After increasing company revenue by six per cent, setting up an established Academy Programme and investing half a million pounds in people, and products, the Managing Director of a fast growing manufacturing technology business has received a top award nomination.

Cathie Hall, the Managing Director of business solutions provider NexSys, has been nominated for Business Leader of the Year at this years’ Women in IT Awards. Despite only being in the role for only a year, she has already grown the business significantly both in terms of revenue, and in terms of NexSys’s market position.

The Women in IT awards take place in London on January 28^th and were launched a year ago to recognise the valuable role women currently play within the IT industry, and to help provide role models for young women with a desire to work within the sector.

The awards are an important driver for attracting women into the technology sector at a time when, despite initiatives to try and redress the gender balance in IT, inequality gaps still remain. According to the organisers of the awards, currently only 17% of technology specialists in the UK are female and only 10% of these are working at director level.

Commenting on her nomination, Cathie Hall commented: “I am humbled to be a nominee at this year’s Women in IT Awards. They shine a much needed spotlight on the achievements of women within the IT sector and even more importantly they are a way to galvanise the industry into doing more to promote the technology industry as an attractive career choice to both genders. Some of the most successful people in technology are female and these awards are great for recognising the women that are constantly helping make the technology industry even more advanced and exciting.”

Prior to joining NexSys, Cathie gained over ten years’ experience working in various technology businesses, including running her own consultancy business. Since taking over Managing Director duties at NexSys in 2014, she has used her expertise and knowledge as a springboard to fuel growth and innovation.

Under the leadership of Cathie Hall, the company has implemented a number of initiatives including launching the K3 Academy, which aims to reduce the UK’s technology skills gap, and formalising the structure of an internal leadership team as a means to focus on developing existing and future talent. A significant investment of company profits back into staff, education and product development, including development of the company’s Advanced Planning and Scheduling solution, and systems integration tool DataSwitch, means the company is in an excellent growth position for the year ahead. Furthermore, Cathie has grown the company’s existing links with Enterprise Resource Planning developer SYSPRO, to represent the brand at a European level, as well as in the UK.

Speaking about the awards, Ben Rossi from Information Age, founder of the awards, commented: “The lack of women within the IT industry is an extremely worrying trend that needs to be addressed. The response to last years’ awards was fantastic and we are extremely confident in the continued success the Women in IT Awards will have in helping to readdress this balance.”