Rise Awards announces shortlist for 2021

Rise, the award-winning advocacy group for women in the broadcast media technology sector, has revealed the shortlist for this year’s Rise Awards.  

The judges saw an outstanding selection of global nominations from women in a variety of roles across the industry in several categories including: Business, Marketer/PR, Product Innovation, Production Support Engineer, R&D Engineer, Rising Star, Sales, Technical Operations, Woman of the Year, and this year’s three new categories, Company Award For Investment in Women, Influencer and Student. 

The awards ceremony will be held on Thursday 18 November from 17:00 BST as part of the DPP Leaders’ Briefing event in London and streamed globally, courtesy of Red Bee Media. The winners will be announced during the live ceremony with attendees in person and virtually.  Details on attendance will be announced shortly. 

The shortlist for the 2021 Rise Awards is as follows:  

Marketer/PR | sponsored by Annex Pro 

• Silvia Botella, Marketing Manager, Red Bee Media  
• Melanie Crandall, Demand Generation Manager, Vizrt 
• Lauren McIntosh, Global Marketing Manager, Accedo 

R&D Engineer | sponsored by Ateliere Creative Technologies  

• Laura Bunea, R&D Engineer, Vizrt 
• Michelle Griffin, Product Engineering Manager, farmerswife and Cirkus 
• Jennifer Zeidan, Engineering Manager, Media Systems Infrastructure, Netflix 

Rising Star | sponsored by Avid 

• Sophie Lambert, Freelance 
• Jane Lawrance, VT Guarantee, Timeline Television 
• Neave Spikings, Support Engineer, ITV Studios 
• Georgia Thirtle, Sound Engineer, Gravity Media 

NEW – Influencer | sponsored by Bitmovin 

• Marianna Montague, Senior Director Customer Success Management, Avid 
• Louise Patel, Co-Director, Share My Telly Job 
• Kylee Peña, Manager, Creative Technologies Program Management, Netflix 

Production Support Engineer | Sponsored by Blackmagic Design 

• Sophie Colvin, Vision Guarantee Manager, Gravity Media 
• Carys Hughes, Engineer – Emerging Technologies, Sky  
• Mirusha Jegatheeswaran, Content Technology Support Engineer, ITV Daytime 

Product Innovation | sponsored by Clear-Com 

• Izabella Koukorava, Head of Product, Sky 
• Michelle Munson, CEO and Co-Founder, Eluvio  
• Karen Walker, Vice President – Camera Motion Systems, Ross Video  

Sales | sponsored by Deluxe 

• Karen Clark, Head of Australian and New Zealand Sales, Telstra 
• Angela Gibbons, Head of Sales, EMG UK 
• Laura Wignall, Business Development Manager – Production, Gravity Media 

Business | sponsored by Live-U 

• Dr. Johanna Björklund, Co-founder and CTO, Codemill  
• Michelle Munson, CEO and Co-Founder, Eluvio  
• Alison Pitchford, Group Managing Director, MBI 
• Heidi Shakespeare, Director – IMES Europe 

Technical Operations | sponsored by Ross Video 

• Kate Furtas, Key Account Manager, Deluxe Media 
• Rebecca Moore, Director Technical Operations, CNNI 
• Rebecca Smith, Audio Assistant, Platform Post Production 

NEW – Student | sponsored by SMPTE 

• Katherine King, University of Pittsburgh 
• Sama Mirmiran, University of Surrey 
• Holly van der Rest, Solent University 

NEW - Company Award For Investment in Women | sponsored by Telstra 

• Deluxe Localisation  
• Newsbridge 
• Visual Data Media Services 

The Woman of the Year, sponsored by Zixi, is chosen by the Rise Advisory Board and will be announced at the ceremony.  

Rise founder, Sadie Groom, said: “We received so many amazing nominations for talented women from across the globe again this year. We have seen an extraordinary calibre of talent across the broadcast media technology industry, and our judging panels had a difficult job deciding on the shortlist which is a testament to the incredible female talent we have in our sectors. We are looking forward to seeing everyone in-person and celebrating the achievements of our shortlists and winners at this year’s awards ceremony.”