Latest - Organisation: F International

Christine Arrowsmith

Christine Arrowsmith has had a prolific career as a computer programmer and systems analyst at the forefront of early computing for businesses.

She developed a career as a freelance systems analyst, as well as being employed by several early adopters of office technology and iconic firms such as ICL and F International.

Since retirement in 1997, she’s continued to pursue her passion as a member of the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, the Computer Conservation Society, and manning the Baby exhibit – the first computer to store and run a program – at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.

Ann Moffatt

Ann Moffatt found “sums” easy as a child at school in post war London and would have gone to Oxbridge had it not been a time when the boys in the family had first call on education.  Nevertheless, by reading every book she could find, she got a job in IT and went on to defy the male stereotype of the industry: combining a friendly manner with incisive expertise that commanded respect at the highest levels.

Ann was Dame Stephanie Shirley’s first lieutenant at Freelance Programmers before being headhunted to Australia, to sort out a mega-project gone wrong.  She is a Fellow of both the Australian Computer Society and the British Computer Society. In 2002, Ann was inducted into the Australian ICT Hall of Fame and in 2011, into the Pearcey Hall of Fame, for lifetime achievement in the ICT industries. The University of Southern Queensland awarded her an Honorary Doctorate, in May 2006 and Microsoft list her as one of 12 Australian Innovators.

Dame Stephanie Shirley

Dame Steve Shirley founded the software house F International initially only using women workers who worked from home. It was in 1962 and she had hit the glass ceiling again in her employment. She had £6 of capital. She was good at finding people who could become high achievers. Having been saved when a million children died in the holocaust she decided to make hers a life worth saving and likes to feel that she has made a difference. Her work gives purpose to her existence.