SAN FRANCISCO, CA and LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM–(Marketwired – Jan 31, 2017) – MOVE Guides, helping HR teams move their employees around the world — for any reason, any policy and any location — today announced that founder and CEO Brynne Kennedy was honored as the winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year at the Women in IT Awards 2017. The ceremony, which is the world’s largest tech diversity event, was held last week at London’s prestigious Great Room venue at Grosvenor House, Park Lane.
MOVE Guides, which Kennedy founded in 2012, is dedicated to bringing together the best in HR technology and global mobility expertise and services. Under Kennedy’s leadership, the company’s customers experience a 97 percent employee satisfaction rate, as well as a 20 to 30 percent increase in their HR team’s efficiency. Kennedy has directed MOVE Guides’ tremendous growth, more than doubling its global team over the past year alone. The company has been recognized for its accomplishments through various industry and leadership awards, including being named the Best Enterprise Startup at the 2016 Europas.
“The Women in IT Awards recognize the outstanding innovation achieved by women in technology. I want to extend my thanks to the Women in IT Awards for shining a light on the tremendous accomplishments of women in this traditionally male-dominated industry,” said Kennedy. “I am humbled to be included among some of the most passionate and visionary female entrepreneurs working in technology today, and it is an honor to be selected as the winner of this year’s award. Together, we can serve as role models for the next generation of women leaders, paving the way for greater achievements and contributions than we can possibly imagine.”
Organized by business-technology magazine Information Age in partnership with headline sponsor Amazon Web Services, the Women in IT Awards were created in 2015 to tackle the technology industry’s disheartening gender imbalance. According to a study from The Tech Partnership, which supports the Women in IT Awards initiative, just 16 percent of the IT industry is made up of women and the gap is worsening. The annual event is intended to showcase the achievements and innovation of women in technology over the last 12 months, identifying new role models and promoting further dialogue around diversity among industry influencers.
Accepting the award on behalf of Kennedy is Meng Muk, MOVE Guides’ technical lead. Muk is the most senior female member of the engineering team and brings over 15 years of technical experience to MOVE Guides.
During the event, Ben Rossi, editorial director at Information Age publisher Vitesse Media and founder of the Women in IT Awards and sister event Tomorrow’s Tech Leaders Today, commented, “Achieving diversity in technology has remained a priority campaign for Information Age and we’ve been overwhelmed by how the enormous demand for the Women in IT Awards has seen it double in size in the last 12 months. The fact we’re able to bring together 1,000 prominent industry stakeholders to celebrate female tech leadership and identify new role models for young women is testament to how invested people and companies are in this cause, and it’s a privilege to host the platform that makes it all happen.”
The Women in IT Awards has received resounding support from trade associations, politicians and companies of all sizes and sectors since its launch, and 1,000 of the UK’s most prominent business and IT leaders were in attendance at this year’s event. Joining Amazon Web Services as sponsors of the Women in IT Awards 2017 were Salesforce, BMC Software, Accenture Security, ADA College, Direct Line Group, EOL IT Services, Ericsson, Equal Experts, Frank Recruitment Group, Informed Solutions, KPMG, Rolls-Royce, Schroders, TeenTech, YOOX Net-A-Porter Group and Zayo.
More information about the Women in IT Awards, including a full list of winners, is available at www.womeninitawards.com.