The UK’s top data leaders were honoured at the second annual Data 50 Awards on Thursday evening.

The Data 50 Awards, organised by Information Age, is the UK’s premier initiative for celebrating data leadership and excellence. The list is updated annually to recognise the top individuals and companies creating business value and innovation from data.

After whittling down more than 300 nominations, Information Age announced the prestigious Data 50 list for 2017 last month, and followed that up by revealing the inductees for two new categories, UK data entrepreneurs and global leaders.

Thursday’s ceremony, attended by around 300 sector leaders, not only celebrated all of those induced into the Data 50 programme this year, but also revealed the winners of 12 ‘Best in Class’ categories.

Information Age’s editorial team decided the winners of the entrepreneur and global leader categories, while an independent judging panel met to decide the winners of the other ten ‘Best in Class’ awards. This year’s judges were:

• Andrew Crisp, ‎EU & Asia Data Engineering Leader, ‎Dun & Bradstreet
• Barry Panayi, Chief Data Officer, Amlin
• Janani Dumbleton, Head of Data for myBBC, BBC
• Mark Howden, ‎Head Of Data, Santander Global Corporate Banking
• Matt Hobby, Head of Data Science for Analytics, Elsevier
• Neil Tape, ‎Chief Data Officer, ‎National Institute for Health Research
• Nick Creagh, ‎Data & Analytics Director, TES Global
• Paul Banoub, Director of Analytics as a Service, UBS Investment Bank
• Peter Williams, Head of Enterprise Analytics, Marks and Spencer
• Robin Hayden, Head of Data Architecture, Paddy Power Betfair

The awards honour people and firms at the forefront of data – those transforming organisations and enhancing decision-making through its use, managing and controlling its proliferating growth, and driving business value.

All functions involved in driving data innovation in the UK were considered for this year’s list, including the vendors creating the technology, the end-users deploying it, and the consultancies and integrators that get deployments over the line.

‘Data is now the beating heart of the British economy and the people we recognise as part of our Data 50 programme are the driving forces behind that,’ said Ben Rossi, editorial director of Information Age publisher Vitesse Media, when introducing the awards ceremony. ‘I would like to congratulate not only the winners of the Best in Class awards tonight, but everybody inducted into the Data 50 so far. It’s an honour to celebrate the top players in this burgeoning and increasingly vital industry.’

WINNERS

MARKETING & CUSTOMER INSIGHTS

Paul Alexander – Beyond Analysis
David Castro-Gavino – Dunnhumby
Jim Conning – Royal Mail
Robert Goodwin – Lida
Di Mayze – Acceleration

Best in Class: Paul Alexander – Beyond Analysis

INTERNET, MEDIA & ADVERTISING

Edward Crook – Brandwatch
Ozkan Aykut Demir – Pisano
Omar Khan – MEC
Dan Wilson – Fetch
The Guardian’s Technology Team – Guardian News and Media

Best in Class: The Guardian’s Technology Team – Guardian News and Media

SOFTWARE & SERVICES

Ciaran Dynes –Talend
David Fearne – Arrow ECS
Guy Hanson – Return Path
Bill McGloin – Computacenter
Martin Moran – InsideSales.com

Best in Class: David Fearne – Arrow ECS

GLOBAL LEADER

Matthew Brennan – VirtualArmour
Martin Darling – MapR Technologies
John Gentry – Virtual Instruments
Peter Linas – Bullhorn
Manu Mathew – Visual IQ
Dean Stoecker – Alteryx
Guy White – Catalyx
Moshe Yanai – Infinidat

Best in Class: Dean Stoecker – Alteryx

CONSTRUCTION & ENGINEERING

Caroline Carruthers – Network Rail
Larisa Cojocaru – Boeing
Dan Hughes – RICS
David Todd – Travis Perkins
Kevin van Kessel – Tata Steel

Best in Class: Caroline Carruthers – Network Rail

BUSINESS SERVICES & CONSULTING

Karl Grambow – Coeo
Simon Gratton – CTO Advisors
Alan Grogan – Atos
Mark Seymour – Future Facilities
Tim Vine – Dun & Bradstreet

Best in Class: Mark Seymour – Future Facilities

DATA MANAGEMENT & PROTECTION

Phil Bridge – Kroll Ontrack
Dr Malcolm Murphy – Infoblox
Aingaran Pillai – Zaizi
Jen Shorten – MarkLogic
Jim Webber – Neo Technology

Best in Class: Jen Shorten – MarkLogic

PUBLIC UTILITIES, SERVICES & NON-PROFIT

Abed Ajraou – First Utility
Tim Carmichael – British Army
Ark’s systems team
Bron Afon Community Housing’s BI Team
Dwr Cymru Welsh Water’s ‘WISER’ Team

Best in Class:  Tim Carmichael – British Army

DATA SCIENCE, ANALYTICS & QUALITY

Yasmeen Ahmad – Teradata
Phil Blades – Hubble
Mark Carrington – Data8
James Fisher – Qlik
Brian Hills – The Data Lab

Best in Class: Brian Hills – The Data Lab

INTERNET & TELECOMS

Mark Curling – onefinestay
Ryan Gallagher – IOVOX
Dr. Katia Walsh – Vodafone
Dan Nelson – Ocado
Paul Riordan – Unify

Best in Class: Dr. Katia Walsh – Vodafone

UK DATA ENTREPRENEUR

Christine Andrews –DQM GRC
Adrian Barrett – Exonar
Paul Black – sales-i
Martin Campbell – Ormsby Street
Gary Luke – Connexica
Ian Manocha – Gresham Tech
Steve Marsh – GeoSpock
Guy Marson – Profusion
Guy Mucklow – PCA Predict
Kenneth Tan – Sardina Systems

Best in Class: Steve Marsh – GeoSpock

FINANCIAL SERVICES & INSURANCE

Jacob Ayres–Thomson – JRP Group
Kevin Crew – ADVO Group
Yorkshire Building Society’s data governance team
Stacie Maxey – Domestic & General
Miriam Vizvary – WRB Underwriting

Best in Class: Jacob Ayres-Thomson – JRP Group