Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley CH is a high-tech entrepreneur and philanthropist. A child refugee, Dame Shirley fled Germany for London at the age of 5 as part of the Kinder transport in 1939. She settled in the UK and went on to pursue a career in computerscience.
Dame Shirley founded Freelance Programmers in 1962 — one of the first high-techcompanies in the UK—which was devoted to the professional training and promotion of women programmers and technologists. The company was valued at £3 billion by 2000. Dame Shirley retired in 1993 to focus on her philanthropy work via the Shirley Foundation. Inspired by her son Giles, who had autism and epilepsy, she funds research and welfare support in the fields of IT and autism.
In 2017, she was appointed Memberof the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) for her services to the IT industry and philanthropy.