They are scientists, entrepreneurs, managers, researchers, innovators, athletes and protagonists of social commitment. Very different paths, united by the ability to transform skills, vision and talent into a concrete impact on society. They are the winners of the fourth edition of the WE Award - Women Excellence 2026, the recognition promoted by Il Sole 24 Ore, in collaboration with the Financial Times and with the media partnership of Sky Tg24, as part of the Women at the Top project.
The winners were the protagonists of Women at the Top 2026 on 10 November 2026, the event dedicated to female empowerment which gave visibility to concrete examples of leadership, innovation and talent. 1,418 nominations were received for the fourth edition of the WE Award - Women Excellence, of which 103 were collected for the WE Award Women Excellence - Emerging Talents path, the new one for 2026 dedicated to the under 30s. Overall, 30 women were awarded in the Business & Leadership categories; Social Impact; Training and Research; Innovation and Future; ESG, Welfare and CSR.
During the evening, some members of the WE Award 2026 jury took turns presenting the awards, chaired by Donatella Sciuto, Rector of the Polytechnic of Milan, and composed of authoritative personalities from the business, academic, cultural and media world: Maria Anghileri, President of Young Entrepreneurs Confindustria; Regina Corradini D'Arienzo, CEO and General Manager of Simest; Giuseppe De Bellis, Executive Vice President Sport, News and Entertainment Sky – Editorial Director SkyTg24; Orson Francescone, Managing Director FT Live; Anna Lambiase, President of CDP Venture Capital SGR; Silvia Pavoni, Editor in Chief The Banker, Financial Times Group; Monica Possa, Group Chief People & Organization Officer Generali; Federico Silvestri, CEO of Il Sole 24 ORE Group; Adriana Valle, Director of Corporate Affairs & Communication JTI Italia; Maurizia Villa, Managing Director Italy Korn Ferry.
For the Business & Leadership category, Roberta Casali, Vice President of Finance and Risk Management of the Asian Development Bank, was awarded for having brought an Italian voice to the top of global development finance, helping to unlock 100 billion dollars in new financing for the countries of Asia and the Pacific; Maria Criscuolo, Chairwoman & Founder of Triumph Group International, for having built in forty years an Italian group of international reference in the world of events, chosen for events such as the G7 and NATO summits and the Italian Pavilions at Expos, making female leadership, equality and sustainability structural elements of its model; and Lucia Forte, CEO of Oropan, who in five years has almost doubled the turnover of the family company, bringing it to 27 countries and transforming certified sustainability into a governance model.
Scientific research was one of the areas in which the stories awarded in this edition emerged with particular force. The WE Award went to Federica Agosta, Neurologist, Director of the Strategic Alzheimer's Program of the San Raffaele Hospital and Associate Professor of Neurology at UniSR, for having paved the way in Italy for new therapies against Alzheimer's and for having integrated neuroimaging and artificial intelligence to anticipate the path of the disease, offering people and families more timely responses. Also awarded were Lucia Del Mastro, Full Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Genoa, for her contribution to a concept of oncology treatment that protects not only recovery but also the future of women, bringing the topic of fertility and life after cancer into international guidelines; Caterina Garone, Associate Professor of Medical Genetics and Pediatric Neurologist at the University of Bologna, for a research path that has contributed to a therapy capable of offering new perspectives to children affected by a very rare genetic disease; Edwige Pezzulli, Astrophysicist and Science Communicator, for her commitment to making scientific knowledge accessible to everyone, from the suburbs to prisons; and Clementina Sasso, INAF astrophysics researcher at the Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory, for having combined the exploration of the Sun with the fight against gender stereotypes, building with F³GS a national network between research and school.
