The 14th Computer Weekly list of the 50 Most Influential Women in UK Technology is now open for voting, giving readers an opportunity to express who they feel deserves the top spot.
Launched in 2012, the top 50 list aims to make role models in the tech sector more visible and accessible, in the hope that doing so will encourage more women and underrepresented groups to consider a role in the industry, and eventually lead to a more diverse and inclusive technology sector.
This year’s longlist, featuring more than 770 women, was assessed by a group of expert judges to choose the shortlisted 50 below.
The winner of this year’s “most influential woman in UK tech” accolade will be announced at an event in London in November, planned in partnership with recruitment specialist Harvey Nash.
Hall of Fame
Alongside the top 50, each year the judges choose several women for the Computer Weekly Women in Tech Hall of Fame to recognise their lifetime achievements and ongoing contributions to the technology sector. This year’s additions are:
- Sheridan Ash, founder and co-CEO, Tech She Can
- Nicola Hodson, CEO and chair UK and Ireland, IBM; board member, TechUK
- Liz Williams, CEO, FutureDotNow; chair, GoodThingsFoundation
- Hayaatun Sillem, CEO, Royal Academy of Engineering
- Priya Lakhani, founder and CEO, Century Tech
- Sarah Turner, CEO and co-founder, Angel Academe
- Rachel Neaman, partner, Energising Leaders: Strengths Unleashed
- Clare Barclay, chair, Industrial Strategy Council, Department for Business and Trade; president, enterprise and industry, Microsoft EMEA
- Beeban Kidron, expert in children’s rights in the digital world; founder and chair, 5Rights Foundation
- Pat Ryan, founder, Cyber Girls First
- Bina Mehta, partner, KPMG UK; senior independent director, ICC
- Allison Kirkby, CEO, BT Group
Vote now
Computer Weekly readers can now vote for who they feel is the most influential woman in UK technology in 2025.
Click on your choice below and then on the “submit” button (or the arrow button on mobile) at the end of the list, and your vote will be registered. Note that the list appears in randomised order.
Voting closes at midnight on 8 October 2025.
Editor’s note: The final list of the Most Influential Women in UK Tech will be chosen by combining the decision of the judging panel with the votes of our readers. The combined reader vote will carry the same weight as that of one judge, and will provide the UK IT professional input into the order of the list. The editor’s decision on the list will be final.
The shortlisted 50 (in alphabetical order) are as follows – click on each name to visit her X (formerly Twitter) profile where available.
Until recently, she was part of the City of London Corporation volunteer advisory group for equality, diversity and inclusion, and was previously an advisory board member for Neurodiversity in Business, and a mentor at the TechUp mentor programme for Durham University.
Opong was a contributor for Voices in the shadows, the book of black female role models created by the 2022 Computer Weekly most influential woman in UK tech, Flavilla Fongang.
Currently, Opong is an award judge for WeAreTheCity, a volunteer for the Festival of The Girl, and a role model and mentor for the STEMazing mentorship programme.
She has spent the last year and a half as a non-executive director for Genius Within CIC.
She has previously been a board member for the London Economic Action Partnership (Leap) and a non-executive director for retail analytics firm Edited.
Until March 2016, Depledge was a board member for lobbying body The Sharing Economy, and until January 2017, acted as the venture partner for startup capital firm Ignite 100. Depledge was also previously the chair of not-for-profit The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) and started her tech career as a management consultant for Accenture.
Currently, Depledge is an entrepreneurship adviser to the chancellor of the exchequer at HM Treasury.
She is CEO of the charity, which she does alongside her work as the cyber culture manager at Deloitte.
With an extensive background in cyber, Hendy is also a TEDx speaker, an ambassador for One Young World and a JAAQ creator, covering the topic of suicide prevention.
She was selected as a Computer Weekly Rising Star in 2024.
She also sits on the boards of the Mojaloop Foundation and US cyber security firm Mimoto, as well as acting as an advisory board member for Scarf, The Stack and FerretDB.
