Sergey Nivens - Fotolia

News

Computer Weekly announces the 50 most influential women in UK IT 2016

Computer Weekly announces its top 50 list of the most influential women in UK IT, including 2016 winner Maggie Philbin

Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Published: 23 Jun 2016 18:00

Computer Weekly has announced its list of the 2016 most influential women in UK IT, now in its fifth year.

The list was originally launched to showcase the number of great women involved in the IT industry in technology and digital roles.

In 2015, the number of women featured on the list increased from 25 to 50 as the amount of nominations continued to rise each year.

Taking top spot on the 2016 list is TeenTech CEO Maggie Philbin, who has tirelessly campaigned to give all young people an equal opportunity to express their talents and creativity through technology.

The 50 women featured on this list, as well as Computer Weekly’s Rising Stars and attendees to Computer Weekly’s annual Women in IT event, act as role models to the wider industry in promoting diversity for the technology sector.

1. Maggie Philbin, CEO, TeenTech

Maggie Philbin has worked in radio and television for more than 30 years on a wide range of science, medical and technology programmes. She is co-founder and CEO of TeenTech, an award-winning organisation helping young people, their parents and teachers understand more about the real opportunities in science and technology. Reporting on science and technology for the BBC’s Bang Goes The Theory, providing analysis and comment on technology for BBC WebWise and a regular reporter on BBC1’s Inside Out, she has a unique resonance with audiences, having grown up with them on much-loved shows such as Swap Shop and Tomorrow’s World.

2. Eileen Burbidge, chair of Tech City; partner, Passion Capital; government special envoy for fintech

Eileen Burbidge is a partner at Passion Capital, the London-based venture capital firm she established with Stefan Glaenzer and Robert Dighero. She brings extensive operational experience to her investment activities gleaned from business and product development roles at Yahoo!, Skype, PalmSource, Openwave, Sun and Apple. She also serves as chair for Tech City UK and is the special envoy for financial technology (fintech) for HM Treasury, as well as a member of the prime minister’s business advisory group.

3. Sherry Coutu, angel investor and founder of Founders4Schools

Sherry Coutu is one of Britain’s most successful angel investors, working with and investing in entrepreneurs to solve problems for patients in the medical technology sector, and students and teachers in education technology. She advises and serves on the boards of companies, charities and institutions such as the London Stock Exchange, Cambridge University, LinkedIn, Raspberry Pi and Care.com. As an angel investor, she has made direct angel investments in more than 50 companies and holds investments in three venture capital firms. She founded and chairs the not-for-profit Founders4Schools and Silicon Valley Comes 2 The UK, and serves on the board of the Francis Crick Institute.

4. Emma McGuigan, managing director, Accenture’s UK and Ireland technology group

Emma McGuigan runs Accenture’s UK and Ireland technology operations, which includes consulting and outsourcing for 70% of Accenture’s UK business. She joined Accenture in 1994 after graduating with a master’s degree in electronics from the University of Edinburgh. McGuigan leads Accenture’s work with Stemettes, a charity dedicated to increasing the number of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) careers. In 2012, she was the technology category winner of Women in the City’s Woman of Achievement Awards and in 2013 was made a fellow of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT. McGuigan is a board member of industry body TechUK and is treasurer of the Orchid Project.

5. Chi Onwurah, shadow digital economy minister, Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central

Chi Onwurah is shadow Cabinet Office minister for digital government, including cyber security. She led Labour’s pre-election review of digital government policy. She was first elected at the 2010 general election as MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central. A chartered engineer and former head of telecoms technology at UK telecoms regulator Ofcom, she is co-chair of the Parliamentary ICT forum (Pictfor) and a former board member of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. She is an advocate for digital skills and digital enablement.

6. Susan Cooklin, route services director and CIO, Network Rail

In 2016, Cooklin was appointed route services director for Network Rail, responsible for supplying services to each of Network Rail’s eight routes. She has been the CIO and director of shared services at Network Rail since 2009. Her career spans more than 20 years in financial services, leading business, technology and operational teams in global organisations. In 2015, she launched Could IT Be You?, a competition for girls aged between 16 and 18, which asks them to explain how technology can improve their lives and make things better. The winning girl had her first-year university fees paid for by Network Rail. Three runners-up received two weeks’ paid work experience and mentoring with the Network Rail IT team.

