The list includes a deaf-blind young woman running an accessibility platform, an entrepreneur looking to place 2 million other young people into work by 2020 and a school student who is turning her app into a business, aged 16.
Digital Leaders, the global initiative for promoting effective, long-term digital transformation across government and industries, has today announced the ten finalists for Young Digital Leader of the Year 2017.
The list recognises the extraordinary achievements of young people aged 16-24 in the digital transformation space. The 10 finalists that make up the list will now face the judges to compete to be overall winner for 2017.
This year’s list is made up of 8 young women and 3 young men in the category which includes a set of twins. This represents real leverage for young women appearing in the Digital sector.
In true gig-economy style and already disrupting the normal sector boundaries, most are doing two or more things at once, combining school with their own business, founding a charity or are in an important advisory role in a mainstream sector. Of the 11, four are still at school, three have created and run charities, two are private sector entrepreneurs and four work across Government, the BBC and big enterprise.
Sector wise they are in gaming, employment, diversity, accessibility, education and skills to name a few. Six UK regions are represented in this year’s list reflecting the national reach of the Digital Leaders Community.
Robin Knowles, CEO of Digital Leaders, commented: “We are proud to see the incredible recognition of leading female role models in this years Young Digital Leader of the Year. My first thought, on reading about what they are doing and what they have already done was to reflect on what I was doing aged 24, let alone 16.
Each year we create a new category that we are considering adding into the DL100 the following year. This year we chose Young Digital Leader and while this category is about showcasing young talent already leading digitally, we will only ask our judges to chose a winner and not be calling for a public vote. public vote!”
Louise Stokes, Head of Online at Digital Leaders said, ‘It’s wonderful to celebrate a group of young digital talent and especially pleasing to see the amount of young women finalists. Congratulations to all. The future of digital leadership in the UK is diverse, as it is bright!’
Judges for Young Digital Leader of the Year include:
Lord Maude of Horsham – Chair
Chris Yiu – Director, Uber
Emma McGuigan – Global CTO, Accenture
Felicity Singleton – GDS
Jacqueline de Rojas – President, TechUK
Lesley Seary – CEO, LB Islington
Maggie Philbin – CEO, Teentech
Miguel Rodriguez-Solas – Independent
Nick Williams, MD, Consumer Digital, Lloyds Banking Group
Oliver Morley – CEO, DVLA
Rachel Neaman – CEO, Corsham Institute
Theo Blackwell – Lead Member for Digital, LB Camden
The winner for Young Digital Leader of the Year 2017 will be announced at the DL100 Awards Dinner at St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel on 22 June 2017.
Young Digital Leader of the Year – 2017 Finalists:
Alice Goldman, Fasttrack
Andrew Batchelor, Dundee Ambassador
Cameron Cook, Cortex Specialists
Cat and Mel Tranfield, BBC Youth Panel
Ellora James, Wick High School
Grace Blake, Park House School
Jack Parsons , Your feed UK
Jessica Okoro, BeScienceSTEM
Jo Boosey, Lloyds Banking Group Digital
Molly Watt, Molly Watt.com
Find out more about the finalists: https://twitter.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dfd35a00bc97926789aa66871&id=bfbc9004dc&e=12fb05ec4d