Awards for 'Top 100 Women Leaders in Spain': Names from business, culture, sports and more

A MIXED online and in-person awards ceremony for the 'Top 100 Women Leaders in Spain' saw everyone from Paralympic sporting greats to national politicians, artists and writers through to chief executive officers, collect trophies or find out they were due to receive one in the post.

Some of the names on the list are already fairly well known to the public, such as virologist Margarita del Val, karate champion Sandra Sánchez, TV celebrity chef Samantha Vallejo Nágera, authors and columnists Elvira Lindo and Almudena Grandes, digital director of Mercadona supermarkets Juana Roig – daughter of the chain's founder Juan Roig – deputy president of the government and minister of work and social economy Yolanda Díaz Pérez, Madrid regional president (at least until the elections on May 4) Isabel Díaz Ayuso, deputy president of the government and economy minister Nadia Calviño Santamaría, European Parliamentary office director for Spain, María Andrés Marín, Guardia Civil Lieutenant Colonel Silvia Gil Cerdá, and Guardia Civil Captain María José Garrido Antón.

The ceremony was led by 'channel five', or Telecinco presenter Sonsoles Ónega, who was one of the 10 in the 'Media' category, along with director of newspaper 20minutos, Encarna Samitier Laín, general manager for ABC, Ana Delgado Galán, general manager of Zinet Media Global Marta Ariño Barrera, joint director of newspaper El Diario Esther Palomera, general manager of the website Maldita, Clara Jiménez Cruz, director of the site MujerEmprendedora ('Enterprising Woman'), Ana María Conte, founder of La Gata de Schrödinger, Rocío Vidal, and two other journalists who work for various media, Esther Paniagua and Olga Viza.

Along with the women in politics and the Guardia Civil, the 'Public, Institutional and Political Function' category included Clara Arpa Azofra, chairwoman of the Red Española Pacto Mundial ('World Pact Spanish Network'), Cristina Bescós, managing director of EIT Health, director of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) Paz Esteban, and head of commerce and port operations at A Coruña Port Authority, Irene Souto Blázquez.

In the category for 'Culture, Leisure and Sports', along with Sandra Sánchez, Almudena Grandes, Samantha Vallejo and Elvira Lindo were actress, director and scriptwriter for film, TV and theatre Leticia Dolera, film director for Mafalda Entertainment Mabel Lozano, essayist and classicist Irene Vallejo, orchestra and choir director for Talía Group Silvia Sanz Torre, novelist and dictionary-compiler for the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) Soledad Puértolas, and weightlifter Loida Zabala Ollero, who lost the use of her legs as a very young child but has taken home fourth- and fifth-place diplomas in the last three consecutive Paralympics, as well as winning two medals in 'mainstream', non-adapted international competitions.

For 'Businesswomen', along with Juana Roig is CEO for Europe and Africa of Erum Group, Blanca Erum Gregorio; CEO of Sampol, Carmen Sampol Massanet; CEO of Porcelanosa, María José Soriano; director and co-founder of the Tragaluz Group restaurant chain Rosa María Esteva; Penguin Portals CEO at Admiral Group Elena Betés Novoa; deputy chair of Cosentino Group Pilar Martínez Cosentino; managing director of The SPB Global Corporation Gracia Burdeos; CEO of dairy giant Leche Río Group, Carmen Lence Ferreiro; and Ana María Lajusticia, a chemical sciences graduate active on social media who has written numerous papers and books on correct nutrition and diet solutions for everything from maximum cognitive performance through to arthritis and continues to run her eponymous brand after 41 years – at the tender age of 96.

Along with Margarita del Val, other scientists in the 'Academics, Researchers and Thinkers' category are the chairwoman and co-director of Spain's National Research Council (CSIC), Rosa Menéndez and Isabel Sola respectively; head of the faculty of algebra at Málaga University, Mercedes Siles Molina; Professor Marina Garcés of Catalunya's open university, the Universitat Oberta; chief researcher for NavarraBioMed, Maite Mendioroz; scientific director for CIBER, Anna Bigas; Dr Nerea Luis Mingueza, an expert in Artificial Intelligence at Sngular; researcher Concepción Alicia Monje Micharet from RoboticsLab; and Dr Luz Rello, an award-winning young researcher whose studies into use of AI for dyslexia, her UNESCO prize-winning social foundation Change Dyslexia and her platform Dytective – used by over 300,000 people and 100-plus State-run schools in Spain – are said to have been a game-changer for people with dyslexia or those who work with them.

