Dame Stephanie Shirley

Dame Stephanie arrived in Britain as an unaccompanied child refugee in 1939. In 1962, she founded an all-woman software company that pioneered remote working, upending the expectations of the time. It was ultimately valued at almost $3 billion and made 70 of her staff millionaires.

Since ‘retiring’, her focus has been on philanthropy, and she has given away almost £70m to fund strategic projects in autism and IT. She joined the BCS as a student member on its foundation in 1957 and was its first woman President in 1989-90.

Dame Stephanie commented: “The human aspects of technology are a lifelong passion of mine and it’s a real honour to be awarded a distinguished fellowship by BCS for my contribution.”