The late Dame Julie Kenny was among those celebrated last night at Professional Security’s Women in Security (WiS) awards night.
In a new award, in memory of the late Baroness Ruth Henig, WiS judges each put forward a name they wished to nominate. While several names were put forward, a majority choice was Dame Julie, founder of the alarm panel manufacturer Pyronix, a former chair of the BSIA and a stalwart of South Yorkshire, died in February. Martyn’s Law campaigner Figen Murray, herself a past winner on WiS awards night, was on stage as master of ceremonies alongside Professional Security MD Roy Cooper. Roy thanked the judges for their work and praised the quality of entries as ‘incredible’. As in previous years all those nominated were praised and finalists honoured – called up on stage besides the overall winners – who were (with category in brackets): Claire Shrosbree (business manager), Meg Ridley (security manager), Ingrid Lucas (front line), Prof Emmeline Taylor (technical) and Julie Nel (contribution to industry).
About the winners
Claire Shrosbree was nominated for growing CYS Security from a small key-holder into a multi-million business, serving the social housing sector. Meg Ridley, of Midcounties Co-op, has been among those at the Co-op championing such campaigns as ShopKind, Freedom from Fear against threats to staff, and ‘offender to recovery’; besides inside her arm of the Co-operative having an impact on the security culture. Ingrid Lucas of Carlisle Support Services was hailed by Ruth Ripley (herself a finalist) for her work at the Southbank Centre beside the Thames in central London (only a short walk from the WiS night venue, Shakespeare’s Underglobe across the water from St Paul’s Cathedral). The criminologist Prof Emmeline Taylor was featured in the August edition of Professional Security for her seminar at her institution City St George’s University in London; she specialises in crime against business. And Julie Nel is Security Institute chair.
Finalists
Other finalists were: Onur Korucu and Daisy Carr (business manager), Louise Harrison, Molly Edwards and Ruth Ripley (security manager), Ashley Attard, Elena ‘Lori’ Cracovschi and Kerry Driver (front line), Sophie Malone (technical) and Lynn Watts-Plumpkin, Liz Lloyd and Lorraine Mansfield (industry contribution). Among industry figures in the audience were, from the Security Industry Authority (SIA) chair Heather Baily and Director of Licensing and Standards Tim Archer, inspectorate chiefs Richard Fogelman (NSI) and Paul Phillips (SSAIB), healthcare security association NAHS president Jayne King, Lynda Moore of ACS Pacesetters, Association of Security Consultants chair Gary Thomas and criminologist Prof Martin Gill.
Charity appeal
Amanda McCloskey of guard firm CIS Security (herself a past ‘contribution to industry’ WiS winner, from 2019) made an appeal on stage for donations for the charity the Consortium for the Prevention of Suicide; she was speaking the day after World Suicide Prevention Day, when the Consortium held an event in London. She reminded the audience that suicide is the biggest cause of death for men, and women, aged 20 to 34.
More in the October edition of Professional Security magazine.
Picture by Mark Rowe: Figen Murray (in the company of one of the countless Peace Bears she has knitted) on stage with Roy Cooper.
