Women Lead New Nominees For Tech Awards

The Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council has added 11 women to a previously all-male list of nominees for executive awards, after prominent industry figures complained about the lack of diversity.

Stefania Mallett of ezCater, Sheila Lirio Marcelo of Care.com, Jacqueline Moloney of UMass Lowell and Nicole Sahin of Globalization Partners are now contenders for the trade group's chief executive of the year award.

New nominees in the chief technology officer category include Teresa Arroyo Gallego of nQ Medical, Amy Layous of Vecna and Fidelma Russo of Iron Mountain.

Monique Bonner of Akamai, Loren Jarrett of Progress, Laura Taylor of WordStream and Sarah Welch of CarGurus are up for chief marketing officer of the year.

MassTLC will announce winners at a ceremony Oct. 3.

The original 15 nominees in the top executive categories, named in July, had been all men — for the third year in a row.

MassTLC President Tom Hopcroft told WBUR at that time that he was disappointed by the result but denied bias in the judging process. He said the problem is too few women entering the awards contest — or being entered by colleagues — through an online ballot.

Hopcroft initially said a committee would look at ways to foster gender diversity in next year's awards. But after six high-tech heavy hitters teamed up to pen a scathing op-ed in the Boston Globe, MassTLC reopened this year's contest.