Four years ago, techUK launched its President's Awards to champion individuals making a positive difference through technology.
Twelve awards had been presented to date, celebrating those whose work has had meaningful impact on People, Society, the Economy and the Planet.
Last night at the techUK Annual Dinner, techUK President and COO, FDM, Sheila Flavell and Deputy President, and Chair of IBM UK and Ireland, Dr Nicola Hodson, had the honour of presenting the 2026 awards.
Our 12 shortlisted finalists comprised individuals doing amazing work with technology. Their work spanned digital identity, digital literacy, and digital tools - technology that supports health and well-being, online safety, and national security - and projects that support biodiversity, SMEs, and the Public Sector.
But there could be only four winners.
PEOPLE AWARD
Winner: Robin Tombs, CEO, Yoti
The 2026 People Award winner is Robin Tombs, CEO of Yoti.
Robin co-founded Yoti with a clear-eyed understanding of a problem that was growing faster than the systems designed to contain it. Online fraud, identity theft, underage access to harmful content and the erosion of digital trust were not abstract risks, they were causing real harm to real people. His response was to build privacy-preserving technology that addresses these challenges without creating new ones.
As CEO of Yoti, Robin has led the development of a suite of digital identity and age assurance solutions now trusted by organisations and regulators across multiple sectors and countries. Yoti's Digital ID allows individuals to store and share verified identity information securely, reducing fraud, impersonation and account misuse across financial services, retail, social media and other regulated environments. Rather than requiring users to repeatedly share sensitive documents, the technology puts control in the hands of individuals, who can share only what a transaction genuinely requires.
Read more about Robin Tombs in our article:
SOCIETY AWARD
Winner: Dr Laura Bishop, AI and Cyber Security Digital Sector Lead, BSI
The 2026 Society Award winner is Dr Laura Bishop, AI and Cyber Security Digital Sector Lead, BSI.
Laura is a pioneer in protecting the psychological safety of adults and children in an era of rapid technological change.
As a psychologist working at the intersection of technology and human vulnerability, she has spent her career ensuring that the former does not come at the expense of the latter. Across AI, robotics, immersive technology and cyber security, she has led and influenced initiatives that make technology safer, more ethical and more genuinely beneficial, particularly for those who are most at risk.
At BSI, Laura leads work on AI literacy, age assurance, privacy by design and chatbot safety. Drawing on her background in human factors and cyberpsychology, she approaches technological risk as a psychological safety issue, asking not just what systems can do, but how people actually experience and interact with them. Her work on chatbot safety, for instance, addresses risks that regulation has been slow to catch up with, including emotional dependency, misinformation and the harms that can arise when vulnerable users engage with AI systems designed without their wellbeing in mind.
Read more about Laura Bishop in our article:
ECONOMY AWARD
Winner: Professor Sir Peter Donnelly, CEO of Genomics
The 2026 Economy Award winner is Professor Sir Peter Donnelly, CEO of Genomics
Professor Sir Peter Donnelly has spent a career at the frontier of human genetics, and he has used that position to pursue an ambitious and increasingly realisable goal: the prevention of common chronic disease at population scale. Few scientists of his standing have chosen to leave academia at its peak to build the commercial infrastructure needed to turn their research into healthcare reality. Peter did exactly that, and the implications for patients, for the NHS and for the UK's life sciences sector are profound.
In 2014, Peter co-founded Genomics. His conviction was that the science of genomic risk prediction had matured to the point where it could change how healthcare works, shifting the emphasis from treatment to prevention. Under his leadership, Genomics has built the world's largest harmonised genotype-phenotype data resource, developed the UK's first UKCA-marked and MHRA-registered polygenic risk score (PRS) products, and secured its position as the exclusive PRS provider for Our Future Health, the UK's largest health research programme.
The potential scale of impact is striking. Research published in Nature Communications has shown that PRS-guided screening across seven common diseases could identify more than a quarter of the adult population as being at high genetic risk for at least one condition. In cardiovascular disease alone, the technology could identify 1.9 million additional high-risk individuals and prevent over 45,000 heart attacks and strokes across a decade, saving the NHS more than £235 million in the process.
Read more about Sir Peter Donnelly in our article:
PLANET AWARD
Winner: Isobel Ashbey, Sustainable Technologies Consultant at Cambridge Consultants.
The 2026 Planet Award winner is Isobel Ashbey, Sustainable Technologies Consultant at Cambridge Consultants.
