Tech
Need a Pick-Me-Up? Try Spraying Your Face With Hypochlorous Acid
Skincare has a way of taking the body’s own biology, bottling it, and selling it back to us. Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) is the latest example. It’s a weak acid that your white blood cells naturally produce to fight infection and kill bacteria. Now it’s being spritzed across morning and nighttime routines as an all-around skin fix.
But HOCl isn’t new. Hospitals have been using synthetic versions for decades as a disinfectant. In fact, the lab-made form dates back to 1834 and was used in both World Wars. So while #SkinTok makes it sound like a cutting-edge discovery, dermatologists have known its potential for a long time.
Here’s what it is, how it works, and what dermatologists want you to know before adding it to your skincare routine.
Table of Contents
Hypochlorous Acid, Clarified
Chemically, HOCl is a weak acid and a potent oxidant. The body produces it during an immune response, but it can also be synthesized in a lab by running an electric current through saltwater. This synthetic version was first developed in 1834, used as a disinfectant during both World Wars, and has long been employed in hospitals for wound care and even in veterinary medicine.
Unlike harsher disinfectants like bleach, HOCl is biodegradable, nontoxic, and free of noxious fumes. Actually, research shows it can kill certain bacteria faster than bleach. In skincare, it’s bottled at ultra-low, stabilized concentrations. “Think of it as your skin’s built-in defense mechanism, bottled,” writes Dr. Mollie Kelly Tufman, molecular biologist and founder of the Beauty Lab.
Why It’s In Skincare
Dermatologists have used HOCl for decades to prevent infection, keep wounds clean, and reduce scarring. Early research suggests potential in treating acne vulgaris, seborrheic dermatitis, and tumor suppression. More recently, it’s popped up as topical sprays and mists, promising to calm breakouts and soothe redness.
Its appeal comes from its antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. HOCl neutralizes acne-causing bacteria and other microorganisms that trigger flare-ups. “Compared to niacinamide, which works gradually to regulate oil and support your barrier, HOCl is more of a first responder,” writes Tufman. “It shows up fast, calms things down, and makes recovery easier for irritated or breakout-prone skin.”
“Benzoyl peroxide also has antimicrobial effects, but it can be a lot more drying and irritating, so it can lead to rashes or dermatitis,” says board-certified dermatologist Gloria Lin, MD. HOCl, by contrast, is gentle enough for sensitive skin and safe for conditions like eczema, psoriasis, or rosacea. Plus, unlike benzoyl peroxide, it won’t bleach your clothes or towels.
It’s effective for reducing bacteria from helmets, masks, makeup brushes, and sweaty gym gear. Some people spritz it under their arms or on their feet for a quick refresh (though it won’t replace deodorant). In eye care, HOCl is used to help with dry eyes, styes, and conditions like blepharitis and meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). It can also reduce microbial buildup around the lashes and eyelids.
The Caveats
There are limits. Because it’s an oxidizer, it can interfere with ingredients like vitamin C and other antioxidants. If both are in your regimen, dermatologists suggest spacing them out (vitamin C in the morning, HOCl at night). Lin also says highly acidic exfoliants like strong AHAs can disrupt HOCl’s pH.
Stability is another concern. HOCl breaks down when exposed to light, heat, or poor packaging, so most products come in opaque bottles with stabilizers. Store in a cool spot. Don’t pour it into a different container; the molecule degrades once transferred.
“How do we break down the journey into bite-sized pieces, so it doesn’t feel overwhelming or insurmountable?” says Jesse Levinson, the cofounder and CEO of Zoox. “This moment is a huge one, but the service is still unpaid and fairly limited.” Zoox launched in 2014, and though it’s been testing its technology in San Francisco, at its Foster City, California, headquarters, and in Las Vegas for years, this will be the first time it’s allowing anyone willing to download an app to ride. The company was acquired by Amazon in 2020 for a reported $1.2 billion.
Olsen, the May Mobility CEO, says he is comfortable with the company’s slower launch process after watching others rush to put self-driving cars on the road. “One of the things we’ve seen across the industry is that a vehicle might perform brilliantly some of the time, but then will do wildly inappropriate things in the edge cases,” Olsen says. He declines to say exactly when the firm would remove the safety drivers from its vehicles, or when it might expand its Lyft partnership to other areas or cities, but he says any moves the company makes will be tested and validated with real-world and simulated data. The service will scale more quickly as time goes on, he says.
