Black Tech Achievement Awards 2025: Celebrating Microsoft’s achievers
On Friday 21 March, five Microsoft employees were recognised for their achievements at the Black Tech Achievement Awards at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House Hotel, with two being celebrated as category winners.
The prestigious ceremony, now in its fifth year, aims to showcase the diverse talent that makes the tech industry stronger and more inclusive. According to Dr Raphael Sofoluke, Founder & CEO: “We highlight and amplify the voices and successes of those paving the way for future generations.”
Despite continuing efforts to improve diversity and inclusion, black professionals – and particularly black women – remain significantly underrepresented in the UK technology sector.
At the awards ceremony Keyonda Gallardo, Microsoft UK’s HR Director, said: “We have to elevate the successes of every group. Events like this, where we celebrate the successes of black professionals across the UK, make me proud. It’s so important to elevate their work.”
With hundreds of representatives from the tech industry joining to celebrate stories of black tech achievement, we look at Microsoft’s five inspirational nominees.
These are their stories.
Kwadwo Benko, Senior Communications Manager
Kwadwo won this year’s ‘Employee of the Year’ award, recognised for his contributions and innovative approach to stimulating adoption of Copilot within Microsoft UK, as well as for his stellar work leading the organisation’s Black History Month celebrations. In accepting his award, Kwadwo spoke movingly about the challenges he faced in moving to the UK from South Africa and Ghana, putting his success down to the work ethic his mother instilled in him. He shared a story of how he would help his mother in her role as a cleaner, and the advice she gave him:
“I called her every day and asked, why? And she said, ‘just keep working hard, man.’”
Anjola Adebowale, Data & AI Consultant
Anjola was named 2025’s ‘Rising Star’, recognised for her work as an engineer across multiple generative AI tools, as well as co-leading the ‘Black Employees at Microsoft’ (BEAM) community and running university outreach events, teaching AI skills to more than 60 university students from underrepresented communities.
Anjola spoke of the value of support, and why it’s so important to be surrounded by colleagues who lift you up: “All of the support of the Employee Resource Groups, and the different mentors I’ve had, has helped me grow closer to becoming the woman I want to be.”
Idil Wais, Strategic Design Researcher
Idil was nominated for the ‘Innovation Champion’ award for driving AI transformation across Microsoft’s customers in the UK using ‘design thinking methodology’, a human-centred approach to problem-solving that involves empathy, creativity, prototyping, and testing to develop innovative solutions.
Idil spoke fondly of the culture at Microsoft and how it has encouraged her to thrive: “Culture is the main reason I gravitated towards Microsoft and chose to stay.
“I’ve been supported through career changes, had my higher education sponsored, and I’ve been encouraged to learn new disciplines, which has been a great opportunity for me.”
Isaac Amosu, Cloud Solution Architect
Nominated for 2025’s ‘Social Good’ award, Isaac started a university outreach programme supporting underrepresented students through hosting panels, hackathons, and technical training.
Reflecting on the culture that has supported him, Isaac spoke glowingly about how he has learned to apply a ‘growth mindset’: “Coming into Microsoft as a degree apprentice, the most important thing you have to do is learn.
“When the whole company has a learning mindset, you can’t help but fall into the same rhythm.”
Taonga Banda, Data & AI Cloud Solution Architect
Taonga was also nominated for this year’s ‘Social Good’ award for intertwining her love of technology with her dedication to helping her community.
Taonga spoke passionately about how recognition not only empowers the person being nominated, but also those who helped along the way: “As much as my name is nominated, I feel I’m a reflection of people who have shared their stories with me, or people who have been vulnerable enough to share their experiences to help me learn.
“As much as it’s me there [getting the recognition], I’m a representation of different people’s stories.”
Making the change
What changes did the nominees want to see in the tech sector to encourage stronger diversity and inclusion?
- There must be visible black representation at all levels of organisations, particularly in leadership roles.
- People must support and encourage those around them, particularly the next generations.
- People must be bold and not shy away from celebrating their own achievements, and the achievements of others.
Responding to the challenge
“The work of diversity and inclusion is complex and ever-evolving,” says Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President Talent Development and Chief Diversity Officer.
“At Microsoft, we aren’t daunted by the complexity. Instead, we leverage our platform and allocate our resources to take on these issues with vision and commitment.”
The stories of these nominees, and many other employees, showcase the strength of diversity and the value of bringing different perspectives to the table in any organisation, not just the technology industry, argues Keyonda Gallardo.
“Back to our mission – if we’re really focused on every person on the globe, we need to make sure that everyone’s voice, and all their needs and desires, are a part of what we do.”
EMBRACE (mentioned in the feature video) is Microsoft’s Ethnicity at Microsoft UK Employee Resource Group (ERG), which aims to celebrate, inspire and educate on race, culture and ethnicity, and champion allyship within the community.