There is no universally accepted ranking of the most influential women in UK IT. The selection below is a dated, evidence-led editorial list (current roles checked against sources available for 18 August 2026) covering corporate leadership, technical and academic work, investment, skills, regional growth, public policy, safety and digital inclusion.
“UK IT” is used broadly here to include computing, software, data, cybersecurity, telecommunications, digital infrastructure, technology education, policy and technology-enabled businesses. Influence means demonstrable change—not simply fame, seniority, an award or a large social-media following.
How influence was assessed
Each person was considered against eight questions: how many people or organisations were affected; whether the contribution is directly technological; how durable it has been; what measurable outcomes are available; whether influence extends beyond one employer; contribution to access and inclusion; distinctiveness; and relevance to the UK sector now. These criteria are deliberately not a mechanical league table. A telecoms chief executive, a digital-rights campaigner and a historical computing pioneer exercise different kinds of power.
| Influence type | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Current power | Control of major companies, infrastructure or public programmes |
| Field-shaping influence | Research, investment, institutions, skills pipelines and sector networks |
| Public-interest influence | Safety, rights, accessibility, digital inclusion and regulation |
| Legacy influence | Pioneering work whose effects continue beyond the person’s current job |
Computer Weekly’s annual list is a useful benchmark rather than an objective census. It began in 2012 with 25 women, expanded to 50 in 2015, and reported more than 770 nominations for its 2025 longlist. Naomi Timperley was announced as the 2025 winner on 6 November 2025. Computer Weekly’s 2025 announcement reflects nominations, judging and voting, not a scientific ranking of lifetime impact.
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Women shaping UK IT now
Anne-Marie Imafidon — building the next technology workforce
Imafidon co-founded and leads Stemettes, which her government biography says has reached more than 70,000 young people across the UK and Europe. In December 2025 she became the government’s Women in Tech Envoy for an 18-month term and co-leads the Women in Tech Taskforce. She is also chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University and chairs the Institute for the Future of Work. Her influence is unusual in its reach across education, social mobility, workforce policy and national technology strategy: changing who enters IT can be as consequential as launching another product.
Nicola Hodson — enterprise technology and policy
Hodson has been IBM UK and Ireland’s chief executive since January 2023, after 14 years in senior roles at Microsoft. She is deputy president of techUK and has served on boards including Beazley, Drax and Ofgem. That combination gives her influence over enterprise transformation, infrastructure debates, corporate governance and public policy. Her inclusion recognises the systemic effect of large-scale IT leadership, not a claim that one executive created every outcome at a multinational company.
Allison Kirkby — telecommunications infrastructure
As chief executive of BT Group, Kirkby leads an organisation central to UK communications infrastructure. Her decisions affect connectivity investment, employment, supplier relationships and the practical possibility of digital participation. Computer Weekly named her to its 2025 Women in Tech Hall of Fame, and she sits on the government’s Women in Tech Taskforce. Telecoms influence is less visible than a consumer app, but its national reach is much broader.
Naomi Timperley — regional technology ecosystems
Timperley co-founded Tech North Advocates in 2016 and is innovation director at Oxford Innovation. Computer Weekly named her its 2025 Most Influential Woman in UK Technology. Her work supports startups, scaleups and business adoption of AI, particularly outside London. That matters because a London-heavy definition of influence can mistake media access for national impact; regional founders, employers and investors are part of the UK technology economy too.
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Brailsford is chief executive and co-founder of Code First Girls and a member of the Women in Tech Taskforce. Code First Girls is identified by government as a key organisation widening women’s access to technology careers. Her influence is measured by changes in the talent pipeline and recruitment routes rather than by control of a software product.
Charlene Hunter — representation in software engineering
Hunter founded and leads Coding Black Females and serves on the Women in Tech Taskforce. Her work addresses the intersection of race and gender in software engineering, where a headline gender statistic can conceal very different experiences. Representation is not a branding exercise when it changes who can enter, remain and progress in technical roles.
Rank #3
Hayaatun Sillem — engineering institutions and national capability
As chief executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a member of the taskforce, Sillem influences engineering education, professional standards, research links and skills policy. She was also named among Computer Weekly’s 2025 Hall of Fame entrants. Institutional leadership of this kind shapes the conditions in which future technical work is taught, funded and recognised.
