International Women’s Day (IWD) marked its 113^th birthday on Friday 8^th March, celebrating the progress made in recognizing the achievements of women in society, culture, politics and the economy.

All around the world, rallies, marches and other inclusive events took place to spotlight these achievements, but also to highlight that there is still work do be done in the fight for women’s equality. This years’ theme of ‘Inspire Inclusion’ poignantly includes within one of its key pillars the promotion of diversity in leadership and decision making positions. Women CEOs currently run around 10.4% of Fortune 500 companies as of June 2023.

In looking back at IWD 2024, and in support of the theme of ‘Inspire Inclusion’, here at The Cloud Awards we have delved into 2023’s archive of winners and have spotlighted those that currently have a woman in position as their CEO. In all cases they have driven and led their respective organizations to the very top of their field in coming out as winners in last years’ SaaS Awards and Cloud Awards programs.

Amy Zupon

Vertafore won The 2023/24 Cloud Award for Best Place to Work in the Cloud, and were a finalist in the B2B Customer Strategy category in the same program. They also made it as a finalist in the 2023 SaaS Awards, in the ‘Best SaaS Product for Sales and Marketing’ category.

Founded over 50 years ago, Vertafore is an Insurance Technology (InsurTech) business that serves solutions that connect every point of the insurance distribution channel.

The organization is led by Amy Zupon, who has held senior leadership positions in the B2B software sector for nearly 20 years. Her leadership team bio points towards a drive of creating a vibrant, inspiring and innovative company culture – which came through in Vertafore’s submission for the ‘Best Place to Work in the Cloud’ category.

This is what Lead Cloud Awards Judge Christopher Bennett had to say about Amy and the Vertafore team:

“Congratulations from everyone at The Cloud Awards to Vertafore on offering a flexible work environment and allowing each team member to decide where they work best. The employees are clearly engaged and believe their voice matters as Vertafore also has a 90% response rate in their employee survey. A strong benefit package, including a focus on mental health, strong communication between leadership and staff, and a wide range of career opportunities and training make Vertafore a best place to work.”

Christina Kosmowski

LogicMonitor were winners of two categories at The 2023/24 Cloud Awards, coming out on top in the ‘Best use of Cloud in a Multicloud Environment’ and ‘B2B Customer Strategy’ categories.

Boasting over 25,000 users, LogicMonitor uses the power of AI in its Hybrid Observability platform, enabling organizations to prevent issues using SaaS-based automated monitoring.

Christina Kosmowski is the CEO, and also has over 20 years experience in holding leadership positions within the enterprise software space, including serving on the board of Rapid7. Her responsibility in driving LogicMonitor’s work in helping executives and their teams through technology and business transformation shows through the organizations success in the Best B2B Customer Strategy category.

Lead Judge Annabelle Whittall had this to say about the work being done at LogicMonitor:

“The judging panel at The Cloud Awards were really impressed by LogicMonitor’s offering. LogicMonitor seamlessly enables unified observability on a single platform across hybrid infrastructure, networks, clouds, containers and applications, empowering companies to focus less on troubleshooting and more on innovation.”

Kendra Tucker

Truckstop won the ‘Best SaaS Product with 1,000+ Users’ category, and made it to the finalist stage in the ‘Best Data Innovation in a SaaS Product’ category at The 2023 SaaS Awards.

Founded in 1995, the business delivers innovation in the freight, transport and logistics industry, supporting carriers, brokers and shippers with its products. Its ‘Rate Insights’ product for shippers, which utilizes machine learning and AI, was the product that clinched the award in 2023.

Five out of seven of Truckstop’s leadership team are women, including CEO Kendra Tucker. She has occupied leadership positions in teams across more than 15 years, and has held the position of CEO at Truckstop since 2022, bringing a wide range of software experience to the role.

Her bio at Truckstop indicates a mission to ‘provide a “better way”’ to the freight industry, exemplified her team’s success in the ‘Best SaaS Product with 1,000+ Licensed Users’ category. Lead Judge Raghuram Pendyala commented:

“Truckstop’s solution impressed everyone at The SaaS Awards with their great innovative use of AI and machine learning. The ability to provide real-time rate insights to consumers and brokers is what made them stand out. Change was definitely needed in freight transportation. Congratulations, Truckstop!”

Laura K. Ipsen

Ellucian came out on top in the ‘Best Data Innovation in a SaaS product’ at The 2023 SaaS Awards, beating out some tough competition, including another highlighted in this article – Truckstop.

The business provides technology in the higher education sector, covering a range of focus areas from HR to enrollment, and financial aid to data and analytics, among others. The organization is over 50 years old, and boasts an R&D team of around 900 people, ensuring a focus on innovation.

Laura K. Ipsen is President and CEO. Laura has received numerous accolades and received recognition over the past three years, including being named as one of the Top 100 Influencers in the stage of EdTech 2022-23 report. This is in addition to more than 25 years as a technology executive in Silicon Valley, holding positions at several household names.

Under her leadership, and supported by the 900-strong R&D team at Ellucian, the organization was recognized for ‘Best Data Innovation in a SaaS Product in 2023. Lead Judge Maneet Bansal said:

“Congratulations to Ellucian for winning the Data Innovation category at The SaaS Awards 2023! With their product, Ellucian Insights, they’ve exemplified exceptional innovation in data management for education. By unifying data, democratizing access, and providing insights, they’ve addressed critical challenges faced by higher education institutions. Their commitment to streamlining operations, enhancing student outcomes, and fostering accessibility make Ellucian a trailblazer in data-driven solutions for the education sector. A well-deserved win, from everyone at The SaaS Awards.”

Jennifer Tejada

PagerDuty were winners of the ‘Best Cloud Automation Solution’ category at The 2023/24 Cloud Awards.

Tapping into the power of AI, PagerDuty enables organizations to automate critical workflows and improve customer service through its platform across a number of industries, including Healthcare and Retail. The business has offices globally, including in mainland Europe and the Far East.

The business is led by Jennifer Tejada, who has 25 years of experience across both consumer products and cloud software solutions, including prior CEO and leadership roles. She has a proven track record in product innovation, optimizing operations, and scaling both public and private technology companies.

Optimizing operations was a theme throughout PagerDuty’s submission for ‘Best cloud Automation of the Year’ at The 2023 SaaS Awards, with them securing the winners spot. Lead Cloud Awards Judge Venkateshwarlu Rupani said:

“PagerDuty Process Automation, part of the PagerDuty Operations Cloud, securely connects to customers’ clouds, data center, and edge environments to run automation. It’s plug-in integration system is simple to perform any kind of automation jobs securely. It resolves tasks 99% faster with increase in accuracy and faster response times. We at The Cloud Awards are delighted to see that this cloud automation solution is at its best to serve the industry.”

Congratulations again to these winners and their leaders who are representative of all that International Women’s Day celebrates. We look forward to seeing what innovations and moves these CEOs make during the rest of 2024, and hope to see more representation from women-led organizations across our awards programs this year!