George Blizzard and Nicky Regazzoni win Inaugural Angela Oakes Award

George Blizzard and Nicky Regazzoni, Co-Founders, The PR Network won the Inaugural GWPR and ICCO Angela Oakes Award, recognising those who have smashed glass ceilings and changed the game for empowering female leadership, making a significant contribution to improving the landscape for women working in PR.

The Award was named in honour of the late Co-Founder of Global Women in PR, Angela Oakes. The winners were presented at the ICCO Global Awards in London last night by Sue Hardwick, Co-Founder, Global Women in PR.

Sue Hardwick said:

“I would like to pay a special tribute tonight to my partner Angela Oakes who sadly passed away earlier this year.

In 2016 we started the journey of establishing Global Women in PR to Champion, Support and Connect women working in PR and Communications around the world having first launched the concept at the 2015 ICCO Summit in Milan…

It has been an incredible journey and both Angela and I had no idea how that journey would develop… I am delighted to say it has exceeded our expectations and tonight I would like to recognise the huge impact that Angela made in facilitating many of the initiatives that have helped define our work to date including - Empower - our unique global mentoring scheme and our global Annual Index research programme now in its 5th year.

Together with ICCO I am delighted to present the very first Angela Oakes Award designed to honour those who have smashed glass ceilings and changed the game for empowering female leadership.

The award for 2023 recognises two amazing women who have made a truly significant contribution in changing the landscape for women working in our industry.

Our winners have been trailblazers for flexible and remote working for over 18 years - something our own Index has consistently shown to be a major issue for women working in our industry.

Tonight, I would like to pay tribute to Nicky Regazzoni and George Blizzard who started the PR Network in 2005 and now have a team of 1385 experts in over 60 countries around the world.

When you both started the PR Network you were trail blazers for flexible and remote working - way ahead of anyone else in our industry and long before others recognised the significance of your model.

You have gone onto create an award winning global business of real significance celebrating this year 18 years of growth and success with a B Corp to add to your achievements.

Flexible and remote working is your mantra and you have made it work giving women an opportunity to shine in an environment that is adaptable and able to fit their needs - your many awards for great work are testament to the success of your business model.

It is also fitting that this is a partnership with shared working practices that has stood the test of time and gone from strength to strength - I know Angela would be delighted to see you both as our first winners”.

More on George Blizard

Having spent over 20 years in international PR and 18 years running The PR Network, George has helped countless brands solve their comms challenges, from blue-chips and household names like Mars, IBM and Apple to innovative start-ups. Having cut her teeth working in French PR and running EMEA agency programmes in the UK, she loves running international networks. She’s also an advocate for flexible working, gender parity and job shares in the industry.

More on Nicky Regazzoni

Having cut her teeth with a who’s who of PR agencies, Nicky set up The PR Network with George in 2005. Highly experienced in tech PR working with brands such as Apple, Hitachi and Philips, she was included in the PRWeek PowerBook in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and served on the Women in PR Committee from 2015-2019 with her co-founder, George, together running its mentoring programme.