Amali de Alwis | |
|---|---|
 Amali de Alwis visits Government Digital Service in 2016 | |
| Born | April 1980 (age 44) |
| Education | |
| Employer | Code First: Girls |
| Awards | MBE (18) |
Amali Chivanthi de Alwis (born April 1980) MBE FRSA was the CEO of Code First: Girls. Replaced by Anna Brailsford. She is currently[ when? ] UK Managing Director of Microsoft for Startups.[ citation needed ] She is a board member of Ada, the National College for Digital Skills, and the Institute of Coding.
de Alwis attended Nonsuch High School for Girls and graduated in 1998. She studied manufacturing engineering at the University of Birmingham. In 2002 she completed a Foundation Course at Camberwell College of Arts, before studying Product Development at the University of the Arts London. She enrolled on the Graduate Program at Clarks Shoes, which she left to become a consultant at Kantar TNS. [1] At TNS Alwis advised organisations on stakeholder management and digital strategies. [1]
de Alwis spent two years at Kantar TNS before joining PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Thought Leadership Manager. [2] [3] During her time at PricewaterhouseCoopers she took a secondment to the World Economic Forum. [1] She delivered a report on resilience and risk, and the correlation between operational performance and societal value. [4] She worked at Startup Direct as a mentor, advising London and Birmingham based start-up businesses. [1] She started working with Entrepreneur First in 2015 and has worked simultaneously worked as a commissioner for the Doncaster Education and Skills Commission. [1] [5] [6] de Alwis has written for The Daily Telegraph the Evening Standard and The Times, and is Chair of the BIMA Diversity Council. [7] [8] [9] [10] de Alwis is a mentor for June Angelides, an employee of Silicon Valley Bank who launched the start-up Mums in Technology. [11] [12] She has been part of Debating Matters. [13]
de Alwis has spoken extensively about the need for more women in technology and the lack of computer science teachers in school education. [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] She joined Code First: Girls in 2015. [20] [21] Under her leadership, Code First: Girls has taught more UK women to code than the British university system, providing £2.5 million worth of free technology education. [22] [23] She has described Stephanie Shirley as one of her role models. [24] She launched a campaign in December 2018 to teach 20,000 women to code for free by the end of 2020. [25] The program will need £1.5 million funding, and is supported by Martha Lane Fox. [26] de Alwis is a board member of Ada, the National College for Digital Skills and the Institute of Coding. [27] [28]
She has been recognised the WISE Campaign for her "significant impact in encouraging girls to code". [29] She won the 2017 Women in IT award for her services to electronic skills. [30] She was selected as Computer Weekly's Most Influential Women in IT in 2018, after being in the top ten in 2017. [31] [32] She was awarded an MBE in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to diversity in technology. [33]
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation.
Women in computing were among the first programmers in the early 20th century, and contributed substantially to the industry. As technology and practices altered, the role of women as programmers has changed, and the recorded history of the field has downplayed their achievements. Since the 18th century, women have developed scientific computations, including Nicole-Reine Lepaute's prediction of Halley's Comet, and Maria Mitchell's computation of the motion of Venus.
Margaret Elizabeth Philbin OBE is an English radio and television presenter whose credits include Tomorrow's World, Multi-Coloured Swap Shop and latterly Bang Goes the Theory.
Little Miss Geek is a campaign that aims to inspire young women to consider careers in the technology and video-games industries. Little Miss Geek is the non-for-profit subsidiary of Lady Geek, a campaigning agency which aims to make technology more accessible and appealing to women.
Regina Honu, is a Ghanaian social entrepreneur, software developer and founder of Soronko Solutions, a software development company in Ghana. She opened Soronko Academy, the first coding and human-centered design school for children and young adults in West Africa. Honu has received multiple awards, including being named by CNN as one of the 12 inspirational women who rock STEM. She was also named as one of the six women making an impact in Tech in Africa and one of the ten female entrepreneurs to watch in emerging economies.
Wendy Tan White MBE is a British technology entrepreneur and technology investor. She is the CEO of Intrinsic, a robotics software company under Alphabet Inc.