Two US self-driving vehicle firms shut down this past decade after their robotaxis were involved in serious road accidents. In 2018, a testing self-driving vehicle operated by Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona. Uber sold off its self-driving technology to a competitor in 2020. In 2023, General Motors subsidiary Cruise struck a pedestrian in San Francisco after the person was thrown into the empty robotaxi’s path by a collision with another car; state regulators later learned that the Cruise dragged the person 20 feet while it attempted to move out of traffic, and revoked the company’s permit to operate. General Motors got out of the robotaxi business a year later, citing high development costs and a desire to focus on personal vehicles.
Keep On Robotaxiing
Still, robotaxi companies say they have plenty more public deployments on the horizon. Zoox says it will start picking up public riders in San Francisco later this year, and will then launch in Austin and Miami. May Mobility plans to deploy robotaxis in Arlington, Texas, before the end of the year, this time on the Uber platform. Waymo has announced future service in several US cities, including Miami, Washington, DC, and Dallas. Tesla is running a small, invite-only ride-hail service in the California Bay Area with drivers behind the wheel using its more limited Full Self-Driving (Supervised) tech, which requires the person up front to stay alert at all times. Musk plans to move quickly: He said this spring that the company would have “millions” of vehicles operating autonomously by the second half of next year.
Developers of self-driving vehicles have argued that their tech will increase safety and ride efficiency, bringing down prices in the long term. (Of course, these companies will also no longer have to pay a cut of each ride to human drivers.) But even in Phoenix and San Francisco, where Waymo has been running public robotaxis for years, cities have yet to catch a clear glimpse of how the expensive-to-develop technology might transform residents’ lives.
“It’s not at the scale yet where it’s really dramatically changing anything,” says Adam Millard-Ball, an urban planning professor who directs the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies.
Robotaxi services will likely have to get much bigger, Millard-Ball says, before they can prove out their expansive visions. Waymo has released studies suggesting that its tech is safer than human drivers in many situations, but some experts still argue that it’s hard to compare robots’ performance to humans’ given the still-limited number of miles the cars have driven.
“Can this make the rideshare industry grow the pie?” asks Jeremy Bird, Lyft’s executive vice president of driver experience, who collaborated with May Mobility on the Atlanta launch. Bird says Lyft has studied data from where autonomous vehicles have already been deployed, and he thinks the answer is yes. But when robotaxis will become a moneymaking venture is still a big question mark. Clearly, though, plenty of people are still working to find out.
The court delivered a devastating judgment in January 2022. In a 1,700-page ruling, the judge found that Lynch had been “aware of improprieties in Autonomy’s accounting practices” and had been “dishonestly involved in manipulating the accounts.” The systematic accounting practices weren’t just aggressive. They were, the judge concluded, a deliberate scheme to mislead. American prosecutors, who had been waiting for the UK proceedings to conclude, now had the ammunition they needed. Extradition proceedings, already in motion, gained momentum.
VI. Against All Odds
Lynch’s forced travel to the United States in May 2023 marked the beginning of an extraordinary ordeal. Federal prosecutors in San Francisco charged him in a 16-count indictment that included conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy. If convicted on all counts, the 57-year-old faced up to 25 years in prison—effectively a life sentence.
Despite US prosecutors promising the English court that Lynch wouldn’t be incarcerated pretrial, Judge Charles Breyer immediately sent him to jail upon arrival, his lead attorney Reid Weingarten recalled. “That was probably the lowest moment.” He ended up in jail for only one day, though, after posting a $100 million bond. The mathematics of his situation became Lynch’s obsession. “What are the odds?” he would constantly ask his friends and lawyers, especially Weingarten, who found it maddening. “It was the stupidest question ever,” he would later recall. “There’s just too many variables.” At the same time, he respected Lynch’s genuine curiosity—“there was nothing he didn’t know about or didn’t want to know about,” from astrophysics to politics, culture, music, even American baseball.
The trial began in March 2024, with Lynch joined by his former VP of finance Stephen Chamberlain as codefendant. From the start, it was clear that Lynch’s team had it easier. Hussain’s conviction had taught them the playbook of US prosecutors, and they’d had years to ready a new defense. Each night, Lynch and his legal team would work out who the prosecution was going to bring the next day. They also hired a “shadow jury”—a barman and a clerk paid to sit through all 11 weeks of proceedings and register independent impressions.
