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Latest - Area of Interest: Diversity and inclusion

Stephanie Liston

Stephanie Liston was born in the mid-west of the USA to a mother who was a first grade teacher and a father who was a finance director in the retail sector.  Stephanie studied history and political science at The Colorado College.  She studied law in San Diego, London and Cambridge.  Her first legal job was with Fulbright and Jaworski, which had offices in Houston, Washington and London.

Stephanie joined MCI Communications Corp in January 1990.  She was involved in forging joint venture agreements across the globe for MCI.  She returned to the UK, where she completed her LL.M. at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, to join Freshfields in 1992.  There she continued to advise MCI with its Concert joint venture with BT.

She was recruited by a number of firms throughout her legal career.  From Freshfields Stephanie joined Baker and McKenzie, working on international communications and technology matters and being asked to join the international partnership.  She built a very successful telecoms practice from scratch – but without the international focus.

Lory Thorpe

Lory Thorpe is Quantum Safe lead for IBM, working with clients, partners, competitors, industry associations, standards organisation to bring together the ecosystem of stakeholders that will enable the journey to quantum safe. Supporting the quantum-safe ecosystem through consortia is an integral component of how IBM advances quantum-safe transformation across technology and industry domains and prepare for a quantum safe future.

Lory Thorpe is Quantum Safe lead for IBM, working with clients, partners, competitors, industry associations, standards organisation to bring together the ecosystem of stakeholders that will enable the journey to quantum safe. Supporting the quantum-safe ecosystem through consortia is an integral component of how IBM advances quantum-safe transformation across technology and industry domains and prepare for a quantum safe future.

As a young girl, Lory remembers taking apart a microwave oven on her way to becoming an engineer.  She worked for 24 years in the telecoms industry both on the supply side with Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia and with Vodafone.  She moved to IBM in 2021 and is now working on quantum computing helping IBM fulfil its roadmap.  She has a degree is psychology form the Open University.

Lory Thorpe speaks English, Italian, French and Spanish. Born in Canada she attended secondary school there before moving to Italy to study IT and Computer Science then Telecommunications Engineering. After a stint simultaneously as an interpreter, she joined Ericsson in Rome.  She stayed for 13 years and worked on some of the early developments of mobile phones.  She helped pioneer pre-paid and virtual network services.

Following this, she moved to a ‘totally different culture’ with Huawei as a solution director in the UK. Within three years she grew the business by 200%: she was helped by having a colleague, a native Chinese speaker who worked on the internal aspects of her job and she on the external aspects.

A move to Vodafone saw her appointed Head of Internet Things Innovation and Strategy where she built a new team and took on, somewhat reluctantly, the role of manager.  Her five years there were followed by working for Nokia Software when it was a separate part of the company and focused on enterprise software. She moved to IBM into a team for the telco sector then into quantum computing.  She says IBM has hit every one of its targets to build a successful quantum computer. 

Following this, she moved to a ‘totally different culture’ with Huawei as a solution director in the UK. Within three years she grew the business by 200%: she was helped by having a colleague, a native Chinese speaker who worked on the internal aspects of her job and she on the external aspects.

A move to Vodafone saw her appointed Head of Internet Things Innovation and Strategy where she bult a new team and took on, somewhat reluctantly, the role of manager.  Her five years there were followed by working for Nokia Software when it was a separate part of the company and focused on enterprise software. She moved to IBM into a team for the telco sector then into quantum computing.  She says IBM has hit every one of its targets to build a successful quantum computer. 

Julia Sutcliffe

Professor Julia Sutcliffe, was appointed Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Business and Trade in February 2023. Previously, she spent 26 years at BAE Systems where she focused on innovation, aerospace, defence and security. Here she talks about what has inspired and driven her career. This includes the great feats of engineering she saw as a child, the huge potential of the explosion in computer power, and the ability to collaborate with leading experts across many technologies.