Five Individuals And Organizations Promoting Greater Diversity In Nova Scotia’s Tech Sector
HALIFAX — Three leaders and two organizations were honoured this week when Digital Nova Scotia presented its fifth annual Digital Diversity Awards.
The awards celebrate industry leaders who are going above and beyond to promote diversity and inclusion in the province’s tech sector.
Digital Nova Scotia CEO Wayne Sumarah presented the awards on October 21 as part of the Centre for Women in Business’s virtual INNOVATE event.
“Diversity drives innovation, which we believe is essential to the continued success of the tech sector,” Sumarah said. “As our sector continues to grow and evolve diversity will help us expand perspective, accelerate problem-solving, and create a collaborative environment.”
The awards were established five years ago to highlight “inspiring and influential female leaders” working in Nova Scotia’s tech sector. This year, Digital Nova Scotia expanded the awards, adding on additional award categories and modifying others.
The result, Sumarah said, are a set of awards that highlight some of the most important work promoting diversity happening in the province.
Mrugakshee Palwe, the CEO of Atlantic Blockchain Company, took home the Next Generation Leadership Award. The award celebrates a young women leader or entrepreneur who goes above and beyond their regular job responsibilities to celebrate diversity.
Through her work Atlantic Blockchain Company and her Go Full Crypto podcast, Palwe is one of Atlantic Canada’s leading educators and advocates of blockchain technology.
“In one of the most male-dominated spaces in the tech sector, her voice and the work she does goes above and beyond to add diversity to the conversation around crypto,” Sumarah said.
Accepting the award, Palwe admitted she had to overcome her own self-doubt when she first learned she had won the award and encouraged the audience to work on overcoming theirs.
“I would not be here without the ability to stand on the shoulders of giants and I am grateful every single day for being able to make an impact on people’s lives,” she said.
Taking home the Fueling the Digital Economy Award was Jennie Sanford, the head of operations at Halifax tech startup Proposify.
The award celebrates a woman in a senior position in tech who has made a significant contribution to the tech sector and is an active champion of diversity.
Sanford, who came to the tech world after a career in the not-for-profit industry, said working in tech has opened her eyes.
“Seeing this whole new world where people were actively working at trying to be inclusive, and trying to make tools to be inclusive, and trying to overall make the world a better place… I’m so privileged to be a part of that,” she said.
“I think moments like these are a great rallying cry for all of us, not just award winners, to remind ourselves that we can do better and that we are contributing to great things. And to strive for more and to be more inclusive, because that’s really what we want our world to be.”
Akram Al-otumi, the director at ShiftKey Labs, was given the Change Maker Award, which recognizes someone who’s actively inspired diversity in the tech sector through their work in the community.
Sumarah called Al-otumi, who also lectures on innovation and entrepreneurship, “a passionate and dedicated supporter of entrepreneurship and innovation.”
Other award winners were the Mi’kmaw Economic Benefits Office, which took home the Diversity and Inclusion Champion award, and Techsploration, which won the Shaping The Future award.
More information on the Digital Diversity Awards is available here.
Trevor Nichols is a reporter for Huddle in Halifax. Send him an e-mail with your story suggestions: [email protected].