Most white-collar defendants stay silent; Lynch insisted on taking the stand. He presented himself as a down-to-earth British entrepreneur who had been victimized by American corporate incompetence. He walked the jury through his working-class background, his academic achievements. When prosecutors pressed him on specific transactions, he deflected skillfully—these were matters for the finance team, he was focused on technology and strategy.
One of the most effective moments came when Lynch described the experience with HP. “I watched them take this beautiful company and just wreck it,” he told the jury, emotion creeping in. “And then they had the audacity to blame me for their incompetence.”
The verdict came on June 6, 2024. As the jury foreman read “not guilty” to all remaining charges, Lynch cried. So did his wife. Chamberlain was also acquitted on all counts. Speaking to journalists later, Lynch reflected on what he’d endured: “It’s bizarre, but now you have a second life,” he said. “The question is, what do you want to do with it?”
VII. The Celebration
As part of his recovery process, Lynch planned a long summer aboard the Bayesian, full of friends and celebration. For one particular outing in August, he invited along everyone who stayed close to him during the darkest period of his life. Christopher Morvillo, the Clifford Chance partner who had helped quarterback the US legal strategy, was there with his wife, Neda. Jonathan Bloomer, the Morgan Stanley international executive who had served as a character witness, had accepted the invitation along with his wife, Judy.
The yacht itself was a 56-meter sailing vessel with a dark blue hull and a minimalist Japanese-style interior, later referred to by The Times of London as a “masterpiece of engineering and opulence.” The yacht’s original name was Salute; Lynch rechristened it the Bayesian. The vessel was magnificent but also an anomaly: It had a single, towering aluminum mast.
The following account is drawn from official investigation reports, videos, photos, and people familiar with the accounts of the crew and survivors. The August sailing was planned as a leisurely tour of Sicily’s northern coast and Aeolian Islands. The group started in Milazzo, then spent four days exploring the volcanic archipelago. They anchored off Isola di Vulcano one day for a few hours to watch the active crater glow against the sky, visited Panarea, and enjoyed the crystal clear waters around Dattilo. It was exactly the kind of relaxed, intimate celebration Lynch had envisioned. It was also a sendoff for Hannah, an aspiring poet. The two loved to spar over meals, arguing about politics and world events, with Lynch playing the contrarian.
That weekend, Lynch received two devastating calls from Andy Kanter about Stephen Chamberlain, his Autonomy codefendant. The first call, on Saturday, Lynch answered with a happy hello—laughter and cheer audible in the background—before Kanter delivered what he called “the gravest news”: Chamberlain, a middle-aged soccer fan and avid runner, had been struck by a car while jogging and suffered a traumatic head injury. By Sunday’s call, the news was worse: The hospital was turning off life support. The group aboard the Bayesian lit a candle for Chamberlain in the church at Cefalù.
The 14th Computer Weekly list of the 50 Most Influential Women in UK Technology is now open for voting, giving readers an opportunity to express who they feel deserves the top spot.
Launched in 2012, the top 50 list aims to make role models in the tech sector more visible and accessible, in the hope that doing so will encourage more women and underrepresented groups to consider a role in the industry, and eventually lead to a more diverse and inclusive technology sector.
This year’s longlist, featuring more than 770 women, was assessed by a group of expert judges to choose the shortlisted 50 below.
The winner of this year’s “most influential woman in UK tech” accolade will be announced at an event in London in November, planned in partnership with recruitment specialist Harvey Nash.
Hall of Fame
Alongside the top 50, each year the judges choose several women for the Computer Weekly Women in Tech Hall of Fame to recognise their lifetime achievements and ongoing contributions to the technology sector. This year’s additions are:
- Sheridan Ash, founder and co-CEO, Tech She Can
- Nicola Hodson, CEO and chair UK and Ireland, IBM; board member, TechUK
- Liz Williams, CEO, FutureDotNow; chair, GoodThingsFoundation
- Hayaatun Sillem, CEO, Royal Academy of Engineering
- Priya Lakhani, founder and CEO, Century Tech
- Sarah Turner, CEO and co-founder, Angel Academe
- Rachel Neaman, partner, Energising Leaders: Strengths Unleashed
- Clare Barclay, chair, Industrial Strategy Council, Department for Business and Trade; president, enterprise and industry, Microsoft EMEA
- Beeban Kidron, expert in children’s rights in the digital world; founder and chair, 5Rights Foundation
- Pat Ryan, founder, Cyber Girls First
- Bina Mehta, partner, KPMG UK; senior independent director, ICC
- Allison Kirkby, CEO, BT Group
Vote now
Computer Weekly readers can now vote for who they feel is the most influential woman in UK technology in 2025.
