Shortlist: Most Inspiring Women in Cyber Awards 2026 - IT Security Guru

We’re pleased to announce the shortlist for this year’s Most Inspiring Women in Cyber Awards! This year’s awards are sponsored by BT, Fidelity International, Plexal and Bridewell. The awards are supported by WiCyS UK&I, WiTCH and Seidea and hosted by Eskenzi PR.  Our judges had the difficult decision of picking their favourites using a points system. The top scorers emerged as our shortlist of 50 women. This year’s judges included:  Yasemin Mustafa, Director of the Cyber Security Portfolio at BT   Adam Haylock, Head of Global Cyber and Information Security Department at Fidelity International  Rebecca Taylor, Co-Author of Securely Yours: An Agony Aunts’ Guide To Surviving Cyber, and Threat Intelligence Knowledge Manager and Researcher at Sophos Adaora Uche, GRC Lead at THG (representing Seidea CIC)  Joanne Elieli, Cyber Lead and Litigation Partner at Stephenson Harwood LLP  Diane Gilbert, Senior Lead for Programmes at Plexal Jennifer Cox, Director of Solutions engineering at Tines  Hannah Arnold, London Ambassador for WiTCH – Women in Tech & Cyber Hub Yvonne Eskenzi, Co-Founder of Eskenzi PR and Marketing and Founder of The Most Inspiring Women in Cyber Awards You can read what our judges had to say about the judging process here.  Without further ado and in no particular order, here is our shortlist that have all been invited to join us at the BT Tower where the winners will be revealed on the night…  Helen Caldwell, Director of IT and Cyber Security at The Rowan Learning Trust Meera Tamboli, Digital Forensics and Incident Response Analyst at AVEVA Adele Harrington, Information Security Officer at Fidelity International Aida Smith, Senior Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Cyber Security and Geopolitics at University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)  Lucy Burnford, CEO and Founder of Coc00n Francisca Boateng, CEO at Slamm Foundation Annick O’Brien, General Counsel at CybSafe Amelia Javed, Chair and Founder of Manchester Intelligence Society Shanita Sojan, Team Lead, Cybersecurity Compliance, at Darktrace  Indu Sajeev, CISO of ASOS Moona Ederveen-Schneider, Founder of Resilia Connect Agnes Suto, Managing Director, Founder/Co-Project Owner, Investor Protection Fund (Hungary) – BEVA; KiberPajzs (Cyber​​Shield) Program Gizem Acar Tekin, CEO & Co-Founder at Photarix (Lancaster University spin-out), Research Associate Dr. Stav Elbar, Software Engineer (PhD) at Google Aurorah Smith, CEO of Guardian Compass Laura Kaung, Information Security Manager at Next Generation Security  Nkep Kerlyn Manyi, Penetration Tester at CyberFoundHer Catherine Knibbs, Cybertrauma Specialist, Author and CEO of Children & Technology Dr. Chi Opara, Lecturer in Computer Science at Teesside University Rachel Smith, Head of Operations at Sitehop  Charlotte Wilson, Head of Enterprise Business UKI at Check Point Software Rebecca Lindley, Senior Cyber Consultant at Deloitte Ireland  Funke Omolere, Senior Technology Compliance Product Owner at Adobe Sarah-Eliessa Badaoui, Lecturer in Cybercriminal Profiling at Polytechnique Montreal University Anmol Agarwal, Senior Security Researcher at Nokia  Harriet Farlow, CEO and Founder of Mileva Security Labs Aimee Bush, Principal Consultant at Bridewell  Egonna Bristol, Information Security Manager at eduMe Sonia Kumar, Senior Director Cyber Defence and Testing at Analog Devices Inc Rose Calzado, Cyber Supplier Relationship Manager at Fidelity International  Eryn Linnell, Marketing Campaign Manager at Bridewell  Motunrayo Ogundipe, CSOC Analyst at TikTok Isabel Scavetta, Product Manager at Checkout.com Laura Price, Outreach and Skills Partnerships at BT Faiza Medjak, Lecturer in Cyber Security at University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) Valerie Lyons, Chief Operations Officer at BH Consulting Emer Mguisha, Founder of Cyberminds Aymun Lashari, CISO Community Manager at Trident Search Emma MacKenzie, Cyber Security Operations Analyst at Aberdeen Group plc Yekaterina Shevchenko, Lead Security Testing Engineer at EPAM Systems Kerlyn Manyi, Penetration Tester and Founder of CyberFoundHer Initiative Lennig Pedron, CEO of Trust Valley Bharti Lim, Group Security Strategy Manager at Computacenter  Amna Shifa, Assistant Professor at The Islamia University of Bahwalpur, Pakistan Evin McMullen, CEO and Co-Founder of Billions Network Adenike Ajayi-Iweka, Security Consultant at Accenture Nicole Bucala, CEO of DataBee; General Manager & VP2 at Comcast Corp. Yasmeen Bey, IT Cybersecurity Apprentice at Volkswagen Group UK Ltd Claire Mouter, Senior Cyber Incident Responder at Virgin Money  Amelia Hewitt, Co-Founder & Director of Cyber Consulting at Principle Defence Cherise Guiterrez, Co-Founder and President of SecurityGate.io Nkiruka Joy Aimienoho, CISO at Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria  Priyanka Tyagi, Senior Manager of External Security Reviews Boryana Kulinska, Head of Cybersecurity Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) at myPOS The 20 winners, plus five Ones to Watch, will be revealed on Thursday 26th February 2026 at The BT Tower, London.