In 1939 Dame Stephanie Shirley came to England as a young unaccompanied child refugee on the Kindertransport. During her career Dame Stephanie was a serial entrepreneur.  With just £6 she founding a female-friendly software company which broke new ground with its flexibility, its holistic approach to human resources and in its co-ownership model which gave 62% of control to staff.  It grew to employ 8,500 people and was valued at $3bn when it was sold, making 70 of its staff millionaires.
 
Post-retirement, Dame Stephanie served on the boards of Tandem Computers in the US and the Atomic Energy Authority.  She was the first ever non-executive director of the John Lewis Partnership.
 
Dame Stephanie is an ardent philanthropist.  To-date she has made gifts of £68m as social investments in IT (her professional discipline) and autism (her late son’s disorder).  She is a Past Master of the IT livery company and was the first female president of the British Computer Society.  She was appointed a Companion of Honour in 2017, one of only 65 worldwide, for nationally important service.  (www.steveshirley.com).


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