Frequently Asked Questions

General information

What is the CTO of the Year award?
The CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of the Year award is a platform to promote the importance of technology and innovation in Europe. The award is given to the most prominent technology leaders of highly successful European companies: individuals, who are inspiring leaders and visionary technology managers. The award recognises the most successful technology leaders in two categories: SMEs and large corporations.

Who presents the award?
The partners in the CTO of the Year Europe organisation are EIRMA, Orgalim and Spinverse.

Qualification Criteria

Who can be nominated?
Candidates do not need to have the term ‘CTO’ in their job title – however they should be responsible for technology development within their respective companies. They should also have been in their position for more than 12 months.

What qualification criteria apply and in which categories is the award presented?
To qualify for the 2021 award, nominees should have recently created a positive change or impact on growth and innovation within their respective companies. The major part of the change or impact should have occurred approximately within the last year (12-18 months); however, the start or end point does not necessarily have to fall within this time frame.

The winner of CTO of the Year 2021 will be an innovative technology leader of a highly successful European company. This person should be both an inspiring leader and a visionary manager who is responsible for the company’s technology development at the highest level. The candidate’s company should have a technology-enabled, innovative and competitive product and/or service portfolio; should be already well-known or rapidly gaining recognition; and should strive for sustainability in its portfolio and/or operations.

The competition is open to both SMEs and large corporations, with evaluation criteria weighted in accordance with the company size. You can find more detailed criteria here.

Nomination process

How does the nomination process work?
Nominations are gathered through an open call. Candidates should be nominated by a third party using the nomination form, which can be found here when the nomination period opens: www.ctoeurope.net/nominate

The selection process
After the nomination period, all candidates are evaluated based on the award criteria and the jury will then select two finalists in both categories.

The finalists selected by the jury will be presented during the award ceremony, during which the audience will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite candidate. Based on the award criteria and the audience’s vote, the jury will make the final selection of the winners.

Presentation of finalists

The finalists from both categories will be presented during the awards ceremony.

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