Dame Stephanie Shirley is the most successful
tech entrepreneur you never heard of. In the 1960s, she founded a pioneering
all-woman software company in the UK, which was ultimately valued at $3
billion, making millionaires of 70 of her team members. In this frank and often
hilarious talk, she explains why she went by “Steve,” how she upended the
expectations of the time, and shares some sure-fire ways to identify ambitious
women …
Dame
Stephanie Shirley CH
Dame Stephanie (Steve) Shirley CH,
age 85, is a workplace revolutionary and successful IT entrepreneur turned
ardent philanthropist. www.steveshirley.com.
Her life story begins with her 1939 arrival in
Britain as an unaccompanied Kindertransport refugee. In 1962, she
started a software house, Freelance Programmers, that pioneered new work
practices and changed the position of professional women, especially in
hi-tech. She went on to create a global business and a personal
fortune shared with her colleagues; she made 70 of her staff millionaires at no
cost to anyone, but herself.
Since retiring in 1993, her focus has been
increasingly on philanthropy based on her strong belief in giving back to
society. In 2009/10 she served as the UK’s first ever national Ambassador
for Philanthropy. Her charitable Shirley Foundation has initiated
and funded a number of projects that are pioneering by nature and strategic in
impact, totally £67m to date. The focus is on IT and her late son’s
disorder of autism.
Her memoir Let IT Go was published in 2012 www.let-it-go.co.uk. It has
sold 20,000 copies and Penguin are to re-publish in April 2019 with a view to
distributing it worldwide. A big screen film is also in the making
and filming starts later this year.
Dame
Stephanie has been much honoured. In 2013, she was named by Woman’s Hour
as one of the 100 most powerful women in Britain. In 2014, the Science
Council listed her as one of the Top 100 practising scientists in the UK.
In 2015, Dame Stephanie was given the Women of the Year Special Award.
Her TED Talk in 2015 was to a standing ovation from more than a thousand of the
world’s most recognised technical entrepreneurs, thinkers, creators and doers.
It has received 1.9m views. In 2017, Dame Stephanie received a
Companion of Honour, one of only 65 people worldwide to receive such a
recognition.
