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Obituary: Dame Stephanie ‘Steve’ Shirley, founder, entrepreneur and philanthropist

Dame Stephanie Shirley, a serial entrepreneur and philanthropist known in the technology sector as Steve, has passed away

Clare McDonald
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Published: 12 Aug 2025 9:45

The technology sector lost a great on 11 August 2025, with the passing of Dame Stephanie Shirley at the age of 91.

More affectionately known as Steve, Shirley was a serial founder, entrepreneur and philanthropist who was part of the technology sector for over half a century.

Originally from Germany, aged five, Shirley – who at the time was named Vera Buchthal – was one of the thousands of children who came to the UK on The Kindertransport before the outbreak of the Second World War.

She grew up with her sister and foster parents in the West Midlands, developing a background in technology and mathematics from a young age, and after school, she got a job building computers and coding for the Post Office Research Station in Dollis Hill.

After doing night classes to gain a degree in mathematics, she then went on to get a job at another technology company.

But this was during a time when women were less equal to men than they are now, and Shirley became frustrated with the disparity faced by women both in and out of the workplace.

Wanting to change things for the better, she took her husband Derek’s advice and adopted her family nickname, Steve, to be taken seriously after efforts to start her own company fell on deaf ears once it was clear she was a woman.

Flexible working

Shirley was a pioneer in flexible working, founding a technology company called Freelance Programmers in 1962. Candidates were asked if they had access to a telephone, as there was no office, so the staff of predominantly women worked from home selling software and programming.

She once told Computer Weekly it would be illegal for her to set up a company in the same way today. “You couldn’t possibly have a company that set out to be gendered,” said Shirley. “I deliberately tried to build a company that was female-friendly and a crusade for a company by women for women.”

She wanted the company to be one she would want to work for, and over time it made her and many of her employees millions.

Renamed Xansa, the company grew to more than 8,000 people before being sold to Steria in 2007.

Shirley used this wealth for her philanthropic efforts, which has seen her fund several charities and foundations, and has been predominantly driven by support for her late son, Giles, who was severely autistic and epileptic.

She initially founded a residential home for people with severe autism, called Kingwood, with the goal of giving her son what he needed to live the best life possible.

Following this, she also founded The Shirley Foundation, Prior’s Court School for students with autism, and UK autism research charity Autistica, all aimed at making the lives of individuals with autism better.

Philanthropic endeavours

Across her lifetime, Shirley spent millions of pounds supporting charities and other philanthropic endeavours.

In support of the technology sector, she also helped fund – and was a master of – tech-focused charity The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, and was a founding donor and co-founder of The Oxford Internet Institute in 2001.

Shirley has been recognised for her relentless work for women, technology and those with autism, and in 2017, was awarded a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) for her services to tech and philanthropy – she has also been awarded an OBE and a DBE.

When Computer Weekly launched its Most Influential Women in UK Tech Hall of Fame in 2015, Shirley was one of only three who made the initial list.

She was an inspiration for many, and appears in both the Bletchley Park and California computing museums.

Shirley has claimed in the past that her childhood made her strive to make sure her life had been “worth saving” by bringing her to the UK as a young child, and her incredible life full of extraordinary achievements proves she succeeded in that aim.

She will be greatly and sadly missed.

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