Click on your choice below and then on the “submit” button (or the arrow button on mobile) at the end of the list, and your vote will be registered. Note that the list appears in randomised order.
Voting closes at midnight on 8 October 2025.
Editor’s note: The final list of the Most Influential Women in UK Tech will be chosen by combining the decision of the judging panel with the votes of our readers. The combined reader vote will carry the same weight as that of one judge, and will provide the UK IT professional input into the order of the list. The editor’s decision on the list will be final.
The shortlist
The shortlisted 50 (in alphabetical order) are as follows – click on each name to visit her X (formerly Twitter) profile where available.
As well as her work as senior EUC engineer, infrastructure and cloud engineering at the London Stock Exchange Group, Opong is a freelancer and science, technology, engineer and maths (STEM) adviser.
Until recently, she was part of the City of London Corporation volunteer advisory group for equality, diversity and inclusion, and was previously an advisory board member for Neurodiversity in Business, and a mentor at the TechUp mentor programme for Durham University.
Opong was a contributor for Voices in the shadows, the book of black female role models created by the 2022 Computer Weekly most influential woman in UK tech, Flavilla Fongang.
Currently, Opong is an award judge for WeAreTheCity, a volunteer for the Festival of The Girl, and a role model and mentor for the STEMazing mentorship programme.
She has spent the last year and a half as a non-executive director for Genius Within CIC.
Depledge is a serial entrepreneur who founded domestic cleaning marketplace Hassle.com and residential architecture firm Resi, where she has also been CEO since 2016.
She has previously been a board member for the London Economic Action Partnership (Leap) and a non-executive director for retail analytics firm Edited.
Until March 2016, Depledge was a board member for lobbying body The Sharing Economy, and until January 2017, acted as the venture partner for startup capital firm Ignite 100. Depledge was also previously the chair of not-for-profit The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) and started her tech career as a management consultant for Accenture.
Currently, Depledge is an entrepreneurship adviser to the chancellor of the exchequer at HM Treasury.
Hendy founded digital suicide prevention tool R;pple in 2020, designed to help people who are making online searches relating to self-harm or suicide.
She is CEO of the charity, which she does alongside her work as the cyber culture manager at Deloitte.
With an extensive background in cyber, Hendy is also a TEDx speaker, an ambassador for One Young World and a JAAQ creator, covering the topic of suicide prevention.
She was selected as a Computer Weekly Rising Star in 2024.
Amanda Brock’s role at OpenUK sees her leading the sustainable and ethical development of open technologies in the UK, including technology such as open source software, hardware and data.
She also sits on the boards of the Mojaloop Foundation and US cyber security firm Mimoto, as well as acting as an advisory board member for Scarf, The Stack and FerretDB.
She recently became an Expert Network of the Digital Innovation Board member for the International Telecommunication Union.
Past experience saw her as a board member of the Cabinet Office Open Standards Board, and an advisory board member for Tech All Stars.
Since 2023, McLean has been the government’s chief scientific adviser, responsible for providing scientific advice to the prime minister.
McLean has a background in mathematical biology and zoology, and aims to use this knowledge, as well as her interest in mathematical models, to help the government understand the spread of infectious diseases.
She has been on the receiving end of many awards and accolades for her work, and in 1994, she established Mathematical Biology at the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council’s Institute for Animal Health.
An entrepreneur and co-founder, Brailsford joined Code First Girls as CEO in 2019, where she works to encourage more women into the tech sector by providing software development skills and education.
Prior to her work at Code First Girls, Brailsford co-founded and was CEO of performance management firm Frisbee, which was part of venture capital fund Founders Factory, and until summer 2024, was a board member for the Institute of Coding, where she focused specifically on diversity and inclusion. She is a self-employed commercial and strategy consultant.
The first female to head up GCHQ, Keast-Butler moved into the director role last year after serving as deputy director general of MI5. With a long career in security and defence, her previous roles have included overseeing the upkeep of functions that support MI5’s operational activities and the launch of the UK’s National Cyber Security Programme.
An expert in diversity, inclusion and community building, Farooq co-founded Muslamic Makers in 2016 as a networking group for Muslims in tech, design and development.
As well as being a freelance diversity and inclusion consultant, Farooq is a scout for Ada Ventures, with special interest in edtech, healthtech and fintech, and until March 2024 was a community manager for Big Society Capital.
