Julie Kortens, Head of Corporate Services at Channel 4, has beaten off tough competition to win the Facilities Management category for the 2011 Women in the City Awards. 

Julie was one of just seven eminent women who secured success and won their category. The highly competitive awards scheme saw a wide variety of talented female executives from across London go head-to-head to compete for a Women in the City award. 

Ms Kortens said: “I am extremely proud to be recognised for this award and hope it provides inspiration to other women to take full advantage of the myriad of opportunities the FM profession offers. I look forward to sharing my experience and offering support and guidance to others. 

“My role as Head of Corporate Services at Channel 4 brings with it huge responsibility and every day is a challenge but I enjoy it enormously. I am passionate about my job and equally passionate about my team and the fantastic work they do.”

The Facilities Management category is endorsed by the Facilities Management Association (FMA) and sponsored by Lusso, the niche city caterer. As a category endorser the FMA helps to promote the awards, provide a Judging Panel, select the Category Winner, and presents the Award Certificates.
On presenting the award last night, Debra Ward, Vice-Chairman of the FMA, commented; “Julie’s passion for her career and how she uses her knowledge, experience and position in helping others, especially young females into a relatively demanding profession was both impressive and refreshing. Throughout her presentation Julie emphasised the need to take everyone in the workplace on the journey. Her philosophy is to champion confidence and passion which inspires her team all the while showing empathy and understanding especially those younger and less experienced. She is a role model not just for women but for all those in FM and in the business world in general.” 

The overarching aim of the Women in the City Awards is to highlight and formally recognise the outstanding contribution these women make to the City and in particular to identify those who are actively promoting and encouraging the progress of women above and beyond their everyday job. The Awards identify excellence and celebrate the achievements of senior and partner-level professionals working in London’s business hubs. Now in their fifth year the awards draw over 350 women to the Annual Women in the City Celebration Lunch in November when the 2011 

Ms Kortens will now go on to contend for the overall 2011 Woman of Achievement Award, which will be presented on Friday 25 November at the 9th Annual Women in the City Annual Celebration Lunch held at Plaisterers’ Hall, London. The winner of this award will receive a prize which includes a place on the Accelerated Development Program delivered by Chicago Booth School of Business at its London campus. 

The Facilities Management category award is sponsored by Lusso. The Awards judging panel is chaired by Prof Susan Vinnicombe, OBE, Director, Centre for Developing Women Business Leaders at Cranfield School of Management. 

Limited places are available at the 2011 Women in the City Lunch & Awards Ceremony, visit www.citywomen.co.uk to book. 

-ENDS-

Notes for editors

What is MITIE?
We’re the strategic outsourcing company. What does that mean in practice? We manage facilities, properties and assets for our clients across the UK and beyond.

We work with our clients in three ways; some take full advantage of our whole range of expertise, others may only need one aspect of what we do:

Strategy and consultancy
+ Facilities and project management
+ Service delivery

Our strategic input can add value at the highest level by helping clients to manage their assets, while our practical management expertise can save customers money and reduce their carbon emissions. We work with a vast number of clients in every industry across both the public and private sectors and deliver the broadest range of services that can be found in one place: from integrated facilities management to engineering maintenance to lifecycle energy management and much more.

There’s a lot more to MITIE than you probably think. We’re a big company with big ambitions – a leading FTSE 250 support services business, with more than 61,000 people, revenues in excess of £1.9bn, and a reputation for being the best.

Visit us at www.mitie.com