CGI is incredibly proud to announce that Zoe Gill, Vice President Consulting Services, has been recognised as one of this year’s trailblazers, on the Northern Power Women Awards 2023 Power List!

The Northern Power Women Awards is the largest celebration of gender equality in Europe, celebrating the forward-thinking individuals and organisations who strive to create greater gender balance within their communities.

With 1,500 nominations for this year’s awards, being nominated is such a huge achievement! Having been put together with great consideration, research and knowledge of a person’s achievements, the nomination propels women to the forefront of the industry and recognises their hard work and dedication. Their shared stories help to encourage other individuals and businesses to step up and take action for a better-balanced workplace.

Zoe Gill was appointed as the Vice President, Consulting Services for CGI’s UK Safeguarding and Identity Sub-Sector in 2021, which is part of the Public Safety Sector. Zoe is also an active part of CGI’s women’s business network and sits on the UK Diversity Cabinet, investing significant time in mentoring and providing a voice to under-represented members in the technology industry.

We interviewed to Zoe about her nomination.

How it felt to be nominated

“I was really overwhelmed to hear I had even been nominated for the Power List, so to discover I had been successful alongside the other amazing women being recognised was amazing. 

I am a huge advocate of the power of diversity, having grown up in a working-class family full of females, we have always been taught to believe we can achieve whatever we want as long as we try our best.  My dad’s life motto is “Nil satis nisi optimum” which for those who don’t support Everton translates into “nothing but the best is good enough.”  Brainwashed growing up, I quickly took on this mantra.  Growing up in the technology industry I’ve seen a real shift in diversity over the last 20 years.  At the start of my career, I was quite often the only female in a team, my age bracket stood out noticeably, as did my northern twang and socio-economic background.  One of my biggest messages whenever I speak about being a woman in business, is always to be your authentic self. I am super proud of my diversity having learned to recognise the power and difference it can make to a team.   

I’ve been lucky in my career to work with fantastic organisations and leaders, like those in CGI, who also fully recognise and support the power of diversity.  Now that I’m a leader, its really important to me to continue to give back so that other people can have access to similar opportunities afforded to me in my career.  

Proudest achievement

I’ve been fortunate to have a very varied career, I started out in order entry and have progressed through to becoming a Vice President in CGI.  I’ve been involved in the creation and delivery of a first of its kind document management facility to help digitise casework within Government, procurement of global contracts for the private sector through to delivering business critical change for UK citizens; I often laugh that many of the roles I’ve ended up doing in my career I didn’t even know existed when I was in school. I’m really proud of what I’ve been able to achieve to date, however for me, it is often the more human centric elements of achievements that I am most proud of.

I love working with people.  I want to try to raise awareness of the variety of roles that exist within the IT sector to help the next generation of talent coming through.  In CGI we are already embracing the changing landscape across the technology sector and understand what our workforce will look like in 2030 and beyond, and I for one am hopeful it will continue to grow in terms of diversity.  

Gender equality and inclusivity  

At CGI, we believe that diversity brings a greater variety of ideas, perspectives, and experiences to the workplace, as well as creating a positive environment where all members have the opportunity to thrive. We actively encourage diversity, equity and inclusion in our workplace and inclusivity at work is one of our top priorities in being a responsible business.

By placing particular emphasis on gender diversity, we want to ensure that all women have the opportunity to thrive at CGI. We believe that women are vital to the future of STEM, and only through harnessing talent across genders, cultures and continents can we create lasting solutions to the technology challenges facing our world today.

I am an active part of CGI’s Women’s Business Network and sit on the UK Diversity Board.  CGI has over 10 member-led diversity network groups which are fantastically represented across the UK.  The networks share best practise and provide a real hub for our members to really ensure they feel safe to bring their whole selves to work.  We are intending to open our networks externally too and help to raise the profile and build connections across both the public and private sectors. We also offer all our members a corporate social responsibility day each year and have established networks with multiple organisations who are championing diversity within the Liverpool area. It’s really rewarding when working with mentees and is a big hit with our teams.  We’ve still got a way to go to find true equity in the IT profession however it is encouraging to see more diversity coming into teams in all sorts of different roles”.

Learn more about how we are shining a spotlight on the women of CGI