Rise Awards: Shining the Spotlight on Gender Diversity in Media

The organisation received over 400 nominations from around the globe, highlighting the demand for celebrating influential women in a variety of roles behind broadcasting and media. The nominations cited the talents and achievements of inspirational women working in a variety of media and broadcast technology roles. Winners were chosen by a panel of judges from renowned broadcasting organisations, including BBC R&D’s Ian Wagdin, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Kystel Richards and Gravity Media’s Head of Technology Roisin McKeniry.

Three award winners were part of this year’s IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme and were commemorated for their leadership skills. Hollie Keen, BT Media and Broadcast took home the Rising Star Award, which recognises women who are industry newcomers and have demonstrated stand-out performance and innovation, with exceptional and ongoing achievements and contributions to their business. Meanwhile The Rise Special Recognition Award went to Claire Wilkie, Founder and Managing Director, Limitless Broadcast. Both winners were Participants in the IBC Accelerator project Connect and Produce Everywhere. The Ally Award went to Authenticated Data Specification project Champion Rich Welsh, Senior Vice President Innovation at Deluxe Media, for driving both internal and external initiatives to support gender diversity over the last year.

The Woman of the Year Award was given to Barbara Slater, Director of Sport, BBC, recognising the inspirational role Slater has held in advancing gender diversity within the broadcast industry. Her career at the BBC saw her work as Head of Production, Head of General Sports, and she was appointed as Director of Sport in April 2009. Slater also received the OBE in 2014 for services to sport broadcasting, as well as many other awards during her career, including the Women in TV & Film Inspirational Women Prize in 2012, following the London Olympics - the biggest sporting TV event in British broadcasting history. Rise recognised her achievements in her 14 years as Director of Sport, saying “Barbara transformed BBC Sport and she became one of the most respected figures in the industry. Most notably, she changed attitudes to women’s’ sport, generating enthusiasm from fans and enhancing its broadcasting profile.”

The awards also acknowledged virtual production specialists Pixotope, who won The Company Award for Investment in Women, Zoe Mendelsön, Technical Supervisor, SKY with the Production Support Engineer Award, and Swetha Sridhar, Software Application Engineer, BSI/NEP with this year’s R&D Engineer Award.

Sadie Groom, Rise Founder said: “We have seen the nominations for our Awards more than double from last year, which is phenomenal. The submissions across all categories were outstanding and we are so grateful to our judges for taking the time to make the incredibly difficult decisions of who the winner is in each category.”

Rise aims to open up more opportunities for female broadcast professionals through holding quarterly networking events, delivering an award-winning mentoring programme and providing education to next generation talent.

The ceremony was also streamed globally on Rise’s YouTube channel.

Full list of award winners and shortlisted candidates:

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, Ovyo

○ 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