2013 WiT Awards Winners

WiT Employer of Choice Award sponsored by GBST

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The ABC's strategies and policies to ensure equity in employment have resulted in a number of outcomes, including 4 out of 7 female Directors of the Board, equal representation of men and women both on the ABC Advisory Council and in the ABC Executive team. In this regard the ABC is an exemplar in terms of deriving and implementing policies to deliver employment equity at a senior level within the organisation.

WiT Professional Award sponsored by Hewlett Packard

Rebecca Langdon

WiT ICT Outstanding Achievement Award sponsored by Datacom

Elizabeth Harper

Elizabeth was a stand out winner of the Outstanding Award.

Elizabeth has enjoyed a long and distinguished career which demonstrated depth and breadth of her experience. She has utilised her deep expertise to transform organisations in a number of industries. She is also generous with her wisdom and actively supports younger members of her team as well as mentoring women in other organisations.

Elizabeth joined GHD in 2010 as Chief Information Officer. Her focus is driving efficiency and effectiveness across technical and business applications with the core intent of delivering consistent service to GHD's people and clients.

Prior to joining GHD Elizabeth was General Manager Corporate Services at Ballance Agri-Nutrients, where she was responsible for IT, HR, PR / Communications and Business Improvement.

Elizabeth is a member of the Queensland University of Technology School of Information Systems Industry Advisory Group and a member of the Queensland Branch Executive Committee of the Australian Computer Society.

WiT Rising Star Award Sponsored by QUT ihbi

Jennifer Firn

Jennifer has demonstrated her passion for researching more effective methods to restore, sustain and protect the planet’s natural resources that is commendable, motivating and genuinely inspiring.

Jennifer has a clear vision of more effectively restored ecosystems and better management of damaging invasive weeds which inspires her colleagues and students.

For her passion, achievements in research, clear leadership skills, commitment to restoring degraded ecosystems and her potential to make a real difference nationally and internationally in the future, Jennifer is clearly a Rising Star.

WiT Biotech Research Award sponsored by University of Queensland AND

WiT Biotech Outstanding Achievement Award sponsored by WiT

Selena Bartlett

The economic and social costs of addiction are enormous in every society but receive little attention in practice, leaving many affected individuals and families feeling alone and isolated while trying to determine how to find treatments and solutions. Professor Bartlett’s research interests are in the translation of basic research in clinical practice with the mission to improve the lives of individuals and families suffering mental health disorders. Professor Selena Bartlett is a Group Leader in Addiction Neuroscience and Obesity at the Translational Research Institute and in the Cells and Tissues Domain at IHBI and is a Professor in the School of Clinical Sciences in the Faculty of Health at QUT and an ARC Future Fellow.

Prior to returning to Australia in 2012, she was the Director of the Preclinical Development Group and a Principal Investigator at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California San Francisco. Her main contributions are in the field of addiction neuroscience, where one of the lab’s discoveries on nicotinic receptors in animal models of alcohol dependence was rapidly translated into twenty clinical trials.  The research has been generously supported with competitive funding from the NH&MRC, ARC, IHBI collaborative grant, QUT, National Institutes of Health, , Department of Defence, The Fogarty Center, and Pfizer Inc.

WiT ICT Research Award sponsored by University of Queensland

Marta Indulska

Marta is an Associate Professor at the UQ Business School, where she teaches on topics related to the use and management of Information Systems and Information Technology in business.  She has a background in Computer Science, having obtained her Computer Science doctorate degree in 2004, and is a member of the Australian Computer Society.

Marta’s main research interests include conceptual modelling, business process management and compliance.  She has published over 60 fully refereed articles in internationally recognised journals and conferences, and has contributed several chapters to published books.  Her research has been funded through several competitive grants. Marta has also worked with several organisations in the retail, consulting and non-profit sectors to provide guidance on a variety Information Technology topics.  Most recently she was involved in the Brisbane Digital Audit, conducted collaboratively between the UQ Business School and Ernst & Young for Brisbane Marketing.  The results of the Digital Audit were used in the development of the Brisbane Digital Strategy, launched by the Lord Mayor, Rt Hon Cr Graham Quirk in March 2013.

WiT PhD Career Start sponsored by Griffith University

Claire Wainwright

With a long list of volunteer positions including tutoring for under-grads, she has also been involved in programs such as “Science Buddies” and “FabFems” which seek to inspire young women to pursue careers in STEM fields.

Originally from California, Claire is now conducting her PhD research in Australia at The University of Queensland.

She is interested in the processes that maintain or erode biodiversity and potential for ecological theory to inform land management, restoration and conservation of species vulnerable to global change.  Her PhD research is concerned with the formation of novel plant communities following drastic land-use change in southwest WA.  In particular, she hopes to quantify how these communities function differently from the original assemblages they replace.

Her future plans include carrying out research that will help answer pressing questions in applied and theoretical ecology, as well as mentoring students interested in pursuing careers in science.

WiT Sue Wickenden Entrepreneurial Award sponsored by IBM

Sue Colclough

Sue Wickenden was a brave woman, persistent and diligent and therefore a true entrepreneur.

Apart from sharing the same name, the judges believe Sue Colclough is a worthy winner as she has demonstrated immense bravery to lean in and even enter this award, as well as buy back her family business from PWC in 2012. 

In just 16 months she has increased staff and revenue by 50%, added to the company’s portfolio of services and was directly involved with the Qld State Governments cost reduction initiative, with regards to the identification of unused or old technology telephony services.

Sue is the Managing Director of InfoView Technologies, previously a practice within PricewaterhouseCoopers specialising in the development of technology driven solutions for large scale information management services to Government and large national and multi-national corporations.