blueAPACHE represented in two categories in the upcoming ARN Women in ICT Awards

blueAPACHE represented in two categories in the upcoming ARN Women in ICT Awards

blueAPACHE will be represented in two categories at this year's ARN Women in ICT Awards (WIICTA).

Two colleagues have been recognised, in categories that sit at opposite ends of a career arc — and both stories are worth reading, because neither followed the path the technology industry usually describes.

Rahwa Salew — Rising Star

Rahwa Salew has been acknowledged as a Rising Star in our industry, demonstrating commitment to continued career advancement with a proven desire to reach the next level of professional development.

In four years, Rahwa has achieved tremendous milestones. She commenced in recruitment, until a career opportunity arose to move into project management — where today she holds the role of Project Coordinator.

What the Rising Star category recognises

The Rising Star award is not a performance award for the year. It recognises trajectory: sustained development, deliberate advancement, and the demonstrated intent to keep going.

Rahwa's move from recruitment into project management is a genuine discipline change rather than a promotion within a track. Both roles involve coordinating people against deadlines, but the technical content, the stakeholders and the accountability are entirely different. Making that transition successfully requires learning a new domain while continuing to deliver in it.

It is also a transition that reflects something about how blueAPACHE structures its people functions. In 2022 the company brought talent acquisition, people operations, service delivery and the end-user help desk together under a single Experience Division, on the reasoning that employee experience and customer experience are the same problem viewed from two sides. Internal mobility of exactly this kind is one of the things such a structure is meant to produce.

Renata Di Stefano — Shining Star finalist

Renata Di Stefano, our Head of Marketing, has been named a Shining Star finalist.

Renata's career in ICT commenced in 2010, as a receptionist for a managed service provider. With no corporate sector experience, she used the position to absorb knowledge, gain experience, upskill and network.

Within two years she had pivoted her career from administration into marketing, where she has held senior marketing roles since 2012.

The detail that matters

The phrase in Renata's story that deserves emphasis is with no corporate sector experience.

The conventional account of a technology career starts with a relevant degree and a graduate programme. A great many real careers do not. They start in a role adjacent to the industry, held by someone who paid attention, asked questions, and made themselves useful in areas nobody had assigned to them.

A reception desk at an MSP is a genuinely good vantage point for that. Everyone passes it. Every visitor, every vendor, every escalation and every conversation about what the company is trying to do goes through the front of the office. Someone deliberately absorbing that learns the business faster than a specialist confined to one function.

Moving from that position to a senior marketing role within two years, and holding senior roles for the decade since, is the outcome of treating a job as a vantage point rather than a ceiling.

About WIICTA

WIICTA is designed to celebrate female excellence within the ICT industry, and both Rahwa and Renata are strong representatives of an illustrious alumna.

The programme spans categories covering different career stages and contributions — including Innovation, Technical, Entrepreneur, Graduate, Rising Star, Shining Star, Achievement, and awards recognising diversity, equity and inclusion. Winners are selected by a large executive panel of industry judges assessing creativity, innovation and excellence, and the finalist field is drawn from across partner, vendor, telco and distributor businesses nationally.

The category structure is deliberate. By spanning Graduate and Rising Star through to Achievement, the programme recognises people at the beginning of their careers alongside those with established records — rather than defaulting to seniority, which would exclude precisely the people whose recognition changes the most.

blueAPACHE at WIICTA

This representation is part of a continuing pattern:

• WIICTA 2022 — Jayati Gulati, Shining Star Partner Award winner
• WIICTA 2023 — Renata Di Stefano, Shining Star – Partner winner, from a record field of 230 finalists across 148 organisations
• WIICTA 2024 — Angelina Priya, Quinita Lindley and Renata Di Stefano, finalists, from a field of 178
• WIICTA 2026 — Ellie Sarabi, Wireless SME Network Engineer, finalist in the Partner – Technical category, from a field of 222

Separately, Jayati Gulati was recognised with an ARN 30 Under 30 Sales Excellence Award in that programme's inaugural year.

Representation sustained across multiple years, under different judging panels and against a changing national field, is more informative than any single placement.

Additional information

The full list of finalists is published on the ARN website.

Frequently asked questions

Who was recognised, and in which categories? Rahwa Salew as a Rising Star, and Renata Di Stefano, Head of Marketing, as a Shining Star finalist — two categories that sit at opposite ends of a career arc.

What does the Rising Star category recognise? Trajectory rather than a single year's performance: sustained development, deliberate advancement and demonstrated intent to keep progressing.

What is notable about Rahwa Salew's progression? She moved from recruitment into project management in four years, and is now Project Coordinator. The page treats this as a genuine discipline change rather than a promotion within a track — both roles coordinate people against deadlines, but the technical content, the stakeholders and the accountability differ entirely, so the transition required learning a new domain while continuing to deliver in it.

How does blueAPACHE's structure relate to that kind of move? In 2022 the company brought talent acquisition, people operations, service delivery and the end-user help desk together under a single Experience Division, on the reasoning that employee experience and customer experience are the same problem seen from two sides. Internal mobility of this kind is one of the outcomes such a structure is intended to produce.

What is notable about Renata Di Stefano's career? She entered ICT in 2010 as a receptionist at a managed service provider with no corporate sector experience, used the role to absorb knowledge and network, pivoted into marketing within two years, and has held senior marketing roles since 2012.

Why does the page dwell on the reception desk? Because it argues a front desk at an MSP is a genuinely good vantage point — every visitor, vendor, escalation and strategy conversation passes it — so someone deliberately absorbing that learns the business faster than a specialist confined to one function. Its point is that many real technology careers start adjacent to the industry rather than with a relevant degree and a graduate programme.

What is WIICTA? The ARN Women in ICT Awards, celebrating female excellence in the ICT industry across categories including Innovation, Technical, Entrepreneur, Graduate, Rising Star, Shining Star, Achievement and awards for diversity, equity and inclusion. Winners are selected by a large executive panel of industry judges, with finalists drawn from partner, vendor, telco and distributor businesses nationally.

What is blueAPACHE's wider record at WIICTA? Jayati Gulati won the Shining Star Partner Award in 2022; Renata Di Stefano won Shining Star – Partner in 2023 from a record field of 230 finalists across 148 organisations; Angelina Priya, Quinita Lindley and Renata Di Stefano were finalists in 2024 from a field of 178; and Ellie Sarabi was a Partner – Technical finalist in 2026 from a field of 222.

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