‘Million Dollar Babes’ Award Winners Announced
‘Million Dollar Babes’ Award Winners Announced
January 23, 2008: The winners of the Australian Information Industry Association’s (AIIAs) ‘Million Dollar Babes’ award have been announced, with prominent businesswomen from companies such as Taurus Software, My Cyber Twin and Octahedron being honoured.
The award is aimed at raising recognition for women in IT who run multi-million dollar technology businesses and, according to the AIIA, presents role models who are successful and creative innovators – something that that will be essential for the future of the ICT industry.
The six winners were:
- Vanessa Brewis, CEO, Taurus Software;
- Liesel Capper, CEO, My Cyber Twin;
- Lisa Fletcher, CEO, b-Free;
- Raeleen Gillett, CEO, Octahedron;
- Julie Irwin, Executive Chairman, ADB Group; and
- Danielle Lehrer, CEO, GO Shout
“This is a welcome initiative that challenges the way we think about our workforce,” said AIIA CEO Sheryle Moon. “It is important that we do everything possible to address the stereotypes that are associated with our industry in order to attract and retain the best talent.”
According to the association, one of those stereotypes is the IT worker as a ‘male geek working in a boring job.’ This perception has little to do the reality of people working in the technology sector, and Moon claims that all up these stereotypes are “misleading and dangerous to the future of our workforce.”
That said, the perception of ICT being male dominated is not far off the mark, as less than 15 percent of all ICT employees being women, and this number is falling alongside enrolments of women in ICT studies.
The AIIA's special interest group, Females in Information Technology & Telecommunications (FITT), conducted research in 2006 which revealed that female professionals are also leaving the ICT industry, mainly due to it being a male-dominated environment and the lack of work-life balance.
“We need to change the way that people think about our industry, and the way that our industry thinks about people,” said Moon. “That means challenging community perceptions and listening to the needs of employees in the workplace.”
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