Congratulations to our Veritec ARN Women in ICT Finalists

By Greg Mace 

Veritec is proud to announce that two of our female team members have been named as finalists in the ARN 2020 Women in ICT Awards (WIICTA), playing host to the leading female front runners across the Australian channel.

Our COO, Emily Curlewis has been named as a finalist in the Shining Star category and Megan Stamatis, our Senior Manager Bus Apps has been in the Rising Star category – a great achievement for her as she is currently on maternity leave.  We also put Kristine Hewett, our Senior Manager of Delivery Assurance for the Community category and while she was not named as a finalist, the work she does for her charity Adamas Nexus is inspiring. 

At Veritec we are passionate being an advocate for Diversity and Inclusion. We run our own programs and have been involved in several external initiatives that foster the growth of female leaders in the ITC industry.  We are also proud to announce that we have just committed to continuing our sponsorship of The Women in Information and Communication (WIC) organisation, and recently signed a partnership agreement with Code Like a Girl.   

While we know we still have a way to go, I am proud of the fact that we have strong representation of females on our leadership team with two of our senior leadership team and four of extended leadership team being females. We are always looking for ways to inspire more women into IT as a profession and support the growth of women within our company and industry.  

I am thrilled to see Emily and Megan named as finalist in the ARN 2020 Women in ICT Awards as recognition for all they have achieved not just during their time at Veritec but also throughout their careers in the ICT industry. 
This year’s ARN WIICTA winners will be revealed at a virtual event on Friday 20 November – we look forward to being in attendance and have our fingers crossed for a win! 

Let’s get to know our finalists a little bit better… 

Megan Stamatis - Rising Star Award

• Megan has been recognised as a rising star within Canberra having held leadership positions with two Microsoft Partners and is on-track for a long, successful career within the industry. Coming from a non-technical background (Politics and International Relations to be specific!), Megan is passionate about creating a culture that people, particularly women, from all backgrounds enjoy being part of.
• In August Megan embarked on a new leadership challenge – parenthood! Megan is the first employee within Veritec’s history to take maternity leave, so she is passionate about establishing a positive precedent for women at other levels in the business. On Megan’s return to full-time work next year, she is expected to continue a leadership role within Veritec where she can play an active role in supporting our people, providing valuable input to sales and marketing, and driving various internal initiatives.  

Emily Curlewis – Shining Star category

• Emily joined our team at Veritec about 18 months ago as the Marketing Lead. Since then she has been promoted twice, firstly to the General Manager of Industry Engagement leading our sales, marketing and talent teams to more recently being promoted to Chief Operating Officer where is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the business and setting our strategic direction. During that time, she has also acted as Chief Marketing Officer to our parent company, FTS Group providing with strategic guidance on how to establish an internal marketing shared service capability to support the multiple IT service companies within the Group. 
• Emily is a passionate advocate for Women in Leadership which has been evidenced by the mentorship she has provided to many women at Veritec, her involvement in diversity programs in partnership with Microsoft and other industry initiatives. On a personal level she wants to have a successful role model to her two young children. In her household she is the primary breadwinner, and her husband is the stay at home dad. Emily is passionate about breaking down stereotypes as she believes that will help close the gender pay gap in the future.