Inspirational Women in Tech and the Media

As many of you will know, Women’s History Month falls every March and highlights the contributions made by women to historical events and contemporary society¹. Further to this, 8th March marks International Women’s Day. This year’s message promotes “An equal world is an enabled world”, encouraging all of us to be #EachforEqual.

In 2019, we wrote about some of the most successful businesswomen in Altrincham, however, this year we’ve broadened our research nationally and looked at inspirational women in tech and the media across the UK and Ireland. Check out our list below:

1. Samantha Kelly

We’ve followed Samantha (A.K.A. Tweeting Goddess) for a couple of years now, and watched her continue to grow her social media marketing business. Originally from Dublin, she recently told Business & Finance magazine how she’s built an engaged, positive network from nothing². In addition to her 51k Twitter followers, she also owns and runs Women’s Inspire Network, which offers real support to over 400 female entrepreneurs. Samantha believes the key to success is to “Be real, don’t complain about others, share your knowledge, and be kind”. Keep up the good work!

Credit: Samantha Kelly – Tweeting Goddess

2. Elizabeth Denham CBE

As lovers of data ourselves, we had to mention Britain’s top data cop³. Elizabeth Denham has been the UK Information Commissioner for the ICO since 2016. She played a leading role during the investigation of Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, regarding a data breach which affected over 87 million users. Her office eventually fined Facebook £500,000 for failing to ensure Cambridge Analytica deleted user data. During the same year she was named the most influential person in data-driven business in the DataIQ 100 list⁴. In an interview, Elizabeth expressed her position provides a “real ability to help people across the full waterfront of information rights”⁵.

Credit: ICO

3. Anne Boden MBE

Our next success story went from paying out money from behind a counter at Lloyds Bank in the early 1980s to setting up her very own digital bank⁶. Anne Boden founded Starling Bank in 2014, and has since been described as the “Amazon of banking” by The Telegraph⁷. The company hit one million users in late 2019⁸ and has raised a total of £323 million so far⁹. Speaking t0 the Fintech Times, she expressed, “nobody thought a new bank, with a new banking license and a new approach was possible”¹⁰. Well, she has certainly proved them wrong. Congratulations!

Credit: Business Insider

4. Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon

This lady is really impressive. A child prodigy in computing, mathematics, and language, Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon became one of the youngest to pass GCSEs in different subjects whilst at primary school¹¹. She passed two A Levels in mathematics and computer science at the age of 11, before embarking on a degree programme at the University of Oxford aged just 15. She graduated from the same alma mater with a master’s degree at 20. After working at Goldman Sachs, Hewlett-Packard, and Deutsche Bank, Anne-Marie co-founded the Stemettes in 2013¹². This initiative helps young women access science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) careers. Speaking to the Evening Standard, she states her story is “what good looks like”, and “Me and tech, we just get each other”.

Credit: Evening Standard

5. Kathryn Parsons

The co-founder of tech education company, Decoded, did so with just a credit card and office on a building site¹³. The company has come a long way since 2011, and now teaches people about data, coding, AI, and machine learning in 65 cities worldwide. Following a successful 2014 campaign by Kathryn, coding was introduced to the school curriculum, making Britain the second country to do so after Estonia. Having obtained her degree in classics, Kathryn expressed in an interview that she wishes more women knew they don’t need a STEM degree to work in the industry. “My advice to other women is you can do anything you want, and that includes in technology. What compels me is not just how powerful these new tools are, but how easy they are to learn.”

Credit: Evening Standard

6. Alex Mahon

The last lady in our blog, but certainly not least, is Alex Mahon. In 2017, she became the first female CEO of Channel 4, and the first woman to run a UK broadcaster larger than Channel 5¹⁴. It has recently been announced that Alex has been selected as the 2020 recipient of Variety’s International Achievement in Television Award, in recognition of her long career in UK and European television¹⁵. Whilst in her position, she has strived to attract a younger, high mobile-oriented audience through the brand’s embracing of digital extensions, and developing digital content strands for social media. Speaking to Campaign, she expressed how “change is always difficult”. When discussing the challenges she faces at Channel 4, Alex is adamant that “being relevant and clear about what you stand for is key at a time when there’s a lack of social cohesion”¹⁶.

Credit: Variety

Women’s Month is very important to Hopewiser. One of the female company Directors has played an active role in the business since 1982, when we became the first suppliers of address management and data cleansing software, powered by the Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF). We would like to wish every woman in the world a very happy Women’s Month.