The Software Report is pleased to announce The Top Women Leaders in Software of 2025. These women are leading key functions inside some of the most widely used, fast-growing, and technically complex software organizations. Their work spans product, engineering, revenue, marketing, and operations—often in roles where decisions directly shape company direction and customer outcomes.
In 2025, software companies faced mounting pressure to deliver clearer value, faster execution, and more scalable systems. This year’s awardees helped meet that moment—whether by launching new AI tools, sharpening go-to-market strategy, or rebuilding infrastructure for better performance. Their leadership reflects what it takes to sustain momentum as platforms mature and customer demands grow more specific.
Among the standout leaders, Kriti Sharma took the helm of IFS Nexus Black in July 2025 and led the launch of Resolve, an industrial AI tool embedded in frontline operations. At Blackbird.AI, Chief Revenue Officer Anna Osborn helped drive 118% ARR growth in 2025 by strengthening go-to-market strategy and scaling adoption of the company’s narrative intelligence platform. And Emma McGrattan, Chief Technology Officer of Actian, oversaw the release of the MCP Server in October 2025, enabling enterprise data to flow directly into AI assistants while strengthening the company’s broader data intelligence offering.
Carefully selected through a close review of each leader’s impact, this year’s awardees reflect the depth and range of talent shaping the future of enterprise software. Please join us in recognizing The Top Women Leaders in Software of 2025.
Kriti Sharma
Company: IFS
Title: Chief Executive Officer, IFS Nexus Black
Kriti Sharma is the CEO of IFS Nexus Black, IFS’s Industrial AI innovation accelerator that co-creates and deploys agentic, domain-specific AI systems for asset- and service-intensive industries. Appointed in July 2025, she oversees the design and delivery of practical applications that tackle operational problems such as asset reliability, maintenance, and supply chain performance.
In 2025, IFS launched Nexus Black as a program to expedite high-impact AI adoption through sprint-based co-creation and rapid deployment, and later announced a partnership with Anthropic to build Industrial AI solutions powered by Claude. Under Kriti’s leadership, IFS introduced Resolve, positioning AI directly in frontline workflows—from diagnosing equipment issues using images and sensor readings to supporting faster restoration after major events.
Before joining IFS, Kriti served as chief product officer for LegalTech at Thomson Reuters, overseeing enterprise AI platforms generating approximately $3 billion in annual revenue. Earlier, she led AI product strategy at GfK, founded AI for Good UK, and serves on the board of Rightmove. Kriti holds a master’s degree in advanced computer science from the University of St Andrews and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Rajasthan Technical University.
Siobhan Byron
Company: Finastra
Title: Executive Vice President, Universal Banking
Siobhan Byron is the Executive Vice President of Universal Banking at Finastra, where she oversees the company’s global core banking and digital solutions business across retail, commercial, and digital banking. Siobhan leads the Universal Banking P&L and the end-to-end operating model spanning product management, R&D, sales, customer support, and customer success.
In 2025, Siobhan’s organization supported major customer go-lives on Finastra Essence, including deployments at the Belize Bank Group and British Caribbean Bank, as these institutions moved onto a next-generation core platform to improve agility, efficiency, and time-to-market. Earlier at Finastra, she served as SVP and head of technology enabled managed services, leading Canada-based lines of business spanning enhancement services, chequing, student lending, and mortgage technologies.
Across more than 25 years in technology leadership, Siobhan has held roles in financial services and beyond. She serves on the board of Oakville Hydro and is executive sponsor for Finastra’s LGBTQ+ and Friends and Women@Finastra initiatives. Siobhan holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Ulster and an MBA from the University of Liverpool, and is a certified project management professional (PMP).
Emma McGrattan
Company: Actian
Title: Chief Technology Officer
Emma McGrattan is the Chief Technology Officer of Actian, where she leads technology strategy, product development, and innovation across the company’s data intelligence portfolio. Promoted to the newly created CTO role in February 2025, she is responsible for aligning Actian’s engineering roadmap with priorities across data integration, governance, analytics, and observability at enterprise scale.
In October 2025, Actian launched its Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server within the Actian Data Intelligence Platform, enabling governed, high-quality enterprise data and metadata to flow directly into AI assistants built on large language models. Emma underscored the focus on context and data relationships, pointing to the platform’s knowledge graph foundation to support semantic search and relationship mapping in AI workflows.
