Ctrl Alt Delete

Dame Stephanie Shirley ​is tech pioneer, entrepreneur and philanthropist. She also goes by the name "Steve" which she used to sign business letters to potential clients when they were not responding to her.​ If you haven't already, go and watch her Ted Talk it is funny and moving and super interesting to hear what it was like being a woman in tech during the 60s.In 1939 ​Steve arrived in ​B​ritain unaccompanied​, a​s child refugee during the war, and​ when she was 29​ she started what became her multimillion-pound IT software consultancy, from which she made a £150m fortune - on her dining room table with £6 in 1962​. ​She retired in 1993 to concentrate on philanthropic work, since then she has given away at least £65 million via her charity Shirley Foundation. She continues to give to a range of causes including autism research, a cause she was drawn to through her late son Giles who had autism.​ Her Damehood in the Millennium honours was for services to IT.​She w