Every year, BIMA recognises 100 of the most influential people working in UK digital and tech - voted for by their peers across the industry. This year, three members of the Giant Digital team made the list, and we couldn't be more pleased for them.
Gaby Frylinck is recognised in Creatives and Designers, Jon Atkinson in AI and Tech Pioneers, and Kelly Appleby in Client Services and Project Management. Here's a little more about why.
Gaby Frylinck - Creatives and Designers
Gaby is a Product Designer who brings something rare to her work: as a dyslexic designer, she's spent her career navigating digital spaces that weren't built for her, and that experience shapes everything she creates. For Gaby, inclusive design isn't a box to tick, it's the foundation every decision is built on.
That shows in the range of what she delivers. She's translated beloved print identities into digital for the first time, designed for people arriving at a website in moments of real crisis, and built brands around values of people, planet and purpose - always asking the same question: how does this feel to the person who actually needs it? Clients consistently describe working with her as a genuinely positive experience, and the results bear that out across design, accessibility and user experience.
Her influence extends beyond her own projects too. Her writing on neurodiversity and design has shaped thinking across the sector, and her work at Giant has influenced how the whole team approaches accessibility.
Jon Atkinson - AI and Tech Pioneers
Jon is Giant Digital's co-founder and Technical Director, and has spent over two decades asking the same question: what can digital actually do for organisations trying to make the world better? His answer over the last year has been Giant Insights - a platform that connects charities with their own knowledge and data in ways that simply weren't possible before.
The problem it solves is one felt across the sector. Charities are knowledge-rich organisations, but that knowledge is scattered - buried in documents, locked in systems, held in the heads of people who eventually move on. Giant Insights pulls it together, integrating with the tools charities already use and giving teams a single place to query everything in plain English.
What makes it genuinely pioneering is its scope - designed not just to surface information, but to take charities from insight through to strategy and delivery in a single coherent process. Jon conceived it, architected it, and built it - and as a charity trustee himself, he brought an understanding of the sector that most technologists simply don't have.
Kelly Appleby - Client Services and Project Management
Kelly has been at Giant since the company started, growing into her role as Account Director over more than a decade - and the way she approaches that role is what's earned her a place on the list.
Kelly actively expands what's possible for her clients. She's helped charities secure government funding for pioneering digital projects, spotted opportunities to build sector partnerships, and connected organisations who can learn from each other. Her clients trust her enough to pilot emerging technology they'd otherwise approach with caution - and that trust has been built through years of consistent, careful delivery.
She's never distinguished between her clients' success and Giant's success. She sees them as the same thing - and that genuinely client-first approach, sustained consistently over more than a decade, is exactly what this recognition is for.
Congratulations Gaby, Jon and Kelly
Seeing Gaby, Jon and Kelly recognised this way means a lot. Each of them is deeply committed to delivering outstanding work for the charity sector - and this recognition is thoroughly deserved. We're lucky to work alongside all three of them.
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