Women in Tech
techUK is marching forward to close the tech gender gap in 2023. Throughout March, coinciding with International Women’s Day (IWD 2023) on 8 March, we are exploring how we embrace equitable workplaces. The UN’s theme for IWD 2023 focuses on Digital for All or DigitALL, and we are proud to support this.
Latest news & insights
Delivering diversity
techUK has catalogued how members are committing to ethnic diversity in the tech workforce and are pushing for progress. Effective and sustainable solutions must cover all aspects of a company - the people, its processes, and its culture. It explores approaches from our membership focusing on four things: action in the community to inspire the next generation; attraction and recruitment; getting workplace culture right; and the development of diverse talent.
🎧 The techUK podcast: celebrating female Heads of Policy
In this very special edition of the techUK podcast, techUK celebrates International Women’s Day 2022 by talking to female Heads of Policy of big tech comapnies within our membership. Moderated by techUK's Nimmi Patel, Policy Manager – Skills, Talent & Diversity, and Lulu Freemont, Head of Digital Regulation, techUK, we hear from an inspiring panel all about their experiences of working in digital policy and what more needs to be done to support inclusivity.
Listen to: Becky Foreman, UK Corporate Affairs Director, Microsoft, Katy Minshall, Head of UK Public Policy, Twitter, Rebecca Stimson, UK Head of Public Policy, Meta, Elizabeth Kanter, Director of Government Relations and Public Policy, TikTok.
Guide to help UK business leaders deliver inclusion, fairness, opportunity and value
techUK is proud to support the Leaders As Change Agents Board's Employer & Employee guide which has been specifically designed for CEOs and their leadership teams to help them deliver better inclusion, fairness, opportunity and value for every UK employer and employee.
The Guide sets out 8 tangible commitments for adoption as the cornerstone of a better workplace. The guide also includes a comprehensive step-by-step resource guidance to help organisations with adoption and effective delivery.
Upcoming events
Industry Briefing with Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Virtual Market briefing
Policy Partnership with the Tech Talent Charter
techUK is a policy partner and Signatory of the Tech Talent Charter (TTC). TTC is a government-supported, industry-led membership group that brings together 720+ Signatory organisations and equips them with the networks and resources to drive their diversity and inclusion efforts. Their broad base of Signatories includes companies and industries of all sizes, non-profit organisations, charities, leading UK educators, and government departments.
The TTC was created in 2015 to address the UK’s tech talent shortage and diversity problem through collective action. The goal is for the UK tech ecosystem to be a diverse and inclusive community where people from all backgrounds are welcomed and valued for their contributions.
Becoming a Signatory of the TTC is free, find out more here.
Get involved
All techUK's work is led by our members - keep in touch or get involved by joining the group or programme below. Our D&I working groups provide business intelligence, networking and event opportunities. Get involved if you are a techUK member.
Skills, Talent and Diversity
Making the UK the best place to start and grow a digital business is contingent on our ability to skill, attract and retain the brightest global talent. techUK’s Skills, Talent and Diversity Programme seeks to ensure the UK has a world-leading tech workforce by equipping the pipeline of talent with digital skills to become digital leaders, attracting and retaining a diverse workforce & making sure the UK is an attractive location for talent from across the world.
Skills and Diversity Council
The Skills and Diversity Council aims to support the wider diversity and inclusion agenda in the tech sector and use their convening power take concrete steps to help the UK develop skills for the modern economy. The Council brings together some of the most influential networks and people working across the industry to champion diversity in tech.
Skills and Diversity Working Group
Delivering 21st Century Health and Care requires a digitally-skilled workforce. The Skills and Diversity Working Group is supporting the NHS and social care bodies to develop the next generation of digital leaders while encouraging diversity and inclusion in healthtech. For more information, please contact: Leontina Postelnicu| Programme Manager, Health and Social Care.
Nimmi Patel
Nimmi Patel
Nimmi Patel is the Head of Skills, Talent and Diversity at techUK.
She works on all things skills, education, and future of work policy, focusing on upskilling and retraining. Nimmi is also an Advisory Board member of Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (digit). The Centre research aims to increase understanding of how digital technologies are changing work and the implications for employers, workers, job seekers and governments. She is also a member of Chatham House's Common Futures Conversations
Prior to joining the team, she worked for the UK Labour Party and New Zealand Labour Party, and holds a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Manchester and is currently studying MA Strategic Communications at King’s College London.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 07805744520
- Twitter:
- @nimmiptl
- Website:
- www.techuk.org
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/nimmi-patel1/
Antony Walker
Antony Walker
Antony Walker is deputy CEO of techUK, which he played a lead role in launching in November 2013.
Antony is a member of the senior leadership team and has overall responsibility for techUK’s policy work. Prior to his appointment in July 2012 Antony was chief executive of the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), the UK’s independent advisory group on broadband policy. Antony was closely involved in the development of broadband policy development in the UK since the BSG was established in 2001 and authored several major reports to government. He also led the development of the UK’s world leading Open Internet Code of Practice that addresses the issue of net neutrality in the UK. Prior to setting up the BSG, Antony spent six years working in Brussels for the American Chamber of Commerce following and writing about telecoms issues and as a consultant working on EU social affairs and environmental issues. Antony is a graduate of Aberdeen University and KU Leuven and is also a Policy Fellow Alumni of the Centre for Science and Policy at Cambridge University.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 07780603065
- Twitter:
- @techUKdepCEO
- Website:
- www.techuk.org/
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonywalker/
Jake Wall
Jake Wall
Jake has been the Policy Manager for Skills and Future of Work since May 2022, supporting techUK's work to empower the UK to skill, attract and retain the brightest global talent, and prepare for the digital transformations of the future workplace.
Previously, Jake was the Programme Assistant for Policy. He joined techUK in March 2019 and has also worked across the EU Exit, International Trade, and Cloud, Data Analytics and AI programmes.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Website:
- www.techuk.org
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwwuk
Sheila Flavell CBE
Sheila Flavell CBE
Sheila is the President of techUK and Chief Operating Officer and Executive Board Director of FDM Group. She has over 30 years’ experience in both the public and private IT sectors. Sheila played an integral role in the Group’s flotation on AIM in 2005 and was a key instigator of the management buy-out of the Group in 2010 and its subsequent listing onto the main FTSE Market in June 2014 and more recent entry into the FTSE 250.
Sheila’s experience and knowledge of the sector has been crucial in driving the Group’s global expansion programme. She is fully committed to promoting all forms of diversity, especially women in Tech and spearheads FDM’s Women in IT campaign and FDM’s ‘Getting Back to Business‘ programme, aimed at providing opportunities for women looking to return to the workplace. She is frequently called to advise government committees on various issues. Most recently she gave evidence to the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee on bridging the digital skills gap.
She has won numerous awards over many years for her services to the Tech industry, including a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by ‘Scottish Women In Tech’ and was most recently recognised in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List, by being awarded ‘Commander of the Order of The British Empire’ for services to ‘Gender Equality in IT and Graduate and Returners Employment.’ She is regularly listed as one of the Most Influential Woman in Tech in the UK, by Computer Weekly and has also been regularly named as one of the Most Influential Women in the North American Mid Market’ by CEO Connection.
Sheila is a keen helicopter pilot who also likes to plant trees, play golf/ski and cycle.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 020 7331 2176