She recently became an Expert Network of the Digital Innovation Board member for the International Telecommunication Union.
Past experience saw her as a board member of the Cabinet Office Open Standards Board, and an advisory board member for Tech All Stars.
McLean has a background in mathematical biology and zoology, and aims to use this knowledge, as well as her interest in mathematical models, to help the government understand the spread of infectious diseases.
She has been on the receiving end of many awards and accolades for her work, and in 1994, she established Mathematical Biology at the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council’s Institute for Animal Health.
Prior to her work at Code First Girls, Brailsford co-founded and was CEO of performance management firm Frisbee, which was part of venture capital fund Founders Factory, and until summer 2024, was a board member for the Institute of Coding, where she focused specifically on diversity and inclusion. She is a self-employed commercial and strategy consultant.
As well as being a freelance diversity and inclusion consultant, Farooq is a scout for Ada Ventures, with special interest in edtech, healthtech and fintech, and until March 2024 was a community manager for Big Society Capital.
In 2022, she founded Muslim Tech Fest, a large community gathering of “Muslim techies” in Europe.
She has an extensive background in digital and artificial intelligence (AI) in the private and public sectors.
Alongside this, Taylor is also founder of speaker platform Voices in Tech, regional lead of the Women Pivoting to Digital Taskforce for the City of London Corporation, and co-founder of community WIT North.
She also co-founded The Confidence Community, which aims to provide resources, training information and events to give people more career confidence, and is co-founder of ReframeWIT.
In 2017, Taylor co-founded TechReturners to give skilled individuals who have had a career break the opportunity to connect with firms and help them back into mid-level to senior-level tech roles.
She is currently advising the Department for Education’s Digital, AI and Technology Task and Finish Group on how the education system can be adapted to better provide digital skills to children.
She has previously been professional development leader for the National Centre for Computing Education, and a national community manager for the BCS.
She received an MBE for her work in 2024.
She is a board member of Miroma Founders Network, RM Plc, Founders Makers, 01 Founders and Grip.
In the past, she has been a council member for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) Digital Economy Council and a marketing group advisory member for Founders4Schools.
Alongside her role at Labour Digital, she is responsible for UK youth and AI governance public policy at Meta, and has co-founded network Women in Tech Policy.
She has previously headed up policy and public affairs at UK scaleup Vorboss, and founded the UK public affairs tech practice at Hill+Knowlton Strategies.
She volunteers as a steering committee member for the City of London Corporation’s Women Pivoting to Digital Taskforce, until recently was an adviser for digital citizenship charity Glitch, and is a policy board member for OpenUK.
She is an advisory board industry representative in University of Essex Online’s computing department, technical director at SAM Software Solutions, and technical director at full-stack and front-end training organisation Black CodHer Bootcamp.
Previously, Hunter was lead software engineer at Made Tech, and has held roles such as senior software developer, lead Java developer, app developer and technical consultant at various firms. She was named a Computer Weekly Women in UK Tech Rising Star in 2020.
She has a background in the education sector, previously holding roles as director of innovation strategy for the University of Surrey, and executive officer to the vice-president (innovation) at Imperial College London.
She has also been diversity and inclusion advisory board member for the Institute of Coding, and sat on the principal partner board at Tech Talent Charter.
She is also the vice-president at the University of Manchester and vice-president of BCS.
In the past, George has been president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and in 2016 was appointed an OBE for services to engineering through public engagement.
She is also head of performance transformation for the UK, Ireland and the Nordics at the firm, and before that was head of digital for Europe, where she led digital transformation and new proposition launches at companies all over the world.
Alongside this, she is also a strategic partner at FutureDotNow and a board trustee for Girlguiding.
She was a co-author on the recent Lovelace Report, which detailed reasons women leave the technology sector.
As well as HACE, Harry is a regular public speaker and has in the past won an Everywoman in Tech Award.