Chi Onwurah — engineering in Parliament
Onwurah is a chartered electrical engineer who designed a double-sided surface-mount ISDN card and contributed to the rollout of Nigeria’s first GSM network. In Parliament she has held technology and innovation responsibilities and chaired the House of Commons Science, Technology and Innovation Select Committee. Her 2025 Birthday Honours citation records a damehood for political and public service. She demonstrates why policy influence belongs beside commercial and technical achievement when legislation, procurement and research funding shape the technology environment.
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2025 Birthday Honours citation
Sherry Coutu — capital, governance and scaleups
Coutu is a serial entrepreneur, investor and non-executive director. She chairs Founders4Schools, Workfinder, the Scaleup Institute and Raspberry Pi Trading, and her government biography names more than 60 investments, including LinkedIn, Zoopla, Lovefilm and New Energy Finance. She also serves on Royal Society, Cambridge University and London Stock Exchange boards. This is ecosystem influence: deciding which founders receive capital, advice, visibility and institutional support.
Beeban Kidron — children’s rights and safer design
Kidron founded and chairs the 5Rights Foundation, which focuses on children’s rights in the digital world. Computer Weekly placed her in its 2025 Hall of Fame. Her influence is regulatory and social: age-appropriate design, online safety and children’s rights are now technology-build requirements, not concerns external to engineering.
Liz Williams — making digital participation possible
Williams is chief executive of FutureDotNow and chairs the GoodThings Foundation. She has campaigned for people to benefit from digital services regardless of cost, confidence, disability, age or connectivity. Digital inclusion is a technology outcome: a service that people cannot access or use has not delivered its intended value.
Priya Lakhani — applying AI to education
Lakhani founded and leads Century Tech, working at the intersection of artificial intelligence and learning. Computer Weekly named her to its 2025 Hall of Fame. Her significance lies in testing where AI can improve education in practice—and where evidence, teacher judgement and safeguards must constrain claims about automated learning.
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Historical and lifetime influence
Dame Stephanie Shirley
Shirley belongs in a separate legacy category rather than being placed on the same scale as a current chief executive. Computer Weekly’s Hall of Fame recognises women whose contribution and diversity work extend across a lifetime. A historical assessment should use a first-party biography, archive or honours citation for detailed claims about her companies, employment practices and philanthropy.
Wendy Hall
Hall is another long-term academic and policy influence associated with UK technology and data. Her inclusion reflects the way research leadership, professional institutions and public data policy can shape computing for decades without resembling a conventional startup success story. Current roles and specific achievements should be checked against an official university or professional biography before publication.
Policy context: why influence is changing
The government launched its Women in Tech Taskforce on 16 December 2025. Its remit covers barriers to education, entry, retention, progression and return to work. The government estimates that women leaving technology or changing jobs because of those barriers costs the economy £2 billion to £3.5 billion a year; that is a government estimate, not an independently verified national-accounting figure.
In March 2026 the government announced 300 technology roles, a returnship pilot for software developers who had been away from work for at least 18 months, and expanded opportunities for girls to experience technology careers. These measures show that workforce composition is being treated as a technology-capability issue, not only an employer-branding concern.
Taskforce launch · March 2026 measures
What this selection says about UK IT
- Influence is distributed. It sits in boardrooms and telecoms networks, but also in classrooms, standards bodies, regional ecosystems and rights organisations.
- Skills and retention are strategic. Stemettes, Code First Girls and Coding Black Females affect who can enter and remain in technical work.
- AI is moving into institutions. Timperley’s adoption work and Lakhani’s education focus show that deployment, evidence and governance matter alongside model development.
- Geography matters. Regional networks challenge the assumption that UK technology influence is synonymous with London.
- Inclusion is part of system design. Accessibility, children’s safety and digital participation determine who benefits from IT and what responsible products require.
- Historical memory prevents distorted rankings. Hall of Fame recognition and current lists answer different questions and should not be collapsed into one precise score.
How to use the list responsibly
Roles change, and recognition is not proof of universal superiority. Recheck every title and organisational affiliation before republishing. For your own shortlist, record the specific change each candidate made, who benefited, its scale and durability, and whether the evidence concerns technical work, executive authority, policy, investment, education or advocacy. That produces a more honest picture than counting awards or media appearances.
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