In 2022, she founded Muslim Tech Fest, a large community gathering of “Muslim techies” in Europe.
She has an extensive background in digital and artificial intelligence (AI) in the private and public sectors.
Award-winning entrepreneur Avril Chester is currently the chief technology officer (CTO) of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, her most recent in a series of roles heading up technology in organisations. In 2018, she founded technology charity platform Cancer Central to help support people with cancer.
Taylor has founded and co-founded six companies, the most recent being Empower, an organisation aimed at creating events that cater to making a safe and collaborative space for women.
Alongside this, Taylor is also founder of speaker platform Voices in Tech, regional lead of the Women Pivoting to Digital Taskforce for the City of London Corporation, and co-founder of community WIT North.
She also co-founded The Confidence Community, which aims to provide resources, training information and events to give people more career confidence, and is co-founder of ReframeWIT.
In 2017, Taylor co-founded TechReturners to give skilled individuals who have had a career break the opportunity to connect with firms and help them back into mid-level to senior-level tech roles.
Beverly Clarke is a technology expert who consults on technology education. She is the founder and CEO of Technology Books for Children to encourage children to read about technology topics.
She is currently advising the Department for Education’s Digital, AI and Technology Task and Finish Group on how the education system can be adapted to better provide digital skills to children.
She has previously been professional development leader for the National Centre for Computing Education, and a national community manager for the BCS.
She received an MBE for her work in 2024.
Dawson is the CEO of technology innovation community Founders Forum, as well as a board member for several other companies.
She is a board member of Miroma Founders Network, RM Plc, Founders Makers, 01 Founders and Grip.
In the past, she has been a council member for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) Digital Economy Council and a marketing group advisory member for Founders4Schools.
The chair of Labour Digital, Calista has a history in both technology and the public sector.
Alongside her role at Labour Digital, she is responsible for UK youth and AI governance public policy at Meta, and has co-founded network Women in Tech Policy.
She has previously headed up policy and public affairs at UK scaleup Vorboss, and founded the UK public affairs tech practice at Hill+Knowlton Strategies.
She volunteers as a steering committee member for the City of London Corporation’s Women Pivoting to Digital Taskforce, until recently was an adviser for digital citizenship charity Glitch, and is a policy board member for OpenUK.
Hunter founded Coding Black Females in 2017 to help black female software developers meet each other and network. Alongside her work at Coding Black Females, Hunter is a software developer.
She is an advisory board industry representative in University of Essex Online’s computing department, technical director at SAM Software Solutions, and technical director at full-stack and front-end training organisation Black CodHer Bootcamp.
Previously, Hunter was lead software engineer at Made Tech, and has held roles such as senior software developer, lead Java developer, app developer and technical consultant at various firms. She was named a Computer Weekly Women in UK Tech Rising Star in 2020.
Thorne is co-CEO of Tech She Can, a charity aimed at increasing the number of women in the technology sector, as well as a venture partner at Deep Science Ventures, a council member at The Foundation for Science and Technology, and an industry advisory board member for TechSkills (part of TechUK).
She has a background in the education sector, previously holding roles as director of innovation strategy for the University of Surrey, and executive officer to the vice-president (innovation) at Imperial College London.
She has also been diversity and inclusion advisory board member for the Institute of Coding, and sat on the principal partner board at Tech Talent Charter.
With more than 25 years as a lecturer in radio frequency of engineering at the University of Manchester, George was appointed chief scientific adviser for national security at GCHQ in 2025.
She is also the vice-president at the University of Manchester and vice-president of BCS.
In the past, George has been president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and in 2016 was appointed an OBE for services to engineering through public engagement.
O’Neill was appointed head of technology innovation for the UK, Ireland and the Nordics at Oliver Wyman in early 2025.
She is also head of performance transformation for the UK, Ireland and the Nordics at the firm, and before that was head of digital for Europe, where she led digital transformation and new proposition launches at companies all over the world.
Alongside this, she is also a strategic partner at FutureDotNow and a board trustee for Girlguiding.
She was a co-author on the recent Lovelace Report, which detailed reasons women leave the technology sector.
Harry is founder and CEO of HACE, an organisation that uses data to reduce child labour. There is often unknown child labour in businesses’ supply chains, so HACE collects and uses datasets about communities to determine where and why child labour might be used, helping businesses to then reduce their involvement.
As well as HACE, Harry is a regular public speaker and has in the past won an Everywoman in Tech Award.
