Technology is taking over every facet of life never before. From the way we breathe to the way we sleep, do business, imbibe entertainment and so on, practically everything has elements of technology despite our best efforts to avoid or reduce their effects. And in all these, women play an equal role. Yes, if you thought the fairer sex had little role to play in the tech space, you could be excused for being mistaken.
Mentioned below are some of the leading ladies in the tech space whose contribution remains immense, and ever-increasing!
Manal al-Sharif
She is Saudi Arabia’s leading lady in the field of information security who began her career close to two decades back with Saudi’s Oil Giant Aramco. Today a renowned TED speaker who has appeared in places as renowned as Harvard, she stands for everything from her favourite field of information security to women’s rights. Incidentally, for the latter she figured in TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential persons worldwide in 2012 and for nothing less than demanding rights for women in Saudi Arabia to drive for which she was jailed, harassed, fired and even exiled.
Tough as nails she sure is!
Leanne Kemp
She has ‘blockchain’ written all over herself given that she is one of the first and foremost women who has been advocating the use of this revolutionary piece of technology that has the potential to change the way the world records and preserves important details. Her company, Everledger, presently termed a start-up uses blockchain to verify and records transactions in the diamonds industry. With a valuation close to USD 50 million in 2019, she surely is on the way to records things right way! Blockchain besides, Leanne is known for her prowess in designing and implementing supply chain solutions and the used of RFID as a technology. Coming back to her love, blockchain, she figures prominently on various international bodies including the World Economic Forum’s Blockchain Council, the WTO and IBM’s Board of Advisors for blockchain.
Ann Handley
A digital marketing buff who writes extensively on her field of interest, she is equally interested in training and educating others in marketing, Ann’s newsletters, training material, speeches and books on the subject of digital marketing has empowered and inspired many in the field of sound digital marketing that bring in desired results. So good has been her efforts in the field that she has been adjudged one among the most influencial of trainers in the field of digital marketing with her training and education organization, the MarketingProfs garnering in excess of 590000 subscribers worldwide. A true blue teacher of digital marketing she certainly is!
Caitlin Smallwood
Netflix isn’t as much about entertainment as it is about data science and its awesome use to further entertainment! At the forefront of the use of data science in entertainment has been Caitlin Smallwood, Netflix’s VP analytics. And she has been there for some time! Since 2010 to the present, she has turned the fortunes of Netflix to become what it is today using the best of technologies to the platform. Among the key decisions attributed to her are those related to predictive modelling, using A/B testing to personalize content and content streaming through metrics.
She practically lives and breathes data science so much so that her active participation in talks and podcasts has made her a de-facto leader in the field of data science and the range of uses across domains and verticals.
Megan Price
If you thought all of data science is about business, enterprise and making big money, Megan Price’s work could make you think again. As the Executive Director of Human Rights Data Analysis Group, borders for her mean an additional way to make human rights less humane. Transcending these, her fight has taken her to places as far apart as Guatemala, Colombia, and Syria where using data science and statistical analysis, she has helped humanitarian efforts to enforce human rights. She is one among the miniscule numbers to have used the cutting edge of technology, especially data science to bring to fore human suffering in conflict areas, all the while braving daunting odd to her own self.
Neha Narkhede
Processing data in real-time when they number in millions is for the seriously seasoned. Confluent, of which she is today the CTO is on the forefront of applications that help process data in real-time irrespective of their numbers or sizes. This, her ability to think way ahead of others is nothing new and was observed by others right from the time she worked for Linkedin as a software engineer where she and her team built and developed Apache Kafka, these days a preferred platform which helps process huge influxes of data in real time. And if that wasn’t enough Neha is credited with the largest deployments of her own technology that could process hundreds of billions of events per day with high precision and speed.
