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Congratulations!

A huge congratulations to all our finalists, and a sincere thank you to everyone who applied this year. The quality, diversity and impact of the nominations made this one of our most competitive years yet.

Our finalists represent outstanding leadership, innovation, research, entrepreneurship and impact across the AI ecosystem in Australia and APAC.

🏆 Meet the 2026 Finalists

AI for GenAI and Agentic AI and Entrepreneurship
Zoe Banning — IBM Consulting Associate Director - Enterprise Transformation with AI
Katherine Tobias — Founder & CEO, InsightWise
Nella Luan — Head of Data Science - National Australia Bank

 

AI for Social Good
Dr Mihoko Otake-Matsuura — Team Director, RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, Director, Fonobono Research Institute
Dr. Nurzada Amangeldi — Researcher, Institute of Artificial Intelligence, ENU

 

AI in Agribusiness/Smart Farm and Rural Development
Su-Ann Porter — Head of Advanced Analytics - Data, Insights and AI

 

AI in Climate & Environment
Dr Mandana Ghanavati — Senior Research Fellow, UNSW Sydney
Anjitha Sreekumar — Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Australian Institute for Machine Learning

 

AI in Cyber Security (Risk Management)
Christina Wiremu-Brook — Founder & CEO, Kuria AI
Annie Stevenson — Lead Platform Engineer, Mantel

 

AI in Data (including Data Mining and Predictive Analytics)
Dr. Teresa Weiqing Wang — Senior Lecturer, Monash University
Assoc. Prof. Dr Sharifah Sakinah Syed Ahmad — Associate Professor, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM)

 

AI in Defense and Intelligence (includes aerospace, geospatial data)
Dr Phyo Phyo San — Lead Research Scientist (AI/ML), Defence Science and Technology Group
Dwi Ratnasari — Project Manager & AI Operations Professional — Independent

 

AI in Education
Anam Javed — Manager, Teacher Pathways - Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership
Dr Sidra Alam — Postdoctoral Research Fellow

 

AI in Finance/FinTech (includes banking, insurance, superannuation, investment and FinOps)
Alexandra (Allie) Thornton — AI Experience Lead - Westpac

 

AI in Health/Biotech/MedTech (includes aged care and disability services)
Dr Mahtab Mirmomeni — Founder and CEO, ExerWatch
Chantal Velasque — Head of Data & Analytics, Uniting NSW.ACT

 

AI in Infrastructure (includes transportation, and telecommunications)
Jessica De Sousa — Associate Director, AI Product, Optus
Louise Anderson — Senior Director AI Product, Optus

 

AI in Innovation
Dr Alexandra Bratanova — Senior Research Scientist, Technology, CSIRO
Dr. Ruey Yuan (Maria) Lee — President, Hylove Business Inc.

 

AI in Law (includes the application of AI in the legal sector,and responsible AI)
Professor Mimi Zou — Professor, UNSW & Barrister, Tenth Floor Chambers
Emma Hann — Family Law Product Lead, Mary Technology

 

AI in Manufacturing (includes smart factories, robotics and automation)
Dr Zijue Chen — CERC Research Fellow, CSIRO
Cheryl Jones — Manager APAC Partnerships - Mirakl

AI in Marketing / Martech and Creative Industries
Tori Starkey — Director, Kudosity

AI in Mining (Industry Mining)
Dr. Limin Xu — Research Fellow, University of Melbourne
Aayushma Pant — Data Engineer, Earth AI

AI in Space and Quantum (including Robotics)
Dr Amena Khatun — Research Scientist, Quantum Systems, CSIRO
Dr Farina Riaz — Program Coordinator (MIT), AIIHE / CSIRO Visiting Scientist

Communicating in AI (Recognizes individuals who have played a key role in building AI communities, and advancing public understanding of AI)
Dr Eunice Sari — Director, Western Australian AI Hub
Rita Arrigo — Founder, AI Native Futures

Foundational AI (Recognising breakthroughs in the core research and engineering that power next-generation AI)
Dr Indu Bala — Lecturer, School of Computer Science and Information Technology, Adelaide University
Grace Chung — Engineering Director, Head of Google Research APAC

 

Prop-Tech (Property Tech - This award recognizes innovative solutions enhancing efficiency,and value across property transactions, management)
Magdalena Kortas — Co-founder, PropVista AI
Bobbie MacDougall — Lead Product Manager, Lendi Group

 

Emerging Leadership in AI
Shannon Harty — AI Product Manager, Lendi Group

🌟 Australia Executive Awards

People, Talent & AI Leadership Award
Shenaz Waples — Group Executive People & Culture, Colonial First State

AI Inspiration & Technology Leadership Award
Rowena Westphalen — Technical Success, OpenAI

AI Adoption & Engagement Leadership Award
Belinda White — AI Adoption & Engagement Lead, CBA

AI GTM, and DEI Leadership Award
Loren Sinclair — Enterprise Sales Director, Databricks

AI Academic Excellence & DEI Leadership Award
Renata Borovica-Gajic — Associate Dean, Diversity and Inclusion, Melbourne University

Responsible AI Research Leadership Award
Australian Institute for Machine Learning, Adelaide University

AI Engineering and Cloud Leadership Award
Natalie Piucco — Field CTO, Google Cloud Customer Engineering

National AI Research Leadership - Male Champion for Diversity & Excellence Award
CSIRO — Dr Liming Zhu, Research Director

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🌏 Celebrating Women in AI Across Australia & APAC

We look forward to bringing our finalists together with Government, industry and academia AI leaders at the:

Women in AI AUS + APAC Awards Gala Dinner
📅 3 September 2026
🕡 6:30–10:30 pm
📍 Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), Sydney

 

An evening dedicated to celebrating the remarkable women shaping the future of AI across Australia and APAC.

🙏 Thank You

​A special thank you to our judging panel and advisors for their continued support of Women in AI AUS + APAC.

We also extend our sincere appreciation to our community parter — CSIRO and NAIC; our premier partner EBOS Group for continued and exceptional support for bringing diversity and inclusion in AI.

Thank you to our sponsors and partners AIML, Databricks, University of Melbourne, Google, Insignia Financial, KSIB, AWS, RMIT, Avanade and U&U, and to our community partners Stone & Chalk, HM&A, MCA Sydney and AV1 for helping us make this celebration possible.

Congratulations to all our 2026 finalists! 🎉

Your leadership, innovation and contribution to AI are helping shape a stronger and more inclusive AI future for Australia and APAC.

We look forward to celebrating you on 3 September!

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