7. Melissa Di Donato, area vice-president, Salesforce.com Wave Analytics Cloud, Europe, the Middle East and Africa

Melissa Di Donato joined Salesforce.com in 2010 and is area vice-president of Wave Analytics Cloud at the firm. Prior to her current role, Di Donato was the area vice-president of independent software vendor (ISV) and channel programmes for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific (Apac), during which she chaired a European ISV Advisory Innovation Board. She is a board member and adviser to various technology companies in the UK and in Silicon Valley. She is a philanthropist, focusing on Stem initiatives and mentoring women in business. She has recently been named leader of the Tech Working Group of the 30% Club.

8. Anne-Marie Imafidon, head stemette, Stemettes

Anne-Marie Imafidon founded volunteer organisation Stemettes to inspire the next generation of women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics via a series of panel events, hackathons and through the media. She is also an advisory board member for Redfield Asset Management, a board member at Inspirational You, a fellow of the RSA and director at Avisami. She won the FDM everywoman Rising Star of the Year award 2014 and has featured in Computer Weekly’s list of the Most Influential Women in UK IT after being marked as a Rising Star in previous years. Imafidon started her career in IT as a business analyst intern and web designer before becoming an enterprise collaboration strategist at Deutsche Bank.

9. Hannah Dee, senior lecturer in computer science, Aberystwyth University

Hannah Dee set up the BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium, the UK’s main conference for female undergraduates, which she has run for nine years. This brings together women students, senior women in tech, and employers for a one day technical conference: all students get the opportunity to present their own work which makes this a unique opportunity for both networking and recruitment. As well as teaching undergraduates and carrying out research in computer vision, she also works a lot to encourage schoolkids that computing is an interesting and fun thing to do. Locally, she helps run a weekly after-school robotics club, and puts on one-day workshops in robot programming and app development for kids aged 6-16. She is a women in computing activist and has been on the committee of BCSWomen, the Chartered Institute for IT’s group for women, for nearly 10 years.

10. Sarah Wood, co-founder and co-CEO, Unruly Media

Wood is the co-founder and co-CEO of data-centric media promotion company Unruly Media. Unruly uses emotional audience data and user-friendly video formats to boost viewer engagement, brand performance and publisher revenues across the web. Previously a lecturer in American studies at the University of Sussex, Wood is now an associate lecturer and course convenor for the University of Cambridge, focusing on devising and delivering the Creation, Consumption, Revolution: Online Video Culture module as part of the screen cultures MPhil course.

11. Catherine Doran, CIO, Royal Mail Group

Catherine Doran joined Royal Mail in 2011, and inherited a controversial IT transformation programme, as well as the government’s sell-off of the postal service. Her five-year IT strategy has improved the firm’s technology estate. So far, the project has seen Royal Mail replace large legacy systems, begin introducing 76,000 next-generation PDAs and optimise internal operations. In a large-scale recruitment initiative, she targeted 30% of new starters to be women, and now 31% of her 500 IT staff are female. She joined Royal Mail from Network Rail, where she led a company-wide transformation programme.

12. Naomi Climer, president, IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology)

Naomi Climer became the first female IET president in October 2015 after serving as deputy president for three years. Naomi has spent her career in the rapidly changing world of media and entertainment technology from the analogue, pre-internet days of TV and radio through to the multi-channel, multi-platform, mobile experience of today. She joined Sony Europe in 2002 and became responsible for Sony’s Professional (B2B) business across Europe and was most recently President of Sony Media Cloud Services, responsible for creating a global start-up SaaS cloud business within Sony for professional media workflows. She is also Chair of the UK Government (DCMS) Future Communications Challenge Group (FCCG) looking at 5G and Chair of the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) Council.

13. Kate Russell, tech journalist, gamer, author and BBC Click presenter

Journalist, reporter and author Kate Russell has been writing about technology and the internet since 1995. Appearing weekly on BBC technology programme Click, she also speaks regularly at schools and universities, inspiring the next generation of technologists. She writes regular columns for National Geographic Traveller magazine and BBC Focus magazine, and her website, KateRussell.co.uk, won the 2015 UK Blog Awards for best individual digital and technology blog. In June 2015, she was voted the 25th most influential woman in UK IT by Computer Weekly.

