Dame Stephanie Shirley: From Child Refugee to £2 Billion Business

Today’s guest is Dame Stephanie "Steve" Shirley - a hugely successful tech entrepreneur and now philanthropist as well as author of her memoir, Let It Go. I actually recorded this interview back in 2016 for my book Female Innovators at Work and you can find the full interview on my YouTube channel, thanks to my friends at Bullet Media who filmed it.

But now feels like a good time to release this episode on the podcast for several reasons, not least because Dame Stephanie turned 90 last month and it was Ada Lovelace day this week – which is a celebration of all the incredible achievements by women in STEM.

And Dame Stephanie is an incredible woman. Having escaped the Nazi regime as an unaccompanied five year old child on the Kindertransport, Dame Stephanie settled in the UK and went on to huge success as a technology and entrepreneurial pioneer when she founded an all-woman software company called F International that pioneered remote working and redefined the expectations and opportunities for working women at that time. It was ultimately valued at almost $3 billion and made 70 of her staff millionaires - but this was against many odds as she describes in this interview – from being a child refugee to dealing with sexism and knockbacks in the industry to the heartbreak of losing her beloved autistic son, Giles. 

Dame Stephanie Shirley is a huge inspiration to me and after you have listened to her story today, I know she will inspire you too.

So please do enjoy my conversation with the amazing Dame Stephanie Shirley.

Dame Stephanie Shirley website / book / Twitter

Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter

PS Another quick shout out to Wave coaching app - the sponsor of last week's episode. Check them out here

You can watch this interview on YouTube here

Image via TED