She is an industry advisory board member for the University of Manchester, where she advises on digital trust and security, and is a guest lecturer at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.
She is a serial founder, having founded tech entrepreneur community TechHub, editorial agency Online Content UK, and acted as a founding steering committee member of the DigitalEve women in technology organisation in the UK.
Varley sits on many boards, and is an adviser for lawtech firm Legal Geek.
She has worked in the tech sector for over 20 years, and in her previous role at Harbottle & Lewis her team was comprised of 66% female and 66% ethnic minority members.
In 2023, she worked with the OECD, WEF and the ITU to build a reputation in relation to the regulation of AI. She is also working with the Ditchley Foundation, considering whether the collaborative approach in relation to telecoms can work for AI regulation.
She is also the co-founder of coaching platform Kinhub, and co-founder and head of research at Extend Ventures.
She’s an advisory board member for the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Entrepreneurship, a non-executive director of the Good Play Guide, and has won multiple awards.
She was previously co-founder and CEO of digital mortgage lending platform Molo Finance, and has worked at other large financial firms and banks, such as Barclays and Deutsche Bank.
She has been nominated for Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Women in UK Tech several times, appearing on the longlist in previous years.
She has been deputy director of the Spatial Data Unit at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, head of engagement for civil service reform at the Cabinet Office, and head of national data strategy at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
She has also had roles as data innovation programme manager at Centrepoint and deputy director – strategy – integrated data service at the Office for National Statistics.
She started her career in semiconductor technology in 1982 at Fairchild (now part of ON Semiconductor), before rising through the ranks in electronic design and computational software firm Cadence Design Systems for 30 years, until leaving in 2020 to begin her current endeavours.
She appeared on Computer Weekly’s list of Rising Stars in 2023.
She has worked around the world in a variety of roles, including acting head of corporate relations for Chatham House in the UK, head of membership for the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce in New York, and head new hire trainer for an English language training programme in Japan.
She has had other roles at the BCS, including executive director of education and head of public affairs.
She is a board member of the Institute of Coding, and a member of the board of trustees for the Blackdown Education Partnership.
Karen Blake, former co-CEO of Tech Talent Charter; co-author, The Lovelace Report
Blake is the head of inclusive workforce strategy and advisory at Powered By Diversity, as well as a senior researcher for the House of Commons, looking into digital inclusion policies, and is on the strategy steering board of Women Pivoting to Digital at the City of London Corporation.
Until it was disbanded, she was co-CEO of the Tech Talent Charter, where she led the organisation’s growth and headed up the implementation of some of the tools it offered, such as its benchmarking platform and annual benchmarking reports.
She was a co-author of the recent Lovelace Report.
She was recently appointed chair of industry collaborative CyberScotland Partnership, and is an advocate for closing the digital skills divide across the UK.
Alongside this, she is chair of the UK Tech Cluster Group, which regularly discusses the technology issues affecting particular areas in the UK.
She co-founded a networking collaborative for female leaders, The Power Collective, and is founding investor and adviser for investment app Zeed and a non-executive director of Finance Focused.
Until recently, she was head of AI for government at the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford, and director of the Incubator for AI at 10 Downing Street.
Prior to this role, she was COO of online skills platform Coursera, and has also acted at general manager for emerging markets platforms in China for Intel.
As well as expert adviser for the European Commission, she is an entrepreneurship expert with the Entrepreneurship Centre at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School, and a trustee for CAST, among many other board memberships and non-executive directorships.
Melanie Dawes, chief executive, Ofcom
Dawes has headed up Ofcom since 2020, following her previous role as permanent secretary at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, as well as many other roles across the civil service.
She has previously been a trustee at Patchwork Foundation, which aims to encourage underrepresented young people to participate in democracy, and a non-executive director of consumer group Which?.
In 2021, she co-founded advisory firm Growth Strategy Innovation, which helps to grow startup and scaleup organisations, and is now innovation director for Oxford Innovation, which helps organisations develop ecosystems for entrepreneurs and innovators, in turn boosting local areas.
