The prestigious PICCASO Privacy Awards 2025 brought together leaders, innovators, and visionaries from across the data protection, privacy, and security landscape to celebrate excellence in the field.
Hosted by Matt Johnson, the evening recognised the most impactful contributions to privacy, data governance, and responsible innovation over the past year.
The awards, held at JW Marriott Grosvenor House London, on the 11th November honoured individuals and organisations driving positive change, promoting trust, and ensuring data ethics remain central to modern business practices.
Highlights from the Evening
The event opened with a powerful speech from Emma Martins, PICCASO, who remarked:
“Be proud of yourselves and each other. I am certainly hugely proud to be a part of this community”
2025 PICCASO Privacy Awards Winners
Rising Star: SME – Innocent Paul, CEO, CoreDefense Limited
Rising Star: Large Company – Olivia Brown, Data Privacy Adviser, Asos
Outstanding DPO: SME – Liz Smith, Data Protection Officer, DataGuard
Outstanding DPO: Large Company – Ernst Oliver Wilhelm, Data Protection Officer, GFT Technologies SE
Best Privacy Culture Improvement Award – Veolia Data Protection Team
Best Privacy Programme Award – Qover SA
Bridging the Privacy and Security Gap Award – Thibault Meunier, Cloudflare
Sustainability and Privacy Initiative of the Year – Admiral Group
Data Governance & Record Management Programme of the Year – Portman Dentex
Law Firm of the Year – Stephenson Harwood
Most Innovative Platform/Software of the Year – The Guardian
Industry Network of the Year – Privacy Space
DE&I Leadership Excellence Award – Ito Onojeghuo, Head of Training and Consultancy, ALLNET Law
InfoSec Team of the Year – Capgemini Invent UK
Privacy Champion of the Year: SME – Eleonor Duhs, Bates Wells
Privacy Champion of the Year: Large Company – Natasha McAllister, Cognizant and Anne-Claire Dubois, Sony PlayStation
Compliance Champion: SME – Luke Beckley, Chief Compliance Officer, Hope4
Compliance Champion: Large Company – Odvar Bjerkholt, Principal Lawyer, BT Group
InfoSec Champion – Ira Goel, Founder and CEO, Gira Group
Cyber Security Team of the Year – NCC Group
Responsible AI & Data Ethics Initiative or Leadership: SME – Trilateral Research
Responsible AI & Data Ethics Initiative or Leadership: Large Company – Carly Thurgood, AI Privacy Governance Manager, Pax8 Inc
Safeguarding Children’s Data Award – Dolores Martyn, XpertDPO
Compliance Team of the Year – Dornan Engineering Ltd
Author / Creator of the Year – Serious Privacy Podcast
Inspiring Communications Award – Data Privacy Simplified
Most Innovative Recruiter of the Year – Jide Chinsman, ECB Star Group
ISO 27001 / ISMS – Team of the Year – Flo Health
Privacy Team of the Year: Public Company – Wales Accord on the Sharing of Personal Information (WASPI)
Privacy Team of the Year: Private Company – Boundless
A Night of Celebration and Collaboration
The PICCASO Privacy Awards continue to set the benchmark for recognition in data protection and privacy excellence, shining a light on organisations and professionals leading with integrity, innovation, and social responsibility.