blueAPACHE’s Ellie Sarabi Named Finalist in ARN Women in ICT Awards 2026

blueAPACHE's Ellie Sarabi named finalist in ARN Women in ICT Awards 2026

3 March 2026. ARN has announced blueAPACHE's Ellie Sarabi, Wireless SME Network Engineer, as a finalist in the Partner – Technical category at the Women in ICT Awards (WIICTA) 2026.

The category

The Partner – Technical award recognises a problem-solving professional who demonstrates advanced technical and engineering expertise, alongside deep knowledge of products, solutions and services.

The award celebrates individuals who deliver exceptional business value through specialised skills, training and competence, spanning technical, pre-sales and support roles.

It is worth noting what this category is not. It is not a leadership or management award. It recognises technical depth — the capability to solve difficult problems in the technology itself. That makes a finalist placement a statement about engineering competence rather than about seniority or profile.

The role

Wireless subject-matter expertise is a genuinely specialised discipline within network engineering, and an under-appreciated one.

Wireless is the layer where the physical world intrudes on the network. Radio frequency behaviour, interference from equipment and building materials, client device roaming behaviour, channel and power planning, density in high-occupancy spaces, and the interaction of all of these with authentication and security policy — none of it is visible in a configuration file. Diagnosing a wireless problem well requires understanding the environment as much as the equipment.

It is also the layer where user experience is most directly determined. For most people in most organisations, the wireless network is the network.

The scale of the 2026 awards

Mirroring the breadth of the local technology ecosystem, the 222 finalists were shortlisted from a highly competitive field spanning partner, vendor and distributor businesses. Finalists represent locations across Australia, reflecting the national depth of female leadership within the technology channel.

In 2026, WIICTA will host its largest celebration of female excellence within the Australian technology channel.

The nine categories

The awards programme honours achievements across:

1. Innovation
2. Technical
3. Entrepreneur
4. Graduate
5. Rising Star
6. Shining Star
7. Achievement
8. Culture and Equity
9. Community Impact — newly introduced in 2026

Winners are selected by a panel of distinguished industry judges, recognising creativity, innovation and excellence across the channel.

The category structure spans career stages deliberately — from Graduate and Rising Star through to Achievement — which allows the programme to recognise people early in their careers alongside those with established records, rather than defaulting to seniority.

Why WIICTA exists

The Women in ICT Awards address a persistent and well-documented characteristic of the technology sector: women remain significantly under-represented, and the imbalance is most pronounced in deeply technical roles — precisely the category in which this finalist placement sits.

The programme's practical function is visibility. Technical work is largely invisible from outside the team that does it; a network engineer who resolves difficult problems reliably is known to their colleagues and their clients and to almost nobody else. Recognition of the kind WIICTA provides makes that work legible across the industry, which matters both for the individuals recognised and for people deciding whether the field has a place for them.

blueAPACHE's representation at WIICTA

This finalist placement continues a consistent pattern of blueAPACHE representation in the programme:

• WIICTA 2022 — Jayati Gulati, Shining Star Partner Award winner
• Earlier representation in two categories, with Rahwa Salew as a Rising Star and Renata Di Stefano as a Shining Star finalist
• 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, Partner – Technical finalist

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

Repeat representation across multiple years, under different judging panels and against a changing field, is more informative than any single placement. It indicates that the organisation consistently puts forward people whose work stands up to independent assessment.

Congratulations

blueAPACHE congratulates Ellie Sarabi on the finalist placement, and all 222 finalists recognised in the 2026 programme.

Frequently asked questions

Who was named a finalist, and in what category? Ellie Sarabi, Wireless SME Network Engineer at blueAPACHE, in the Partner – Technical category at WIICTA 2026. The finalists were announced on 3 March 2026, with winners named on Tuesday 28 April at Ilumina, Sydney.

What does the Partner – Technical category recognise? A problem-solving professional demonstrating advanced technical and engineering expertise with deep knowledge of products, solutions and services, delivering business value through specialised skills, training and competence across technical, pre-sales and support roles.

What is notable about this category specifically? It is not a leadership or management award. It recognises technical depth — the capability to solve difficult problems in the technology itself — so a finalist placement is a statement about engineering competence rather than seniority or profile.

Why is wireless engineering a specialised discipline? Because wireless is the layer where the physical world intrudes on the network: radio frequency behaviour, interference from equipment and building materials, client roaming behaviour, channel and power planning, density in high-occupancy spaces, and how all of it interacts with authentication and security policy. None of that is visible in a configuration file, so diagnosing a wireless problem requires understanding the environment as much as the equipment.

Why does the page say wireless matters most to user experience? Because for most people in most organisations, the wireless network is the network — it is the layer where experience is most directly determined.

How large was the 2026 field? 222 finalists from more than 100 organisations, shortlisted from over 372 nominations across nine categories, spanning partner, vendor and distributor businesses across Australia.

What changed in the 2026 categories? Community Impact was newly introduced, alongside Innovation, Technical, Entrepreneur, Graduate, Rising Star, Shining Star, Achievement, and Culture and Equity.

What is blueAPACHE's record at WIICTA? Jayati Gulati won the Shining Star Partner Award in 2022; Rahwa Salew and Renata Di Stefano were finalists in earlier years; Renata Di Stefano won Shining Star – Partner in 2023 from a record field of 230 finalists across 148 organisations; and Angelina Priya, Quinita Lindley and Renata Di Stefano were finalists in 2024 from a field of 178.

Related

• Careers at blueAPACHE
• Connectivity — where wireless engineering sits
• Core network and data centre interconnect
• Advanced infrastructure managed services
• Field services and staff augmentation
• Managed services
• About blueAPACHE
• Leadership team
• Blog
• Contact

Additional information

ARN article: Finalists revealed for Women in ICT Awards 2026 — available on the ARN website.

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