In the past, Timperley co-founded Enterprise Lab and, until 2021, was a board member of FutureEverything. She was named a Computer Weekly Women in Tech Rising Star in 2017,
Nicola Martin, former BCS Women committee member and BCS Pride vice-chair; founder, Nicola Martin Coaching & Consultancy
Martin has a history of working as a test consultant at firms such as Barclays, Sony, the UK Home Office, Shazam and Sky, and is currently a startup adviser and founder of her own coaching and consultancy firm.
Prior to this, she was head of quality at Adarga, and is currently a committee member of the BCS NeurodiverseIT group.
She is chair for the BCS Special Interest Group in Software Testing, and until January 2023, was the vice-chair of the BCS LGBTQIA+ tech specialist group.
She is also passionate about topics such as women in engineering and social mobility, and is on the UK government’s Business Growth Forum (formerly the SME Business Council).
She is a sponsor and digital board adviser for a LEAD Network Digital Chapter focused on empowering women to grow their careers, and is non-executive director and member of audit committee at Tele2.
She has previously been a CIO for easyJet and Telenet, and was the director of development and delivery – technology and transformation at Virgin Media.
Now alongside her role as an MP, she’s founder of the Labour: Women in Tech group, which campaigns to reach equal gender opportunities in the technology industry. She’s also the co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on FinTech, chair of the Interparliamentary Forum on Emerging Technologies, and a member of the Women and Equalities Select Committee.
She has a history in technology, including roles such as software engineer for MDA, product manager for Viisage Technology, and systems engineer and QA for Hemedex.
In her previous role as head of the UK government’s Office for Artificial Intelligence, for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, Sport (DCMS) and Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Khareghani was responsible for the joint office and its aim to make the UK a global centre for AI.
Now, she’s deputy governorship CIO to the prudential regulatory authority at the Bank of England, and fellow for the Forward Institute.
Prior to her time at the CMA, she was a legal partner for the markets division of energy markets authority Ofgem, and in her early career spent 11 years at law firm Slaughter and May, working her way from trainee solicitor to partner.
She has held several roles at Lloyds, and is currently HR director for technology and data, part of the firm’s Group Chief Operating Office, where she is responsible for developing its people strategies for technology.
She has previously sat on the board of the now disbanded tech diversity collective, Tech Talent Charter.
She was named a Computer Weekly Rising Star in 2024.
Outside of this, Wallace was a member of the advisory board for recently disbanded Tech Talent Charter, and volunteers as a cub and scout assistant.
Earlier in her career, she held roles such as systems engineer, project executive and consultant, and has been chief strategist EMEA at Symantec and senior director of security business development at Microsoft.
She has been nominated for Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Women in UK Tech several times, and has previously appeared in the longlist.
She is also the lead of Better Images of AI, a not-for-profit that offers a free library of images that better represent AI to reduce the use of stereotypical representations of AI such as “humanoid robots, glowing brains, outstretched robot hands, blue backgrounds and the Terminator”.
In 2020, she also became the founding editorial board member of the AI and Ethics Journal, published by Springer Nature.
She was named one of Computer Weekly’s Rising Stars in 2024.
She is a fellow of business fund Unreasonable, an advisory board member for Stop Ecocide International, and a venture partner for early-stage generalist impact fund Mustard Seed MAZE.
She has previously been a business mentor for Virgin StartUp, and works alongside the minister for small business and the Department for Business and Trade, advising on SMEs.
These endeavours stem from her being a computer science teacher passionate about encouraging more children to take the subject. Alongside this work, she is also a volunteer for the Scottish Tech Army, a not-for-profit aimed at using tech for good.
Previously, she has been a fellow, independent audit of AI systems, for ForHumanity, and BCS Women membership secretary.
Now, she’s the technology editor for BBC News, covering technology news across BBC radio, TV and digital.