14. Sheila Flavell, COO, FDM Group

Sheila Flavell was appointed chief operating officer of IT service firm FDM Group in 2008. She played an integral role in the group’s flotation on AIM in 2005 and was a key instigator of the management buy-out of the group in 2010 and its subsequent float on the main FTSE market in June 2014. Flavell campaigns for promoting women in IT and spearheads FDM’s global women in IT campaign. She won the corporate leader of the year award at the Cisco Everywoman in Technology Awards 2012 and is the driving force behind FDM’s Global Women in IT initiative.

15. Clare Sutcliffe, co-founder, Code Club; executive director, communities and outreach, Raspberry Pi Foundation

Clare Sutcliffe has brought computing to primary schools without dumbing it down, negotiating to bring major stakeholders such as ARM and Google on board, as well as harnessing the energy of individual volunteers through an open and social approach. Code Club is a nationwide network of free volunteer-led after-school coding clubs for children aged nine to 11. In 2014, the organisation went global, with the aim of having coding communities in 50% of the world’s countries by the end of 2018. In 2015, Sutcliffe was awarded an MBE for her services to technology, and now also works as executive director, communities and outreach, for the Raspberry Pi Foundation, promoting both Raspberry Pi and Code Club initiatives.

16. Monique Shivanandan, group CIO, Aviva

Monique Shivanandan joined Aviva as CIO in 2014, and has had a history of high-level technology roles. As well as her work at Aviva, she is non-executive director for JP Morgan Securities and is passionate about science and technology. Prior to her current role, Shivanandan was chief technology officer for Capital One and was managing director and CIO of BT Retail for four years. She believes women should act as mentors and role models for other women in the IT industry.

17. Dido Harding, CEO, TalkTalk

Dido Harding is chief executive of TalkTalk Telecom Group. Previously, she was Sainsbury’s convenience director, having been appointed to the firm’s operating board in March 2008. Harding joined Sainsbury’s from Tesco, where she held a variety of senior roles in its UK and international businesses. Before that, she worked at Kingfisher and Thomas Cook where she gained considerable retail experience. Harding was appointed as a non-executive director on the court of the Bank of England in July 2014. She has also served on the boards of the British Land Company and Cheltenham Racecourse. In August 2014, Harding was offered a peerage and now sits in the House of Lords as a Conservative peer.

18. Nicola Mendelsohn, vice-president EMEA, Facebook

Nicola Mendelsohn has been vice-president of Europe, Middle East and Africa operations at Facebook since 2013. She is responsible for growing Facebook’s advertising revenue and improving relationships with brands across the region. She has served as president of the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) and WACL (Women in Advertising and Communications London). She was executive chairman and partner at the Karmarama advertising agency for five years. She is chair of the corporate board of Women’s Aid. Mendelsohn is also director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, industry chair of the Creative Industries Council, non-executive director of consumer goods firm Diageo and co-president of charity Norwood.

19. Debbie Forster, co-CEO, Apps for Good

Debbie Forster is the co-CEO of Apps for Good, and has a passion for education and using technology to give young people of all backgrounds the best life chances. As co-CEO, she has inspired hundreds of students, teachers, industry experts and sponsors to engage with Apps for Good. As well as scaling rapidly under Forster’s leadership, Apps for Good is working hard to tackle diversity in Stem education. The course has achieved and maintained a gender balance of close to 50/50. More than 50% of the apps that have won at the organisation’s annual awards have been developed by all-girl or mixed teams.

20. Rachel Neaman, director of campus and partnerships, Doteveryone

Rachel Neaman is CEO of digital skills charity Go On UK, which recently joined forces with Martha Lane Fox’s Doteveryone initiative. The organisation is committed to ensuring everyone in the UK has the digital skills they need. Neaman has a lot of senior leadership experience in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors in the UK and abroad, is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and a chair for network group Digital Leaders.

21. Bindi Karia, entrepreneur

Bindi Karia is currently working on an entrepreneurial project which has yet to be announced. Before 2016, she led Silicon Valley Bank’s early-stage efforts as vice-president for its origination and entrepreneur commercial banking arm, Accelerator. She has spent much of her career in and around the startup ecosystem, most recently as venture capital/emerging business lead at Microsoft UK. For five years, she led BizSpark in the UK (now Microsoft Ventures), concentrating on early-stage technology businesses, as well as working alongside venture capitalists and angels on behalf of Microsoft. She sits on many industry advisory boards, has recently been appointed a trustee for Startup Weekend Europe and is an active supporter of many of London’s top incubators, including Seedcamp, TechStars, Startupbootcamp, Wayra, Entrepreneur First and Level39.