She is an industry advisory board member for the University of Manchester, where she advises on digital trust and security, and is a guest lecturer at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.
Currently a dealmaker for the Department for Business and Trade’s global entrepreneur programme, Varley supports and mentors the programme’s tech founders and scaleups.
She is a serial founder, having founded tech entrepreneur community TechHub, editorial agency Online Content UK, and acted as a founding steering committee member of the DigitalEve women in technology organisation in the UK.
Varley sits on many boards, and is an adviser for lawtech firm Legal Geek.
With a background in law surrounding telecoms, the internet and media, Wright now uses her expertise as director of not-for-profit Interparliamentary Forum on Emerging Technologies, as well as partner at Crowell & Moring, where she is focused on AI, cyber and defence.
She has worked in the tech sector for over 20 years, and in her previous role at Harbottle & Lewis her team was comprised of 66% female and 66% ethnic minority members.
In 2023, she worked with the OECD, WEF and the ITU to build a reputation in relation to the regulation of AI. She is also working with the Ditchley Foundation, considering whether the collaborative approach in relation to telecoms can work for AI regulation.
Brodnock is a serial entrepreneur, having founded two education-focused software companies, Karisma Kidz and Kami.
She is also the co-founder of coaching platform Kinhub, and co-founder and head of research at Extend Ventures.
She’s an advisory board member for the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Entrepreneurship, a non-executive director of the Good Play Guide, and has won multiple awards.
Carlesi’s background is in finance, having spent 15 years in the industry. She is currently CEO of fintech firm Revolut, where she’s been since 2023.
She was previously co-founder and CEO of digital mortgage lending platform Molo Finance, and has worked at other large financial firms and banks, such as Barclays and Deutsche Bank.
She has been nominated for Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Women in UK Tech several times, appearing on the longlist in previous years.
Gaia Marcus joined the Ada Lovelace Institute in 2024 as director after several government roles.
She has been deputy director of the Spatial Data Unit at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, head of engagement for civil service reform at the Cabinet Office, and head of national data strategy at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
She has also had roles as data innovation programme manager at Centrepoint and deputy director – strategy – integrated data service at the Office for National Statistics.
Collyer wears several hats across the emerging technologies arena, including as chair of quantum developer Quantum Dice, a member of the UK’s Semiconductor Advisory Panel, chair of Machine Discovery and as a non-executive director for the Aerospace Technology Institute. In 2022, she IPO’d fabless semiconductor company EnSilica, where she was the senior independent director and chair of the Remuneration Committee until 2025.
She started her career in semiconductor technology in 1982 at Fairchild (now part of ON Semiconductor), before rising through the ranks in electronic design and computational software firm Cadence Design Systems for 30 years, until leaving in 2020 to begin her current endeavours.
She appeared on Computer Weekly’s list of Rising Stars in 2023.
Hirt joined Innovate Finance in 2015 as the industry body’s head of community, before eventually becoming its CEO six years later. She now heads up the organisation, aiming to drive innovation and transformation in the fintech sector to make it more inclusive.
She has worked around the world in a variety of roles, including acting head of corporate relations for Chatham House in the UK, head of membership for the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce in New York, and head new hire trainer for an English language training programme in Japan.
Adamson leads education and public benefit at BCS, focusing on upskilling and educational initiatives.
She has had other roles at the BCS, including executive director of education and head of public affairs.
She is a board member of the Institute of Coding, and a member of the board of trustees for the Blackdown Education Partnership.
Karen Blake, former co-CEO of Tech Talent Charter; co-author, The Lovelace Report
Blake is the head of inclusive workforce strategy and advisory at Powered By Diversity, as well as a senior researcher for the House of Commons, looking into digital inclusion policies, and is on the strategy steering board of Women Pivoting to Digital at the City of London Corporation.
Until it was disbanded, she was co-CEO of the Tech Talent Charter, where she led the organisation’s growth and headed up the implementation of some of the tools it offered, such as its benchmarking platform and annual benchmarking reports.
She was a co-author of the recent Lovelace Report.
Meechan has extensive experience in digital and cyber, and is the current CEO of Scottish tech trade body ScotlandIS.
She was recently appointed chair of industry collaborative CyberScotland Partnership, and is an advocate for closing the digital skills divide across the UK.
Gallagher heads up Manchester Digital, and is co-founder of the Cyber Resilience Centre for Greater Manchester, both of which support businesses in the Manchester area.
