There’s been some last minute reshuffling in the B&T Women in Media Awards, presented by Are Media, People’s Choice Award race.
With voting closing today, Simran Kaur from Pounce Agency is looking likely as being crowned the 2026 People’s Choice winner, after storming from fifth place to the top in the previous update, she has now further strengthened her lead, jumping from nine to 11 per cent of all votes cast.
Meanwhile, The Digital Picnic’s Cherie Clonan, a former Woman of the Year, continues her remarkable late surge.
Having only recently entered the Top 10, she has cemented second place with 7.4 per cent of all votes, making her one of the biggest movers of this year’s competition.
That means long-time frontrunner Christen Fernandes from Resolution Digital, who led the race for much of the voting period, now sits in third place, followed by Esther Selvanayagam from Ogilvy in fourth.
Further down the leaderboard, Priska Raharjo and Annaliese Norsworthy continue to keep Scentre Group strongly represented inside the Top 10, while Rachael Webb has held onto seventh place.
There’s also been a late switch further down the rankings, with Deepika Sondal moving ahead of Niamh Ryan into eighth place, as every vote continues to count in the final hours.
The latest standings are:
1. Simran Kaur, Pounce Agency
2. Cherie Clonan, The Digital Picnic
3. Christen Fernandes, Resolution Digital
4. Esther Selvanayagam, Ogilvy
5. Priska Raharjo, Scentre Group
6. Annaliese Norsworthy, Scentre Group
7. Rachael Webb, Sticki
8. Deepika Sondal, WPP Media
9. Niamh Ryan, News Australia
10. Ashleigh Schultz, News Australia
You can cast your vote in the form below or HERE.
Voting closes today, so if you’ve been meaning to back a colleague, mentor or industry peer, now is the time. A final LinkedIn post, office-wide email or team group chat message could still make all the difference before polls close.
The People’s Choice winner will be announced at the B&T Women in Media Awards, presented by Are Media, on Friday, 28 August at Sydney’s White Bay Cruise Terminal, alongside this year’s category winners.
If you want to be there when the winner is revealed, now’s the time to secure your tickets!
Key dates:
- People’s Choice voting closes: Today (Friday, 24 July 2026)
- Early bird tickets end: Wednesday, 29 July 2026
- Finalists announced: Thursday, 30 July 2026
- Awards night: Friday, 28 August 2026
