the Year title in 2015. In 2016 she was a finalist in the National Women in Business Awards.

Alex Tatham, managing director, Westcoast Limited

Alex has been in the UK IT distribution channel for over 25 years. With a degree from Durham University in Zoology, Alex qualified as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young in 1991.

He joined newly listed Ideal Hardware in 1995 and served time as head of the Ideal Institute (training), head of European sales, commercial director and UK managing director before joining Westcoast as sales and marketing director in 2008. He was promoted to managing director in 2014.

Theale-based Westcoast was a £700m business in 2008 and now boast sales of £2.2bn (y/e 31 Dec 2017). The business is the UK's largest distributor of HPI, HPE, Microsoft, Apple, Lexmark and Lenovo, as well as printer supplies and spares.

Also on board as a CRN Women in the Channel sponsor is Tech Data.

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