Steve Shirley

Steve Shirley, actually: Stephanie Shirley, FRSA ( born September 16, 1933, Dortmund) is a British entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Life

Shirley came in 1938 on a Kindertransport to England and was received there with a foster family. Later, she was reunited with their parents, who had escaped the Holocaust again, which was not without conflict.

Shirley founded in 1962, the software company F.I. Group ( later Xansa, Steria acquired, from there into the Steria Mummert Consulting gone ). She took the first name of Steve to work better in the male dominated IT world with a male sounding name can. In 1993 she retired from the company. She still functions on the supervisory boards of Tandem Computers from 1992-1997, with John Lewis Partnership 1999-2001, Korn / Ferry 2001-2004.

Since 1993 she is charitable. They stated that they have made ​​charitable purposes are available up to 2010 £ 50 million of their assets, which they called a foundation to life in 1996. Since her late son Giles (1963-1998) was autistic, she has been particularly taken care of this disease and the people affected by Asperger's syndrome and promoted the work of the physician Simon Baron- Cohen.

Shirley received her first award in 1980 as OBE, in 2001, she became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire promoted. She received the 2006 honorary doctorate from the University of Bath, 2009, the Open University.