Doncaster founder named Female Founder of the Year at UK Business Tech Awards 2026

The award recognises Lynn's entrepreneurial journey, spanning more than two decades, from founding digital services company Human Advertising Limited 23 years ago to launching BeCareers, an AI powered recruitment platform designed to help employers make faster, fairer and more informed hiring decisions.

Built by a team of just four people, without external funding, BeCareers was developed in only six months. The platform uses AI powered conversational screening to assess candidates in under five minutes, providing structured insights and ranked shortlists that help recruiters and employers make confident hiring decisions. It has already been successfully tested with organisations across three countries, including multilingual candidate screening.

For Lynn, the inspiration behind BeCareers is deeply personal.

Having experienced the challenges of finding employment as a woman with disabilities early in her career, and later facing the frustrations of recruiting the right people as a business owner, she wanted to create a platform that gave every candidate a fair opportunity to demonstrate their skills and potential, rather than simply being judged by a CV alone.

Receiving the Female Founder of the Year award recognises not only Lynn's leadership, but also her commitment to creating technology that supports recruiters, improves the candidate experience and helps organisations build stronger teams.

Lynn Hughes, Founder and CEO of BeCareers, said:

"Winning this award is an incredibly proud moment. Building BeCareers has been one of the biggest challenges and one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. It has only been possible because of the fantastic team around me, who have shared the vision from the very beginning.

This recognition means a great deal, but it also motivates us to keep moving forward. We're excited about what comes next and to continue helping employers make better hiring decisions while giving every candidate a fair opportunity to show their potential."

In addition to Lynn's individual success, BeCareers was also shortlisted for Best AI Start Up at the UK Business Tech Awards 2026, recognising the company's continued innovation and ambition within the HR technology sector.

With its public launch planned for later this year, BeCareers continues its mission of helping organisations hire with greater confidence through smarter, more human centred recruitment technology.