Alice Yvonne Bentinck is a British entrepreneur. Along with Matt Clifford, she is the co-founder of Entrepreneur First, a London-based company builder and startup accelerator. Based in London and Singapore, EF funds ambitious individuals based across Europe and Asia to create startups. In 2017, it was announced that Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and Partner at Greylock, was leading a $12.4million investment into Entrepreneur First.
Cooper Harris is an American entrepreneur and actress. She is currently the CEO & founder of Klickly, a payments platform, based in Venice, California. Harris had a career as an actress on such TV shows like Young and the Restless and As the World Turns, among others.
Code First Girls is a social enterprise that provides free coding courses to women and non-binary people across the UK, Ireland, the USA, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The organization helps companies recruit more women into the tech sector by connecting them with newly trained female developers. Their community of coders, instructors, and mentors is one of the largest in the UK. According to the organisation, as of 2022 they've trained over 50,000 women.
Tabitha Goldstaub is a British tech entrepreneur who specialises in communicating the impact of artificial intelligence. She is the co-founder of CogX, a festival and online platform. She is also the chair of the UK government's AI Council, a member of the DCMS Digitial Economy Council and on the TechUK board. A serial entrepreneur, she was the co-founder of video distribution company Rightster. Tabitha is the author of How To Talk To Robots - A Girls' Guide to a World Dominated by AI. She's also an advisor to Tortoise Media, Raspberry Pi, CarbonRe, Monumo, Cambridge Innovation Capital and The Alan Turing Institute.
Sophie Deen is a British children's author and leader in the field of coding and STEM for young people. She is the CEO of Bright Little Labs, a kids media company that makes animations, books, games and toys with a focus on 21st century skills, inclusive role models, and sustainability.
Sharon Anne Moore MBE is the Chief Technology Officer for Public Sector at IBM in the United Kingdom and Ireland. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2018 Birthday Honours.
Clare Sutcliffe MBE is a social entrepreneur and the co-founder of Code Club. She was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 2015.
Jacqueline de Rojas is President Emeritus of techUK and chair of the board of Digital Leaders. She serves as Non-Executive Director on the boards of Rightmove, Costain Group and FDM Group, and was formally on the board of AO World. She also works for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. She serves as co-Chair for the Institute of Coding and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Engineering from the University of Bath in 2020.
Natasha Sayce-Zelem is the Global Head of Partner Engineering at Amazon Prime Video. She is a founder of 'Empowering Women with Tech', a social enterprise showcasing female role models working in digital media, science, and technology with the goal of getting more women to consider a career in STEM in England.
Alexandra Depledge is a British technology entrepreneur, known best for being the founder and CEO of Resi, and as the founder and former CEO of Helpling, formerly known as Hassle.com. In 2016 she was awarded an MBE for services to the sharing economy.
Mark Martin is a British Computer Science Teacher, educational technology evangelist and founder of UK Black Tech. He was awarded an MBE in the 2019 Birthday Honours. In 2018 Martin was awarded the Diversity Champion Award at the London Tech Week TechXLR8 Awards and in 2019 was honoured by the Mayor of London for his efforts to increase diversity in technological professions.
Sheree Atcheson is a Sri Lankan-born Northern Irish computer scientist and Group Vice-President of Diversity & Inclusion at Valtech. She previously has held roles such as Global Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Peakon Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Monzo and Consulting Inclusion Lead at Deloitte. Atcheson has been recognised by Computer Weekly as one of the Most Influential Women in UK Tech. She is the Global Ambassador for Women Who Code.
Lola Odelola is a software engineer and campaigner recognised for her work to promote diversity in technology. She is the founder of Blackgirl.tech, a non-profit organisation that promotes diversity within the tech industry by creating a safe space for Black girls, non-binary people and women to learn and explore technology.
Toni Scullion is a Scottish computer science teacher who founded the charity dressCode, which aims to advance computing science in schools, with a particular focus on closing the gender gap. She also co-founded the Ada Scotland Festival, which "brings together partners involved in addressing the issue of gender balance in computing science education in Scotland."
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