Women in Telecoms & Technology and the Women in Technology Network held a special ‘In conversation with Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley’, on 6th February 2014 at Taylor Wessing LLP in London. Dame Stephanie is one of the UK’s most influential and inspirational women in technology. She arrived in Britain in 1939 as an unaccompanied child refugee on the kindertransport. In 1962, she founded the IT company now known as Xansa. An ardent philanthropist, she has given away over £50 million via the Shirley Foundation.
Discussing elements of her recent book “Let IT Go”, Dame Stephanie spoke about 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.
Biography for Dame Stephanie Shirley
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 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.