Ita Buttrose, Lisa Wilkinson return as judges for The Weekly’s Women of the Future awards

Bauer Media has announced AGL as headline sponsor of The Australian Women’s Weekly’s Women of the Future awards for 2018.

Now in their sixth year, the 2018 Women of the Future awards will recognise women aged 18-35 with a business, innovation or charity idea, competing for an overall prize pool of $200,000. This year’s award categories are Innovation and Technology, Entrepreneur and Business, and Community Health and Charity.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop, media personalities Ita Buttrose and Lisa Wilkinson, and The Australian Women’s Weekly editor-in-chief Nicole Byers return as judges for the awards. The new members joining them on the panel are deputy leader of the opposition Tanya Plibersek, AGL’s Stakeholder Relations executive general manager Lisa Harrington and OzHarvest Australia founder and CEO Ronni Kahn.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with AGL on the Women of the Future initiative,” said The Australian Women’s Weekly editor-in-chief Nicole Byers. “These awards showcase The Weekly’s long-standing engagement to support and promote the leaders of tomorrow, and with AGL’s work to create a future of equality, the partnership makes perfect sense. We’re also very pleased to welcome Tanya, Lisa and Ronni to the judging panel.”

AGL’s focus on driving a brighter future for women through various gender-equality initiatives has been anchored by its commitment to place women in 40% of senior leadership roles this financial year – a goal they’ve reached.

The Australian Women’s Weekly’s Women of the Future initiative follows the announcement of Bauer’s Female Futures strategy in February and will contribute to the company’s wider promise to deliver 10 Million Words across its brands by 2019.

Nominations for The Australian Women’s Weekly’s Women of the Future Awards were announced in the June 2018 issue, on sale now.