22. Christine Ashton, senior vice-president technology, Thomson Reuters

Christine Ashton, senior vice-president of Thomson Reuters, joined the company in 2013 as global vice-president for MIS centres of delivery. Previously, she was regional CIO for BG Group, responsible for IT strategies across the global energy company. Before joining BG, she was group strategy and technology director at Transport for London. From 2001 to 2008, Ashton held senior IT positions at BP. She is a fellow of the BCS, and has appeared in the Computer Weekly UKtech50 list twice.

23. Alice Bentinck, co-founder, Entrepreneur First

Alice Bentinck is co-founder of Entrepreneur First, a firm focused on supporting technology startups from around Europe. As part of the Entrepreneur First initiative, Bentinck also co-founded Code First: Girls, an organisation that provides part-time coding courses across university campuses. She also sits on the advisory board of Founders4Schools and the Computer Science Department Industrial Liaison Board for Imperial College, London.

24. Christina Scott, chief technology officer, News UK

Christina Scott was appointed chief technology officer for News UK at the beginning of 2016 to assist with its digital initiatives. Before that, Scott was CIO for the Financial Times for over three years, where she was responsible for technology across the FT Group, leading a 400-plus global team responsible for building and operating infrastructure, business applications, data and consumer products across multiple platforms. Scott has more than 20 years’ experience in the media, IT and engineering industries. Before joining the FT, she worked for the BBC, BT Vision, News International and ITV Digital, and as a consultant at Accenture.

25. Eileen Naughton, managing director and vice-president, UK-Ireland sales and operations, Google

Eileen Naughton is responsible for sales and business operations in Google’s second-largest market. She was previously vice-president of global sales, responsible for Google’s largest advertising and agency clients, and led the firm’s high-growth display advertising business in the Americas, responsible for sales, development, media strategy and operations across YouTube and the Google Display Network. She led the integration of DoubleClick’s platform, rich media and AdExchange businesses into Google. Before joining Google in 2006, she had a distinguished career at Time Warner.

26. Claire Cockerton, CEO, ENTIQ

Claire Cockerton, a serial entrepreneur and industry leader in financial services, is co-founder and ambassador of Innovate Finance, a City of London and Canary Wharf Group-backed group promoting fintech startups. She is founder and chairwoman of Entiq, a firm delivering innovation strategy and product development programmes for large corporates. She also set the strategy and co-led the implementation of Level39, Europe’s largest technology accelerator dedicated to fintech, retail and smart city technologies. Cockerton is an active member of Women in Tech, Tech London Advocates and Women Shift Digital, and is a member of Boris Johnson’s London Tech Ambassador Group.

27. Lucy Neville Rolfe, minister for intellectual property, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Baroness Neville-Rolfe is the parliamentary under-secretary of state for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and minister for intellectual property for the UK government. As part of her work with BIS, Neville-Rolfe is responsible for regulation, intellectual properly and the EU digital single market. She works with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on data protection. Before working for the government, Neville-Rolfe was at Tesco from 1997 to 2013.

28. Sharon White, CEO, Ofcom

Sharon White took over as chief executive of Ofcom in March 2015 after spending two years as second permanent secretary at HM Treasury, the first black person, and the second woman, to hold the position. Before working at the Treasury, White held board-level positions at the Ministry of Justice and the Department for International Development and was a civil service adviser at the prime minister’s Policy Unit.

29. Gillian Arnold, chair, BCSWomen; founder, Tectre

Gillian Arnold is chair of BCSWomen, part of BCS, the chartered institute for IT. She has 30 years’ experience in the IT industry, including 22 with IBM, and has held customer-facing technical, sales, business development, strategic marketing and consultancy roles. She has managed and established teams for new products, and built teams with cross-industry and cross-platform experience across Europe and the UK. She has now retired from IBM. Arnold has significant interest in encouraging more women into the science and technology sectors and has chaired a forum for IT trade body Intellect. She sits on the board of directors for the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET and is a non-executive director for WISE.

30. Sarah Wilkinson, CTO, Home Office

The Home Office appointed Credit Suisse’s head of corporate systems technology, Sarah Wilkinson, as its chief technology officer (CTO) in February 2015. At the Home Office, she is responsible for many of the most critical IT systems supporting UK borders and policing. Wilkinson was managing director and head of corporate systems technology at Credit Suisse for over two years, having previously worked at HSBC, UBS and Deutsche Bank in senior IT roles. She also sits on Telefonica’s startup accelerator Wayra as a board adviser, and is a non-executive director at the Police ICT Company.

31. Alex Depledge, entrepreneur, chair of Coadec

Alex Depledge is an entrepreneur who founded domestic cleaning marketplace Hassle.com. Until March 2016, she was a board member of lobbying body The Sharing Economy, and currently acts as venture partner for startup capital firm Ignite 100. Depledge is also chair of the not-for-profit Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec). Previously, she worked as a management consultant for Accenture.

32. Charlotte Finn, vice-president, programmes-EMEA, Salesforce

Finn is vice-president of programmes for Salesforce in EMEA and also works on sales strategy for corporate philanthropy programme the Salesforce Foundation. She is an advocate of mentorship, and used her position in the Salesforce Foundation to offer the 2015 Computer Weekly Rising Stars mentorship and advice to help the advancement of women and diversity in the IT industry. Before working at Salesforce, Finn held positions in business operations at VMware and was head of the global service centre for international wholesale at Verizon Business. She holds an MSc in corporate governance and studied business at Anglia Ruskin University.

33. Trudy Norris-Grey, general manager, central and eastern Europe, Microsoft and chair, Wise

Trudy Norris-Grey is chair of Wise (Women in science, engineering and technology) and managing director of Microsoft’s public sector business in central and eastern Europe. The Wise campaign is aimed at encouraging more girls and women to pursue Stem careers. Previously, she held senior executive posts at BT, Sun Microsystems, Oracle and Eastman Kodak. She has also chaired the CBI Innovation, Science & Technology Committee and was chair of UKRC before it merged with Wise.

34. Regina Moran, CEO, Fujitsu UK & Ireland

Regina Moran was appointed CEO of Fujitsu UK & Ireland in 2015 after spending almost 10 years as CEO of the firm in Ireland. With skills in leadership and management, she is a non-executive director of electricity company Eirgrid in Ireland, is a member of the DCU governing authority for Dublin City University and is president of networking group Engineers Ireland.

35. Elizabeth Varley, co-founder and CEO, TechHub

TechHub is at the heart of London’s Tech City movement to attract startups to east London and boost investment and innovation in UK IT, with Elizabeth Varley as its CEO. She has set up new TechHub operations in Bangalore, Bucharest, Berlin and Riga, as well as other UK sites in Manchester and Swansea. Previously, Varley set up Online Content UK as an organisation for online content professionals running an industry-focused community and regular events. She was a founding steering committee member of the DigitalEve women in technology organisation in the UK, and sits on the board of the Digital City Exchange at Imperial College, London.

36. Kathryn Parsons, co-founder and co-CEO, Decoded

Kathryn Parsons is co-founder of Decoded, which teaches people to code in a day. Having launched this entirely self-funded business in 2011, she is now overseeing its international expansion and launching new products. More than 50% of Decoded staff are female.

37. Charlotte Holloway, associate director of policy, TechUK

Charlotte Holloway is the associate director for policy at industry body TechUK, and works alongside tech companies and policy-makers to encourage innovation and digital transformation in the UK economy. She is also a policy fellow for the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge and was part of the team supporting angel investor Sherry Coutu in the production of an independent report for government on the opportunities for economic growth in the UK. Before TechUK, Holloway held several roles at research firm The Work Foundation, where she worked on several research projects and co-authored a number of reports on economic growth and innovation.

38. Wendy Tan White, co-founder and CEO, Moonfruit

Wendy Tan White co-founded and is CEO of Moonfruit, a DIY website and online shop builder for small businesses. She is a general partner at Entrepreneur First, a programme and fund focused on early-stage ‘deep’ tech companies, and is an advisory board member for the Government Digital Service. Tan White sits on several boards, including Tech City, the Department of Computing Industrial Liaison Board for Imperial College London, and the Advisory Board for the School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London/Royal College of Art.

39. Harriet Green, vice-president and general manager, internet of things, commerce and education, IBM

Harriet Green is vice-president and general manager for the internet of things, commerce and education at IBM, as well as a non-executive director for BAE Systems. Having studied business, strategy and leadership at Harvard Business School and business psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Green has many years of experience in business leadership, and has won several awards. Prior to her current role, Green held CEO posts at Premier Farnell and Thomas Cook.

40. Helen Milner, chief executive, Tinder Foundation

Helen Milner is founder and CEO of the Tinder Foundation, a not-for-profit, staff-owned social enterprise that aims to help the 11 million people on the wrong side of the UK’s digital divide to become confident with digital and online technologies. The organisation won a government contract in 2014 to support its digital inclusion strategy.

41. Rioch Edwards-Brown, founder, So You Wanna Be on TV?

Entrepreneur and founder of So You Wanna Be on TV?, Rioch Edwards-Brown, is an advocate for diversity and has extensive media experience. She began So You Wanna Be on TV? as a community outreach programme after her son was shot and stabbed at school, and uses the platform to tackle the lack of diversity and social mobility in TV by providing free employability skills through partnerships between TV, brands, corporates and the community.

42. Anna Barsby, CIO, Halfords

Anna Barsby has been CIO at Halfords since March 2013, where she has led a major IT overhaul and a cloud migration. She joined from TUI Travel, where she was business change delivery director following a stint as director of IT projects and programmes. This autumn, Barsby will become chief technology officer at Morrisons, taking on the retailer’s digital and IT challenges. She has also been head of infrastructure and service delivery at Whitbread, and IS transformation programme manager at the Financial Services Authority. She has an MBA from Warwick Business School.

43. Jennifer Rigby, head of IT channels and innovation, O2

Jennifer Rigby looks after technology channels for telecoms provider O2, including the firm’s online, retail and voice channel offerings, where she has helped to deliver several large-scale IT programmes. Before joining O2, she held several roles in government, including director of corporate security at the Home Office, chair of the green ICT delivery unit for the UK government and CIO at the Department for Energy and Climate Change. Rigby started her IT career at the BBC, where she was an executive producer for BBC Future Media & Technology.

44. Sarah Luxford, director, Nexec Leaders and lead, Women in London Tech Group

Sarah Luxford is co-lead of the Tech London Advocates’ women in tech group and is also co-founder of Croydon Tech City (the second-fastest-growing tech cluster in London) in charge of developing new relationships with investors, tech companies and potential stakeholders. In her role as director at Nexec Leaders, she works with founders, investors and business leaders to find the talent they need. Luxford was noted as one of Computer Weekly 2015 Rising Stars.

45. Beverley Bryant, director of strategic systems and technology, NHS England

Beverley Bryant has been the director of strategic systems and technology at NHS England since 2013, leading technical initiatives in the NHS such as Integrated Digital Care Records, NHS E-referrals, Patient Online and electronic prescriptions. Before joining the NHS, Bryant was managing director at Capita Health and CIO of the Department of Health for three years.

46. Amali de Alwis, CEO, Code First: Girls

Amali de Alwis is CEO for coding education initiative Code First: Girls, which teaches students in university campuses how to code. De Alwis is also a CommonwealthFirst mentor for the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, providing mentorship and encouragement to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Working to align education, skills and employment, she also acts as commissioner for the Doncaster Education and Skills Commission, and is a mentor for many startups.

47. Vicky Brock, CEO, Clear Returns

Brock launched Clear Returns in 2012 to tackle the omni-channel problems faced by retailers. She is a board director emeritus of the Digital Analytics Association, with 15 years’ experience as a digital analyst, and co-founded Scotland’s first authorised Google Analytics agency, Highland Business Research, in 2004. Brock is an advocate for diversity and often talks about promoting returners to industry.

48. Sharon Moore, industry technical leader for travel and transportation, IBM UK

Sharon Moore is technical leader for the travel and transportation industry at IBM UK, designing technical solutions for IBM’s clients in the travel and transportation industry, including engagement, the internet of things and analytics technologies, as well as building IBM’s technical community in this space. Moore is also a non-executive director for CENSIS – Innovation Centre.

49. Margaret Ross, professor of software quality and principal lecturer, Southampton Solent University

Margaret Ross is an emeritus professor of software quality at Southampton Solent University, and is part of a team of lecturers who teach a top-up course in international construction, design and management for international students. She is part of the BCSWomen group and is a fellow of the British Computer Society.

50. Sarah Burnett, vice-president, Everest Group; deputy chair, BCSWomen

Sarah Burnett is an analyst in information technology services and business process outsourcing. Vice-president at Everest Group, Burnett uses her skills to lead the group on global service delivery automation research and European practice across its global services research areas. Before joining Everest Group, she was vice-president of research at Nelson Hall, covering areas such as infrastructure ITO, cloud and government BPO. Burnett is deputy chair of BCSWomen.