Check out highlights from the 2024 Metis Strategy Summit | Read more
Back to All Episodes
Episode 686

The Remarkable Career of IT Pioneer Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley

August 4, 2022
More Ways to Listen
LISTEN TO PODCAST
Subscribe on Your Favorite Platform

About the Guest

Dame Stephanie "Steve" Shirley

IT Pioneer, Entrepreneur, Venture Philanthropist, Author
Dame Stephanie Shirley is a remarkable technology pioneer. She joined the Post Office Research Station in the 1950s, becoming a programmer under the legendary Tommy Flowers, who helped develop Colossus, the first programmable electronic computer, which helped decrypt codes on D-Day. In 1962, at the age of 29, she founded a technology company called Freelance Programmers, which would grow to be a nearly $3 billion company with 8,500 staff by 2007, when it was acquired by Sopra Steria. Dame Stephanie refers to herself as a venture philanthropist, and has founded and driven charitable foundations focused on autism and technology. Her memoir, Let It Go: My Extraordinary Story, was published in 2012.

Episode Overview

686: Dame Stephanie reflects on her storied career as an IT pioneer. After escaping Nazi Germany and arriving in the UK as a child, she went on to hold a series of influential positions in the technology industry. Dame Stephanie describes the trials and tribulations of starting a company as a woman in the 1960s, building client relationships as a woman-led business, and adopting an ahead-of-its-time approach to workplace flexibility. She also shares her passion for autism research, her role as a “venture philanthropist,” in the space, and progress made in developing an autism treatment. Finally, Dame Stephanie discusses her memoir, Let It Go: My Extraordinary Story, and how she remains active and productive in the later years of her life.

Social Media

Share On Your Favorite Platform