Meet the 2026 Wired4Women Awards finalists
The shortlists across 13 award categories have been selected. The shortlists for the 2026 Wired4Women Awards have been announced.
This initiative of the Wired4Women Forum and ITWeb Brainstorm, with Telkom as lead sponsor, recognises excellence and outstanding achievements of women across the tech industry – from C-level execs, to rising stars and students − and promotes gender inclusion in South Africa’s technology sector.
Now in its third year, these awards once again attracted strong participation, with hundreds of nominations received across 13 categories, reflecting the scale and diversity of female talent in the sector.
The judging panel – comprising Wired4Women Forum board members, ITWeb senior editors, past winners, academics and industry experts – reviewed all valid submissions to determine the finalists.
The finalist shortlists form part of a multi-stage adjudication process. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed as part of the final round of judging, after which winners will be selected.
Award category finalists
The finalists, listed in alphabetical order by first name, are:
Trailblazing Career in ICT
- Elmarie Biermann – director and founder, Cyber Security Institute
- Portia Matsena – divisional executive: hyper automation, Nedbank
- Stella Bvuma – director of school of consumer intelligence and information systems, University of Johannesburg
- Sylvia Sathekge – CIO, National Health Laboratory Service
CIO of the Year
- Hanlie de Bod-Leaf, CIO, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator
- Kim Sim, CIO, Mr Price Group
- Mandi Scott, CIO: digital, data and e-commerce, Standard Bank Group
- Pragashani Reddy, business banking exco: executive director: digital, Absa
- Sylvia Sathekge, CIO, National Health Laboratory Service
- Tsebeletso Mashau, CIO: Africa regions, Standard Bank South Africa
Rising star: AI and data innovation
- Gloria Pucoe – master’s student, Sol Plaatje University
- Jacqui Muller – industry coordinator, Belgium Campus iTversity
- Kutlwano Ngwarati – head of AI and intelligent automation, Exxaro Resources
- Leanri Marais – data engineer: single view of customer, Standard Bank
- Riselle Rawthee – AI/ML customer engineer for Sub-Saharan Africa, Google
Announcement of winners
The Wired4Women Awards programme is audited by Nolands JHB.
The next phase of the adjudication process includes interviews with shortlisted finalists, after which the judges will select the ultimate winners.