Alongside this, she is chair of the UK Tech Cluster Group, which regularly discusses the technology issues affecting particular areas in the UK.
Ramsey has extensive experience in finance, and is currently head of fintech at the Department for Business and Trade.
She co-founded a networking collaborative for female leaders, The Power Collective, and is founding investor and adviser for investment app Zeed and a non-executive director of Finance Focused.
Gilbert is the senior director of AI at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, as well as a visiting professor in practice for the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Until recently, she was head of AI for government at the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford, and director of the Incubator for AI at 10 Downing Street.
Ibrahim has been in the tech sector for more than 30 years, and became Google DeepMind’s first chief operating officer (COO) in 2018, looking after teams in disciplines such as engineering, virtual environments, programme management and operations.
Prior to this role, she was COO of online skills platform Coursera, and has also acted at general manager for emerging markets platforms in China for Intel.
McKenna is a huge supporter of entrepreneurship and startups, holding several roles as an adviser and investor. Her social enterprise, AwakenHub, where she is co-founder, is focused on building a community of female founders in Ireland.
As well as expert adviser for the European Commission, she is an entrepreneurship expert with the Entrepreneurship Centre at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School, and a trustee for CAST, among many other board memberships and non-executive directorships.
Melanie Dawes, chief executive, Ofcom
Dawes has headed up Ofcom since 2020, following her previous role as permanent secretary at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, as well as many other roles across the civil service.
She has previously been a trustee at Patchwork Foundation, which aims to encourage underrepresented young people to participate in democracy, and a non-executive director of consumer group Which?.
Timperley is a freelance consultant and co-founder of Tech North Advocates, a private sector-led collection of tech experts who champion the technology sector in the north of England.
In 2021, she co-founded advisory firm Growth Strategy Innovation, which helps to grow startup and scaleup organisations, and is now innovation director for Oxford Innovation, which helps organisations develop ecosystems for entrepreneurs and innovators, in turn boosting local areas.
In the past, Timperley co-founded Enterprise Lab and, until 2021, was a board member of FutureEverything. She was named a Computer Weekly Women in Tech Rising Star in 2017,
Nicola Martin, former BCS Women committee member and BCS Pride vice-chair; founder, Nicola Martin Coaching & Consultancy
Martin has a history of working as a test consultant at firms such as Barclays, Sony, the UK Home Office, Shazam and Sky, and is currently a startup adviser and founder of her own coaching and consultancy firm.
Prior to this, she was head of quality at Adarga, and is currently a committee member of the BCS NeurodiverseIT group.
She is chair for the BCS Special Interest Group in Software Testing, and until January 2023, was the vice-chair of the BCS LGBTQIA+ tech specialist group.
As managing director of Jomas Associates (Engineering & Environmental), Savage specialises in geotechnical and environmental engineering.
She is also passionate about topics such as women in engineering and social mobility, and is on the UK government’s Business Growth Forum (formerly the SME Business Council).
Kini has a dual role as global chief information officer (CIO) and chief information security officer (CISO) at Unilever.
She is a sponsor and digital board adviser for a LEAD Network Digital Chapter focused on empowering women to grow their careers, and is non-executive director and member of audit committee at Tele2.
She has previously been a CIO for easyJet and Telenet, and was the director of development and delivery – technology and transformation at Virgin Media.
Before her time as an MP, Niblett had a long career in technology, holding roles such as industry sales leader at DXC Technology and head of alliances, channel and ecosystem in EMEA at 1E.
Now alongside her role as an MP, she’s founder of the Labour: Women in Tech group, which campaigns to reach equal gender opportunities in the technology industry. She’s also the co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on FinTech, chair of the Interparliamentary Forum on Emerging Technologies, and a member of the Women and Equalities Select Committee.
Khareghani is a professor of practice in AI at King’s College London, as well as a trustee for the Institute for the Future of Work, a director for SKB advisory and a board member for Technovation.
She has a history in technology, including roles such as software engineer for MDA, product manager for Viisage Technology, and systems engineer and QA for Hemedex.
In her previous role as head of the UK government’s Office for Artificial Intelligence, for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, Sport (DCMS) and Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Khareghani was responsible for the joint office and its aim to make the UK a global centre for AI.
Small Duberry started her career on IT helpdesks at various firms before eventually working her way up to Aviva Investors global customer relationship manager, then going on to be global head of infrastructure for HSBC.
Now, she’s deputy governorship CIO to the prudential regulatory authority at the Bank of England, and fellow for the Forward Institute.