Emma’s career spans more than 30 years at Actian, beginning as an associate engineer and advancing through senior engineering leadership, including SVP of engineering and product. She helped launch the Actian Data Platform and contributed to core analytics and data management technologies, holds multiple patents, and regularly speaks on data strategy and AI readiness. She earned a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering from Dublin City University and mentors emerging women leaders in technology.
Nicole Milstead
Company: Agiloft
Title: Chief Marketing Officer
Nicole Milstead is the Chief Marketing Officer of Agiloft, where she leads global marketing strategy across revenue marketing, brand, communications, and customer voice for the company’s contract lifecycle management platform. In the role, she focuses on go-to-market execution: building messaging, programs, and field alignment that support enterprise legal and procurement teams.
Nicole brings more than 25 years of experience leading marketing, business development, and partner and alliance teams across enterprise technology. Before Agiloft, she served as chief marketing officer at FinancialForce (now Certinia), leading global marketing strategy, revenue marketing, marketing communications, brand growth, and customer voice, and overseeing collaborative marketing tied to the company’s Salesforce alliances. Earlier, she ran go-to-market, field engagement, and business development programs at Oracle, led analyst relations at SAP, and began her career in a sales role at Gartner.
Across roles, Nicole has led full-spectrum marketing organizations spanning demand generation, communications, and partner-driven programs. She holds a master of social work from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in international relations and affairs from Lafayette College.
Anna Osborn
Company: Blackbird.AI
Title: Chief Revenue Officer
Anna Osborn serves as the Chief Revenue Officer at Blackbird.AI, the category leading narrative intelligence technology company, where she is scaling the business and commercial organization to drive outsized growth. Osborn is a seasoned leader with a track record of assembling high-performing teams specializing in building market understanding and appetite for new categories of technology. In 2025, Blackbird.AI grew by 118%, tripled its customers and secured strategic funding, bringing total capital raised to $58 million.
Prior to joining Blackbird.AI, Osborn held the role of CRO at Exiger where she spearheaded the company’s operational and go-to-market transformation from a professional services business into an industry-leading SaaS platform. Her efforts contributed to Exiger’s acquisition by Carlyle Group and Insight Partners at a valuation of $1.2 Billion.
Osborn is passionate about the value of diversity in building high-performing teams and is an outspoken advocate for the power of healthy friction in building award-winning companies.
Jo Mills
Company: Fuel50
Title: President & Co-Founder
Jo Mills is the President and Co-Founder of Fuel50, leading product strategy and client success for the company’s AI-powered Talent Intelligence Platform. Since co-founding Fuel50, Jo has shaped its skills-based architecture and guided its evolution from a talent marketplace into a comprehensive platform designed to help enterprises unlock internal mobility, close skills gaps, and reduce attrition. Today, Fuel50 serves more than 50 enterprise clients globally.
In October 2025, Fuel50 launched Succession, a skills-first succession planning module built to help HR and business leaders create and manage pipelines for critical roles across the organization. The module uses skills, career preferences, and performance data to build succession pools, track readiness and gaps, and support collaborative planning inside the Fuel50 Talent Marketplace.
Under Jo’s leadership, clients have reported up to a 65% increase in lateral mobility and a 60% reduction in employee churn. She co-authored The Career Engagement Game and remains active as a startup mentor and board member. Jo holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology from Massey University.
Tiffany McGee
Company: Phreesia
Title: Assistant General Counsel
Tiffany McGee is Assistant General Counsel for Commercial Contracts at Phreesia. She negotiates commercial agreements with enterprise partners, providers, and procurement vendors, and advises leadership and sales teams on complex compliance, risk, privacy, and security issues tied to those relationships.
Before joining Phreesia in 2021, Tiffany spent more than 14 years as senior in-house counsel at Accenture, structuring and negotiating technology and digital services transactions across areas including cloud, cybersecurity, software licensing, and business process outsourcing. Her work also included post-merger integration support and the development of reusable legal resources such as contract templates and risk assessment and training tools to strengthen contracting consistency at scale. Earlier, she practiced at Arnstein & Lehr in Chicago, advising technology companies on licensing, consulting agreements, and corporate matters.
Tiffany began her career as a computer systems analyst at Hewitt & Associates, building and testing software interfaces and training analysts on system logic. She holds a bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a JD from the Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology.