The IET Women's Network is proud to have been given an opportunity to film the Women in Telecoms and Technology and Maggie Berry's Women in Technology event: An Evening with Dame Stephanie Shirley:
To view the video
Women in Telecoms and Technology and Maggie Berry's Women in Technology Network are pleased to announce that our first joint meeting, and first meeting of 2014, featuring a conversation with Dame Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley, one of the UK's most influential and inspirational women in technology.
Stephanie Shirley arrived in Britain in 1939 as an unaccompanied child refugee. In 1962, she founded the IT company now known as Xansa. An ardent philanthropist, she has given away over 50 million pounds via the Shirley Foundation.
This evening provided an opportunity to hear some of Dame Stephanie's incredible life stories and to chat informally about her life as a woman leader in IT, and discuss what has changed in the sector since she set up and built up F.I. Group (later Xansa) in the '60s and '70s.
Steve also discussed her passion for philanthropy, including her mission to facilitate and support pioneering projects with strategic impact in the field of autism spectrum disorders with a particular emphasis on medical research.
Copies of Steve's recent book, 'Let IT Go,' were available for purchase.
The evening will ran as follows:
6pm-7pm: Drinks and networking
7pm-8pm: Discussion with Steve
8:15pm: Evening concludes
We hope that you will watch what promises to be a very interesting discussion with Steve and of course an opportunity to network with other female technology colleagues from across the industry. We would also like to thank Taylor Wessing for hosting this meeting.
About the speaker
Dame Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley is a British businesswoman and philanthropist. She originally arrived in Britain as an unaccompanied Kindertransport child refugee.
In 1962, Shirley founded the software company F.I. Group. She was concerned with creating work opportunities for women with dependants, and predominantly employed women. Only three out of 300-odd programmers were male, until the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 made that illegal. She adopted the name 'Steve' to help her in the male-dominated business world. In 1993, she officially retired at the age of 60 and has since taken up philanthropy.
Shirley was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1980 Queen's Birthday Honours and promoted Dame Commander (DBE) in the New Year Honours in 2000.
She addresses many conferences and lectures around the world and is in frequent contact with parents, carers and those with autism and the related Asperger's Syndrome. Her autistic son died following an epileptic fit at the age of 35.
In 2006 Shirley was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Laws) from the University of Bath. In 2009 the Open University awarded her an honorary doctorate.
From May 2009 until May 2010, Dame Stephanie served as the UK's Ambassador for Philanthropy, a government appointment aimed at giving philanthropists a 'voice'.
Appearing on BBC Radio 2's Good Morning Sunday with Clare Balding in 2013, Dame Stephanie discussed why she had given away more than 67 million pounds of her personal wealth to different projects. In her 2012 memoirs Let IT Go, she writes 'I do it because of my personal history; I need to justify the fact that my life was saved.'
In February 2013 she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.