Cardell has been at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) since 2013, first as general counsel, then as interim CEO, and now as CEO.
Prior to her time at the CMA, she was a legal partner for the markets division of energy markets authority Ofgem, and in her early career spent 11 years at law firm Slaughter and May, working her way from trainee solicitor to partner.
Underhill has spent her entire career at Lloyds Banking Group, since joining the firm as a graduate in 1999.
She has held several roles at Lloyds, and is currently HR director for technology and data, part of the firm’s Group Chief Operating Office, where she is responsible for developing its people strategies for technology.
She has previously sat on the board of the now disbanded tech diversity collective, Tech Talent Charter.
She was named a Computer Weekly Rising Star in 2024.
Wallace heads up diversity and inclusion, partnerships and people change at Sky, where one of her focuses is designing and delivering the people strategy for technology within the firm.
Outside of this, Wallace was a member of the advisory board for recently disbanded Tech Talent Charter, and volunteers as a cub and scout assistant.
John has been the chief technology officer at NCC Group since 2023, and is also chair of TechUK’s Cyber Management Committee and a council member for EPSRC.
Earlier in her career, she held roles such as systems engineer, project executive and consultant, and has been chief strategist EMEA at Symantec and senior director of security business development at Microsoft.
She has been nominated for Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Women in UK Tech several times, and has previously appeared in the longlist.
Heavily focused on the use of AI, Duarte co-founded non-profit We and AI in 2020 to ensure AI is developed with everyone in mind, creating communities to ensure diverse teams of people are involved in the technology’s future development.
She is also the lead of Better Images of AI, a not-for-profit that offers a free library of images that better represent AI to reduce the use of stereotypical representations of AI such as “humanoid robots, glowing brains, outstretched robot hands, blue backgrounds and the Terminator”.
In 2020, she also became the founding editorial board member of the AI and Ethics Journal, published by Springer Nature.
She was named one of Computer Weekly’s Rising Stars in 2024.
Clarke co-founded and is CEO of food-sharing app Olio, which helps users share food that would otherwise be wasted.
She is a fellow of business fund Unreasonable, an advisory board member for Stop Ecocide International, and a venture partner for early-stage generalist impact fund Mustard Seed MAZE.
She has previously been a business mentor for Virgin StartUp, and works alongside the minister for small business and the Department for Business and Trade, advising on SMEs.
Scullion is a serial founder, having founded dressCode, a not-for-profit that encourages young women in Scotland to consider a career in computer science; and co-founded the Ada Scotland Festival, which aims to use collaboration to close the gender gap in computer science education in Scotland.
These endeavours stem from her being a computer science teacher passionate about encouraging more children to take the subject. Alongside this work, she is also a volunteer for the Scottish Tech Army, a not-for-profit aimed at using tech for good.
Tanaka is currently part of the programme team for All4Health&Care, a community launched during the pandemic to connect digital healthcare providers with the public sector. She is also the head of the CMO Office for NHS Black Country ICB, and is on the community support committee for BCS.
Previously, she has been a fellow, independent audit of AI systems, for ForHumanity, and BCS Women membership secretary.
Kleinman has been with the BBC since 2003, originally joining as a features editor of staff newspaper Ariel. She then became a web producer for Working Lunch on BBC Two, and was a senior technology reporter for the BBC, before becoming a radio presenter on technology and business-themed shows such as the BBC Tech Tent.
Now, she’s the technology editor for BBC News, covering technology news across BBC radio, TV and digital.
Business news live: Contactless payments cap could be scrapped, no interest rates cut
It’s Fanatics vs. Panini in a bitter fight to control the sports card industry
Cambodian unions demand $232 minimum wage for textile workers in 2026
-
Tech1 week agoThe 50 Best Shows on HBO Max Right Now
-
Tech5 days agoNew non-volatile memory platform built with covalent organic frameworks
-
Tech1 week agoJoin Us for WIRED’s “Uncanny Valley” Live
-
Tech7 days agoThis Robot Only Needs a Single AI Model to Master Humanlike Movements
-
Entertainment7 days agoJames Patterson offers new writers up to $50,000 to finish their books
-
Tech1 week agoAnthropic valued at $183 bn in new funding round
-
Tech1 week agoSony’s Previous Flagship Headphones Are $100 Off (and Still Better Than Most Other Headphones)
-
Tech4 days agoThe Top New Gadgets We Saw at IFA Berlin 2025