Iron ladies of the door hardware industry showed their mettle at a recent ironmongery industry awards.

For the first time ever, all of the winners of the Institution of Architectural Ironmongery Awards have been female. They were honoured in a ceremony that celebrated the best industry professionals and most promising newcomers.

Teresa McQuay, Managing Director at JEB Supplies, won the IAI Fellowship Award for her commitment to staff training and development through the Guild of Architectural Ironmongers’ (GAI) education programme. McQuay completed the GAI Diploma in 2005, reaching the highest level of professionalism in the door hardware industry. Every member of customer facing staff at McQuay’s company now holds the GAI Diploma.

The Paul Lewis Award for Customer Service went to Sarah Lewis, Specification Manager at Lorient, due to her commitment to educating customers about the importance of fire door hardware. Part of this involves visiting architects, specifiers and builders’ merchants across the country delivering CPD presentations.

Amanda Haley, Technical and Marketing Director at Ian Firth Hardware, received the GAI Award for Services to the Institute. Haley has been involved with both the Institute and the Guild since 2001. She chairs the North West IAI branch and has been delivering CPD presentations to its members for more than ten years.

The Promising Ironmonger of the Year award went to Samantha Thatcher, Office and Marketing Manager at SDS London. Thatcher joined SDS London in 2011 with no knowledge of ironmongery. She recently completed the GAI Diploma and is now the customer service office manager in charge of a team of six, while also maintaining the social media and email marketing of the company.

Jo Milne-Rowe, Chairwoman of the IAI, said: “Year upon year we see the remarkable levels of commitment shown by the Institute members. It is a joy to celebrate the outstanding individuals that we have in our industry and use them to give the next generation of ironmongers something to aspire to.”