Isobel Ashbey is a physicist and engineer who decided, early in her career, that the most important thing she could do with deep technology expertise was direct it toward the natural world. She spearheaded the formation of an internal Tech for Good initiative at Cambridge Consultants, completed a postgraduate qualification in biodiversity, wildlife and ecosystem health with distinction, and has since built a body of work that demonstrates, project by project, that advanced engineering and environmental purpose are genuinely complementary.
Her work spans an exceptional range of conservation challenges. In partnership with Vodafone, Isobel developed a technology platform using edge AI and deep learning to detect and identify large predators, including lions, wolves and hyenas, at distance. Intelligent algorithms trigger targeted deterrents appropriate to each species, while IoT connectivity delivers real-time alerts to local communities. The result is a system that protects endangered animals and the livelihoods of the people who live alongside them. For XPRIZE's ten-million-dollar Rainforest competition, she led Cambridge Consultants' AI team in validating biodiversity monitoring solutions designed to generate near real-time insights into rainforest health. And through an ongoing partnership with the British Antarctic Survey, she is working to develop remotely operated technologies that reduce the carbon footprint of delivering climate science in one of the world's most extreme environments.
Read more about Isobel Ashbey in our article:
Highly Commended
At our judging day, the fierce competition made picking our award winners that little bit harder. The judges decided that they would like to give rare 'Highly Commended' awards to two deserving candidates.
Clare Elford
Clare Elford
Nomination reason:
Clare was nominated for scaling Clue into a globally trusted platform for intelligence and investigation management, now used by more than 100 organisations across 21 countries, including Oxfam, Save the Children, the NHS Counter Fraud Authority and the Metropolitan Police. Her leadership has given frontline safeguarding, law enforcement and anti-corruption teams the tools to detect threats earlier, build stronger cases and maintain clear audit trails. Equally notable is her principled approach to AI: Clare has insisted that AI within Clue supports professional judgement rather than replacing it, with transparency and accountability built in by design. She has also built a cross-sector practitioner community that enables knowledge-sharing across organisations that would rarely otherwise collaborate.
Biography:
Clare is Chief Executive Officer, and co-owner, of Clue. Under Clare’s stewardship, Clue has become a leading investigation case management and intelligence platform. Clare has driven the development of a single platform, interoperable product that is at the centre of the investigation technology ecosystem.
Clare embodies Clue’s customer-centric culture and leads the work to collaborate with industry bodies and the Clue user community to push the boundaries of technical development to meet customer needs.
Laura Burley
Laura Burley
Nomination reason:
Laura was nominated for using technology and data to make a practical, evidence-based case for fairer payment practices, reframing late payment as "unapproved debt" and using Xero's platform insights to quantify its cost to UK SMEs and influence policy change. She secured Xero's gold status under the Fair Payment Code and actively promotes automated invoicing and real-time payment tools as proof that prompt payment is achievable at scale. Through Xero's Unlock Your Numbers mentoring programme, she has also helped small business owners move beyond compliance-driven bookkeeping to using live financial data for genuine decision-making and growth planning.
Biography:
Laura Burley is the Global General Manager of Government Relations and Public Policy at Xero - the small business platform trusted by over 1.32 million small businesses. At Xero, the mission is simple but powerful: to make life better for people in small businesses, their advisors and communities around the world. Laura's role is to ensure that mission shapes policy, and that the voices of small businesses are heard loud and clear at the highest levels of governments.
Laura has over twenty years of experience championing small businesses, technology, health and education in the political and policy arena. She is a proud campaigner bringing technology to life for the benefit of society and the economy - most notably in helping to campaign against late payments to SMEs. Her career has spanned the UK Parliament - where she worked for the Chair of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee - to the charity sector, where she led successful campaigns on behalf of Breast Cancer Care such as the abolition of prescription charges in England. Before joining Xero in 2022, she led the Government Aff airs team at The Open University, playing a pivotal role in advocating for lifelong learning initiatives and championing skills and apprenticeships policy for small businesses.
At Xero, Laura has most recently been at the forefront of leading the campaign to embed financial confidence in education. Xero's Financial Confidence Taskforce is calling on the UK Government to radically rethink how financial literacy and enterprise are taught - from the classroom to the workplace - so that starting and growing a business is an aspirational, viable path for everyone, regardless of background.