'Senior Management' category winners are CEO of McCann WorldGroup, a Barcelona-based advertising agency which was bestselling novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafón's first graduate job (his second and final being as a full-time fiction and screen script author); chairwoman of Microsoft Spain, Pilar López Álvarez; Country Manager for Mastercard Paloma Real; general manager for Volkswagen Spain Laura Ros Verhoeven; general manager and deputy chairwoman of P&G, Vanessa Prats; Google Spain Country Manager for Spain and Portugal, Fuencisla Clemares; general manager for Repsol María Victoria Zingoni; general manager for Aspen Pharma, Míriam Rodríguez; CEO of Cloud and Cybersecurity for Telefónica Tech, María Jesús Almázor Marsal; and Patricia Benito de Mateo, who set up the digital platform for Banco Santander's 100% online side, Openbank, using the same software for four different countries and contributing to its becoming the highest-growing bank in Spain for two years running, and who created the online shop for Tendam Group (Cortefiel, Pedro del Hierro, Women's Secret and Springfield) open to 25 countries – this now accounts for 20% of its total sales.

Patricia also heads up Women at Openbank, which works actively for equal opportunities and has led to the firm's becoming highly unique insofar as 54% of its top leadership jobs are occupied by women, and the 'gender pay gap' is now 3% in favour of females – achievements that led to her earning last year's Game-Changer Prize in The Globant Awards: Women who Build Edition.

'Directors' covers females on the boards of directors in several national and multi-national corporate giants: Chief operating officer for SAP, Anna Oró Jordán; director of Talengo, Marta García-Venezuela; head of communications, brand, research and development and corporate social responsibility (CSR) at CaixaBank, María Luisa Martínez Gistau; chief operating officer at ASISA, Aline Gómez-Acebo Finat; deputy chairwoman of alliance and partners for Spain and Portugal at Salesforce, Ana Vertedor; director of the Madrid campus of Google, Sofía Benjumea; digital experience director for Minisait/Indra, María José Romero; deputy chairwoman of New Business at Cabify, Lucía Chávarri Padilla; head of enterprise sales for Spain and Portugal at LinkedIn, Rosario Sierra Moreno; and director for KPMG Ana Fernández Poderós.

'Independent Professionals and Leaders' winners are Fortune 100 coach Ana Sarmiento; IWF director and chairwoman for Dentons Barcelona, Nieves Briz; director of Elzaburu, S.L.P., Mabel Klimt Yusti; founder and chairwoman of Women in a Legal World, Marlén Estévez Sanz; global co-chair for employment, labour director and senior partner of DLA Piper, Pilar Menor Sánchez; co-founder and CEO of BeUp, Marta Romo; CEO of Ellas Deciden, Gemma Cernuda Canelles; chairwoman of Apertia Consulting, María Jesús Álava Reyes; founder, CEO and independent advisor for AXA Bendit Thinking, Mónica Deza Pulido; and forensic director for Grant Thornton, Cristina Muñoz-Aycuens.

Another 10 women who founded, run or chair new ventures won awards in the 'Start-Up Firms and Small and Medium-Sized Businesses' category: Carlota Pi, chairwoman of an independent electricity distribution board backed by consumer giant OCU, HolaLuz; Spain and Portugal managing director for Too Good To Go, Madalena Rugeroni; co-founder of Komvida Kombucha, Beatriz Magro Nogales; founder and CEO of Cocunat, Sara Werner; founder and CEO of Saturno Labs, Natalia Rodríguez Núñez; chairwoman and CEO of Faconauto, Faconauto Woman and NiW, Marta Blázquez; CEO and co-founder of Senniors, Claudia Gómez Estefan; founder and CEO of Singularity Experts Elena Ibáñez; co-founder of Rosita, Clara Fernández; and CEO of We Are Knitters, a two-person company which makes millions from sending out wool, needles and patterns and do-it-yourself courses in a bid to 'make knitting cool again', Pepita Marín.

'Tertiary Sector and Social Impact' is a category for women who manage or created foundations or societies that have brought about social change, or who are the social change themselves.

This final slot saw awards go to founder and chairwoman of the Mencía Foundation, Isabel Lavín de la Cavada; general manager for Spain at the Carasso Foundation, Isabelle Le Galo Flores; co-founder and deputy chairwoman for the Créate Foundation, Margarita Ortiz Cotro; secretary-general for the Spanish National Organisation for the Blind (ONCE), a charity supporting the disabled through its famous nationwide daily lottery; general manager of the Accenture Foundation, Ana Millán Chapado; director of Ashoka, Alexandra Mitjans; chairwoman and founder of the Tamkeen Foundation, Maysoun Douas; chairwoman of the Wikimedia Foundation, María Sefidari Huici; journalist at Ilunion, Vicky Bendito, who is deaf and has worked through her reporting to promote the non-hearing community; and Rebeca López Hermoso, whose foundation Adopta un Abuelo ('Adopt a Grandparent') started out as a community initiative in her spare time in which young people volunteered to socialise with the elderly – given that, according to her findings, over 60% of residents in care homes never received any visitors – and swiftly became a full-time chief operations coordinator job after initial advertising led to more than 10,000 children, teens and young adults signing up.