Categories
You run it. Come and collect.
Entries open 1 October 2026. The first live nights are Melbourne, Thursday 17 June 2027.
The Executive Awards
What you get out of it.
01 · From the day you go live
Awareness
Your own page at expys.org, a vote card sized for every feed, and the Nominee 2027 badge for LinkedIn and your website.
02 · Through the vote
Connection
Every vote is someone you asked, by name, clicking to back you. Finalists are invited to their country’s night, in the room with the other finalists.
03 · From the vote
Authority
Decided by public vote and independently certified. Finalist or Winner 2027 is a title you can put on LinkedIn, your site and your next proposal.
04 · On stage
Recognition
Winners are revealed live on stage, and online the same moment, and take home the trophy, the wall plaque, an article, a press release and an interview.
05 · At the live night
Experience
Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore, London, Frankfurt, New York, Dallas, Toronto, The Expys Middle East and Riyadh: June to July 2027, and Dubai in November and Riyadh in November. Winners in the room are photographed and filmed on stage and leave with the edit and vertical cuts to post.
One of five
Split by headcount of the organisation.
An executive is measured by the complexity they operate inside, and headcount is the truest proxy for it: spans of control, layers, industrial relations, systems, and the number of people a decision has to travel through. Revenue does not capture it, and an employed executive cannot lawfully publish their employer’s revenue anyway. Headcount is already on a company page, a registry filing or an annual report, which means it is an axis you can answer without asking your board.
Every one of the 26 offices exists three times over, once per band, with its own winner.
Band 1 of 3
Growth
Under 100 people
The function is you and a couple of people. You still do the work.
Band 2 of 3
Mid-market
100 to 999 people
A department, a budget and a board that asks questions.
Band 3 of 3
Enterprise
1,000 people and over
Layers, regions, regulators and a function that runs without you in the room.
- Headcount is the organisation you are accountable for, measured on the day you enter, full time equivalents including contractors on the books.
- A country executive of a global group enters on the headcount they are accountable for in that country, not the group total.
- Self-declared on the entry, on a one line declaration. Nobody asks you to prove it.
- The ratchet. You may move up a band in a later year. You may never move back down.
Two of five
Twenty six offices.
Every office runs three times, once in each headcount band, so each one produces three winners in your country rather than one. Industry is a filter on your profile, not a category you compete in.
26 categories times 3 bands is 78 awards in every country, of the 95 that take an entry.
- 01
Chief Executive of the Year
The top job. The whole organisation and its result.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 02
Chief Financial Officer of the Year
Capital, controls and the numbers the board relies on.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 03
Chief Operating Officer of the Year
The machine. Throughput, cost and the thing actually running.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 04
Chief Marketing Officer of the Year
Demand, brand and the pipeline marketing is accountable for.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 05
Chief Revenue Officer of the Year
Sales, partners and the number at the end of the quarter.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 06
Chief Technology Officer of the Year
What gets built, how it gets built and whether it holds.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 07
Chief Information Officer of the Year
The systems the business runs on, and the migration nobody noticed.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 08
Chief Product Officer of the Year
What ships, what is killed and why customers stay.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 09
Chief Data & Analytics Officer of the Year
The numbers the business trusts enough to act on.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 10
Chief Information Security Officer of the Year
The breach that did not happen, and the one handled properly.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 11
Chief AI Officer of the Year
Models and agents put into production, not into a slide.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 12
Chief People Officer of the Year
Hiring, pay, culture and the people who stayed.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 13
Chief Legal Officer of the Year
Contracts, disputes and the advice given before the decision.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 14
Chief Risk & Compliance Officer of the Year
Regulators, audits and a risk register that means something.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 15
Chief Customer Officer of the Year
Service, retention and the customer after the sale.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 16
Chief Supply Chain Officer of the Year
Suppliers, stock and the shelf that stayed full.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 17
Chief Procurement Officer of the Year
What the organisation buys, and what it stopped paying for.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 18
Chief Strategy Officer of the Year
Where the organisation goes next, and the deals that get it there.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 19
Chief Communications Officer of the Year
Press, internal comms and the week it all went wrong.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 20
Chief Sustainability Officer of the Year
Reported, audited and built into how the business operates.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 21
Chief Design Officer of the Year
How the product and the brand are experienced.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 22
Executive Creative Director of the Year
The creative department, and the work that ships under its name.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 23
Chief Learning Officer of the Year
Capability built inside the organisation instead of hired in.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 24
Managing Director of the Year
The country or division lead running a business inside a bigger one.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 25
Chief of Staff of the Year
The operating rhythm behind the chief executive.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
- 26
Executive Assistant of the Year
The calendar, the board papers and the chief executive’s week, run without a dropped ball.
- Growth
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
Three of five
Eleven for how you lead.
About how someone leads rather than what they run, so these are not banded. You may enter one alongside your office category.
11 awards in every country, unbanded, of the 95 that take an entry.
- 01
- 02
First-Time Chief Executive of the Year
First time in the top job, and it went well.
- 03
Turnaround Leader of the Year
Took something that was failing and stopped it failing.
- 04
Transformation Leader of the Year
Ran the change programme that actually landed.
- 05
- 06
- 07
Public Sector Executive of the Year
Government, agencies and the public service.
- 08
Not-for-Profit Executive of the Year
Charities, foundations and member organisations.
- 09
- 10
Executive Voice of the Year
Built a real following while holding the job. The executive whose posts people in the industry actually read.
- 11
Executive Podcast Host of the Year
Hosts a show the industry listens to while holding the job.
Four of five
Six for the organisation.
The group, the board and the programmes they build. Entered by the organisation rather than by one person, and named together.
6 awards in every country, unbanded, of the 95 that take an entry.
- 01
Executive Team of the Year
The leadership group, entered together and named together.
- 02
- 03
Employer of the Year
The organisation people want to work for, voted by people who do.
- 04
Leadership Programme of the Year
The development programme that produced leaders.
- 05
- 06
Creator Partnership of the Year
The organisation’s work with creators that moved a number it can show.
Five of five
The ones you cannot enter.
Executive of the Year in every country and 5 at the Global Final, all of them derived from the winners underneath. There is no entry form for these, and no way in other than winning something below them.
A category with fewer than five paid entries is combined with the nearest broader category in the programme for the vote, so a thin category is never quietly dropped and nobody who paid is left out.
In every country
- Executive of the Year
- The night’s top executive, from the 78 office winners, decided by the same public vote. No entry.
At the Global Final, Las Vegas
The Global Icon Awards. Win one and you are an EXPY Icon.
- 01Global Executive of the Year
- 02Global Chief Executive of the Year
- 03Global Executive Team of the Year
- 04Global Board of the Year
- 05Global Rising Executive of the Year
The Executive Awards
Nominate someone. Or apply yourself.
Entries open 1 October 2026. The first live nights are Melbourne, Thursday 17 June 2027.