Laura is a founding board member of Women in Public Aff airs and is an Adviser at The Entrepreneurs Network.
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/laura-burley-xero
- LinkedIn:
- www.linkedin.com/in/laura-burley-xero
Clare Elford, CEO, Clue Software and Laura Burley, Acting General Manager & Director of Government Relations, Xero both impressed the judges. Clare for her outstanding leadership and for using technology to protect society from harm, and Laura for her work with both policymakers and small businesses to champion fair payment practices and better financial control through digital tools.
Judging panel
techUK convened a stellar panel of industry leaders to judge the 2026 awards:
Sheila Flavell CBE
Sheila Flavell CBE
Sheila Flavell CBE is President of techUK, and both Chief Operating Officer and an Executive Board Director of FDM Group. She has spent 35 years operating within the international tech space. As a “woman returner”, Sheila is passionate about promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in today’s workplace. She founded the FDM Returners Programme in 2015, which has since helped over 550 men and women return to work after a career break.
As a prominent female tech leader, Sheila understands the importance of being a strong role model and mentor for women. She has been key in driving FDM’s global expansion programmes, as well as establishing the company’s listing on the FTSE 250 in 2017. Sheila continues to advise government committees on improving the digital skills shortage in the UK. Her work in championing gender diversity has helped FDM attain a zero gender pay gap consistently since reporting was introduced in 2017. She was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List, for services to gender equality in technology and services to graduate and returners’ employment.
If you wish to contact a member of the Board, please do so via [email protected].
Dr Nicola Hodson
Dr Nicola Hodson
Dr Nicola Hodson was appointed Chair, IBM UK and Ireland, in January 2025. Prior to taking on this role, Dr Hodson served as Chief Executive IBM UK and Ireland, a position she held for two years.
Dr Hodson is an accomplished technology industry leader with a deep understanding of the challenges facing the tech industry, as well as extensive experience in business and digital transformation. In 2023 and again in 2024, Dr Hodson ranked highly in Computer Weekly’s list of the 50 most influential people in UK technology, and in CRN’s 2024 A-List.
Dr Hodson held senior positions at Microsoft for 15 years, including as a global leader of the transformation of the Microsoft commercial sales, marketing and operations business and UK Chief Operating Officer covering its UK commercial and consumer business.
As Deputy President of techUK, the trade association for the IT industry, Dr Hodson has a wide breadth of experience and understanding of the tech sector, from large companies to start-ups, coupled with significant experience in the energy sector. She has extensive Board experience across multiple sectors, including Beazley plc, Drax Group plc, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). She has formerly served as a non-executive at Ofgem, the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) group, as a governor of Bradfield College, and as a director of start-up Bramble Energy.
Dr Hodson previously worked in the IT and business services division of Siemens, at CSC (now DXC), as a management consultant for EY and in the nuclear industry at BNFL.
Dr Hodson holds an MBA and a PhD in Engineering. She is married with three sons and two stepsons, loves outdoor pursuits and is a keen motorbike enthusiast.
If you wish to contact a member of the Board, please do so via [email protected].
Jacqueline de Rojas CBE
Jacqueline de Rojas CBE
techUK Board Member and President Emeritus | Chair Bletchley Park Trust & Chair Institute of Coding | Portfolio Non Exec Director, Business Mentor and Advocate for Inclusion.
"If we are to thrive in a digital future, we must ensure that all our voices heard when it comes to designing technology. If we do not, we will create a world that does not work for everybody.
And as we build this digital world, the need to stay safe is heightened as our dependency to live and work online increases. Competitive advantage will come from teams that look outwards not inwards and therefore businesses that build a culture of inclusion and maximise their security posture"
Voted the Most Influential Woman in IT 2015 and Included in World’s 100 most influential people in digital government 2019: Woman of the Year awarded by Women in IT Excellence 2019, 2020 Asian Tech Pioneer, named in 2021 Connected Britain’s Top 100 Influencers and Stroeous Award Winner: Global Positive Impact Leader of the Year 2021. Listen to her life and music choices on Desert Island Discs podcast March 2019.
Jacqueline was appointed as a CBE in the Queen’s Honours List of 2018 and was conferred an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree by the University of Bath in 2019.
If you wish to contact a member of the Board, please do so via [email protected].
Simon Wilyman
Simon Wilyman
With 25+ years of experience in the semiconductor and tech industry Simon is a strategic leader operating at the leading edge of technology innovation. His mission is to enable customers and partners success and to continually develop highly skilled and performing organizations.
Tricia Blatherwick
Tricia Blatherwick
Tricia Blatherwick is the Chief Commercial Officer at AutogenAI. She has spent over 30 years working for some of the UK’s largest IT and Outsourcing companies, generating sales in excess of £4bn. She holds a degree in English Literature and an MBA in Strategic Discourse - and is passionate about the power of language - including business language - to motivate, inspire and create change in the world. Having put in the 'hard yards’ of bid writing throughout her career, she also knows that the Proposal industry is way overdue for a technological breakthrough - which is the reason she joined the leadership team at AutogenAI.
With 5 kids, 2 snooty cats, and a dopey Labrador, Tricia thrives on creativity, stimulation, and intravenous caffeine.
If you wish to contact a member of the Board, please do so via [email protected].
Jay Chinnadorai
Jay Chinnadorai
Jay Chinnadorai is a Senior Board Advisor at Informetis Europe and Japan. Informetis is an AI based IoT solutions provider focused on the energy and smart health sectors. Jay is also Founder and Managing Director of Sumtotal, a strategy, product and business development consultancy. Sumtotal was established in 2004 and provides pragmatic and effective customer-centric solutions in the converging sectors of Smart Energy, IoT, Mobile and Digital Media solutions. In addition, Jay is a Crown Representative at the Cabinet Office.
Prior to founding Sumtotal, Jay was Vice President of Sony Europe responsible for different business units including Mobile Phones, Digital TV and Mobile Service Provider Business. Before joining Sony, Jay worked at Thomson Consumer Electronics as Marketing Director of its UK and Ireland Operations.
Jay has an MBA from Manchester Business School (MBA) and a BSc (First Class Hons) in Electronic Engineering from University College London. He is a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Marketors. He is also a Business Leader of the Marketing Society.
If you wish to contact a member of the Board, please do so via [email protected].
Quotes from our previous Award winners
“Overwhelmed, proud, delighted, seen, I can’t believe it… techUK has unlocked so many avenues for me.”
“We’ve been members of techUK for a couple of years now. It really adds value to our organisation, it really, genuinely genuinely does.”
“I feel so proud to win this award. It’s such a special award and it recognises what we’re doing and how much heart the team have put into what we’re building to impact the economy. So, I’m really, really pleased.”
“I feel great. It’s been a special evening. I’m delighted to win the award. Sustainability and technology aren’t things that have sat naturally together in recent years. It’s an evolving space, and more than anything, techUK has given us a voice.”
“Amazing to win. It’s so exciting to have the work of the team recognised for what we’ve done. Delighted.”
“It feels fantastic. Absolutely amazing. Great for Access Elemental, it’s great for social prescribing, it’s great for the Access Group and for the community voluntary sector and all the people that we support."
“I think I was nominated because I’ve had the opportunity to represent the interest and power of an SME community and I think this is a celebration of the effect and power SMEs can have."
“Absolutely amazing. Super pleased. Love the fact that this award is peer judged in a techUK community where we’re all trying to do good. Amazing.”
"To be recognised as a company really making a difference in tech is wonderful. It’s incredible to have this room of experts at the cutting edge, really thinking about all of the implications of how tech can dramatically improve society.”
“I was nominated for the Society Award because of the software tools that Forensic Analytics provides to law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Done right, technology can absolutely have a fantastically beneficial effect for society. Being recognised by the tech industry for our work feels a little bit surreal!”
“I’m most delighted on behalf of my company, Plexal, because we’re on a real journey and real mission, and to be at the head of that charge is so exciting for me. A moment like this is recognition that we’re heading in the right direction.”
“I feel humble and proud because I feel techUK has recognised all the work that we have been doing with Climate Essentials in the past three years, and I feel super happy. Winning is amazing for me.”
For more information about techUK President's Award, please contact:
Alex Smith
Alex joined techUK in September 2021.
The techUK President’s Award is our opportunity to shine a spotlight on the amazing talent we have in the UK tech industry. We are always bowled over by the quality of nominations we receive each year, and we want to thank every techUK member who has put forward a colleague. Through each of the four awards: People, Society, Economy, and Planet, we recognise the positive difference individuals from techUK member companies are making through their work with technology. With over 1,100 members, techUK now represents over 1.1 million tech workers in the UK so our award winners truly are one in a million.