WIBF Annual Awards for Achievement 2025 – Belfast

About this year's awards

The WIBF awards were the first in the UK to focus on the achievements of women and on initiatives by financial and professional services firms to help ensure gender equity progresses. For the first time, we are proud to present the WIBF Awards in Belfast!

Join us at 5:30pm for an evening of celebrating our successes and recognising the efforts of individuals who continue to drive change today. During the evening we will join a live stream from our London ceremony as the awards are announced, and celebrate with any local winners receiving their trophies.

The Belfast event is being very generously hosted by Deloitte.

Our WIBF Northern Ireland Co-leads, Siobhan Moran and Cathy Hawthorne will open the event and Marie Doyle, a Partner at Deloitte, will welcome you. Our key note speakers will be Claire McCollum, Journalist and Broadcaster and Louise Brogan, CEO of Louise Brogan Ltd.

Siobhan and Claire will then lead an insightful panel discussion with

Aisling Press, Managing Director of Personal Banking at Danske Bank, UK,
Aislean Nicholson, Partner, Deloitte;
Siobhan McAleer, Managing Director, The Mortgage Shop; and
Tanya Anderson, Head of Business Deposits Northern Ireland, Bank of Ireland.

We will also have a representative from the NSPCC, our charity partner for this year's awards, talking about the local work they support.

Join us for the chance to take part in the debate, network with leaders and peers in the industry and to celebrate our successes in Northern Ireland. Your tickets also include food, drinks and music and there will be a raffle with all proceeds going to NSPCC. Please note that tickets are available on a first come, first served basis.

Our dress code for this year for all our locations is A Splash of Green. A colour strongly associated with the suffragette movement and that symbolised hope, we want our awards to channel the aspirations and determination to see change of all those who paved the way for women to be able to take their rightful place in society.

Please note there will be a photographer present throughout the ceremony and celebrations. If you do not wish to be photographed, please make the photographer aware.

Key note Speakers

Freelance Journalist & Broadcaster Claire McCollum

Claire is a network TV presenter, Journalist, Event Host and Voiceover Artist based in Northern Ireland.

Since starting out as Breakfast Newsreader on Downtown Radio in 1999, she has been a familiar face on our screens for 25 years, presenting across UTV, and BBC. She’s hosted everything from Proms in the Park in front of 10,000 people to many live television broadcasts.

Claire currently presents BBC network programme Songs of Praise which sees her travel across the UK and Ireland and offers her support to anyone who wants to gain confidence, manage nerves and command an audience.

CEO of Louise Brogan Ltd Louise Brogan

As the CEO of Louise Brogan Ltd, Louise helps B2B companies leverage LinkedIn to raise their profile and generate leads and sales. She is the author of Raise Your Visibility on LinkedIn, an easy-to-read guide on how to leverage LinkedIn to raise your profile and build a network of value and hosts the 'Raise Your Visibility Online' podcast and YouTube channel with over 110,000 subscribers, where she shares actionable tips for growing businesses online.

A winner of the 'Digital Marketer of the Year Award,' recognised in the top 100 Small Businesses and top 100 female entrepreneurs in the UK and is a regular speaker at conferences.

Louise is dedicated to helping you build your brand and drive results online

Biographies of panel members

Biographies

Aisling Press, Managing Director of Personal Banking at Danske Bank, UK.

With over three decades of leadership experience in banking, Aisling is a passionate advocate for customers and diversity. Aisling holds a Masters in Executive Leadership, a Diploma from IoD, in Company Direction, and is an alumna of the William J Clinton Leadership Institute. She serves on Danske’s Sustainable & Responsible Business Board, is Executive co-sponsor of its Gender Diversity Network and is a board member of SistersIN, fostering leadership among future female leaders. She also sits on the board of Clanmil Housing Association.

Marie Doyle - Partner, Doloitte

Marie is a Senior Partner based in the Northern Ireland Public Sector Practice and is an economist by background. Marie specialises in large scale technology enabled public sector transformation. Marie is a member of the CBI Northern Ireland Regional Council and Chairs the CBI NI Economics Forum representing the views of business across Northern Ireland. She is also on the Board of Directors of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce.

Aislean Nicholson - Partner, Deloitte

Aislean is a Business Tax advisory partner based in Belfast, focusing on the Northern Ireland market. Before Joining Deloitte Ireland, Aislean spent more than 18 years with Deloitte UK, advising domestic and multinational companies on UK corporate and international tax matters, including business restructurings, mergers and acquisitions, financing structures, transfer pricing models and UK tax strategy.

Siobhan McAleer - Managing Director, The Mortgage Shop

Siobhan founded The Mortgage Shop in 1992 and, as a result of her leadership and strategic direction, it has now grown to 23 branches and 60 mortgage advisers. Siobhan also enjoys her role as non-executive director to The Revolution Board. She is passionate about the role technology plays in the advice process, both in protecting her advisers and providing consistently high levels of service to her customers.

Tanya Anderson - Head of Business Deposits Northern Ireland, Bank of Ireland

Tanya leads the Bank of Ireland’s Deposits strategy to promote the Bank’s next phase of business deposit growth. A graduate of Queen’s University, Tanya is a fellow of The Institute of Chartered Accountants having trained in PricewaterhouseCoopers. She has over two decades of experience in financial services industry within the Northern Ireland market, with roles spanning across corporate banking, corporate finance and SME support.