Black History Month is not just about acknowledging the past. While that is a crucial starting point, the purpose of analysing history is to inform decisions about the future. We see Black History Month as an opportunity to celebrate the immeasurable achievements and progress of key individuals — and to amplify the voices of those who are pushing forward for progress every single day.
There is still a long way to go with the challenges the Black community faces, with Black people making up only three per cent of the UK tech workforce. Meanwhile, only 0.7% of tech positions are held by Black women, who are significantly underrepresented in tech (across other occupations their level of representation is two and a half times higher).
A number of trailblazing organisations and initiatives like Coding Black Females, Black Girls in Tech and UKBlackTech are already working hard to change this — with countless others following suit. And at the heart of these organisations are talented, phenomenal individuals dedicating their lives to making tech more inclusive.
Here’s our roundup of the 7 Black role models in tech who we’ve been blown away by in 2021.
1. Sharmadean Reid MBE (Founder, The Stack World)
Sharmadean Reid
“First, you need to develop an unwavering self-belief.”
(Read more here)
Sharmadean is one of the UK’s most well-known female founders, who when nominated for The Veuve Clicquot Bold Women Awards shared that she was “raised in such a matriarchal family” that she didn’t think there was anything she could not do as a woman and was shocked by the experiences of sexism she faced when she came to London.
After starting WAH as a hip hop magazine for girls in 2006 while still at university she then founded WAH Nails as a side project in 2009. She then wrote two books, delivered global pop up nail salons for 100s of brands, created a product line with Walgreen Boots Alliance and was awarded an MBE from The Queen in 2015 for services to Beauty and Women. Alongside all of this, she shared her journey by organising business events for young female entrepreneurs culminating in futuregirlcorp.com.
In 2018 she founded Beautystack with Dan Woodbury and Ken Lalobo raising funding from Local Globe and Index Ventures. Beautystack uses visual menus and social network mechanics to convert clients to book beauty and wellness treatments. The pandemic stymied the launch of Beautystack, and in 2020, Sharmadean ran a campaign to increase awareness to the UK Government on the Beauty Pro experience. In 2021 she launched The Stack World, an ecosystem for women to women services using content and conversations to drive commerce.
Follow her here.
2. Hasani Jess (CTO, Simply Business)
Hasani Jess
“Diversity is a really big topic and issue for us, one we’ve been making a big push on.”
(Read more here)
A dedicated force for positive transformation, Hasani is the Chief Technology Officer at Simply Business, responsible for InsurTech’s technology vision. Hasani has extensive experience building sophisticated enterprise systems, multinational teams and technology strategies.
He joined Simply Business following influential appointments at Tui, Harrods and a range of other leading organisations, and his experience has proven invaluable to Simply Business. His wide-ranging expertise and forward-thinking approach enable him to devise and execute ambitious long-term technology strategies.
Since joining the business, the technology function has doubled in size, spread across 4 countries, evolved its technology platform and become a more diverse and inclusive place to work.
As a tech thought-leader, Hasani has operated in multiple domains spanning two decades, including telecoms, government, finance, healthcare and retail. In 2019, 2020 and 2021 he was recognised as one of the top business leaders in technology and was named in the CIO 100 list, an annual recognition of the UK’s technology leadership community. In 2021 Hasani received the Everywoman Ltd as Male Agent of Change at the FDM Group Every Woman in Technology Awards.
Follow him here.
3. Dr Anne Marie Imafidon MBE (CEO at Stemettes)
Dr Anne Marie Imafidon MBE
“As a technologist, nothing is ever done in isolation, it’s all in collaboration.”
(Read more here)
A key pioneer for UK women in tech, Dr Anne-Marie has loved technology from a young age. At only 11 years old, she was the youngest girl ever to pass A-level computing and was 20 years old when she received her Master’s Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Oxford.
Since then, she has forged an enviable CV, including positions at Goldman Sachs, Hewlett-Packard and Deutsche Bank. She also has Honorary Doctorates from Open University, Glasgow Caledonian University, Kent University & Bristol University and an Honorary Fellowship at Keble College, Oxford. She is a Visiting Professor at the University of Sunderland and sits on the Council of Research England.
However, she is most well-known for co-founding Stemettes, an award-winning social initiative dedicated to inspiring and promoting the next generation of young women in the STEM sectors, including aviation and transport. Since its inception 8 years ago, it has exposed almost 50,000 young people across Europe to Anne-Marie’s vision for a more diverse and balanced science and tech community.
Follow her here.
4. Abadesi Osunsade (VP Global Community & Belonging at Brandwatch, Founder & CEO at Hustle Crew)
Abadesi Osunsade
“The data is undeniable: diverse teams are more successful.”
(Read more here.)
Abadesi is the Founder & CEO of Hustle Crew, Co-Host of Techish podcast (Top 20 Tech podcast on Apple Podcasts), and author of Dream Big. Hustle Hard: The Millennial Woman’s Guide to Success in Tech. She was recently included in the Financial Times list of Top 100 Influential Leaders in Tech and Tech Nation’s 50 most prominent and influential voices in Tech.
Hustle Crew run workshops and on-demand learning for companies to learn about bias and improve hiring practices to achieve diverse teams. Their program includes Understanding Bias and Fostering Inclusion to help companies confidently navigate issues around bias, privilege and identity, while their Knowledge Hub is a members-only site that hosts a wide range of articles around topics including microaggressions, women leaving the workforce due to the pandemic, and best practices for hiring inclusively.
She graduated from the London School of Economics in 2009 and wrote for the Financial Times before joining London’s tech scene. Prior to her current roles she worked at Product Hunt, Elpha, Amazon, HotelTonight and Groupon, where she was promoted after her first 8 months and helped scale her department 5X leading up to their record-breaking IPO. In 2016, she published her careers advice book, Dream Big Hustle Hard: A Millennial Woman’s Guide to Success in Tech which is rated 5 stars on Amazon. She has been featured in Elle, Stylist, BBC, Forbes, The Times and The Independent.
Follow her here.
5. Charlene Hunter (Founder, Coding Black Females)
Charlene Hunter
“It’s great to be working on something where you know that you’re giving back.”
(Read more here)
Charlene is the founder of Coding Black Females, the largest community of Black women in tech in the UK. Its mission is to provide opportunities for Black female developers to meet familiar faces, develop themselves, network, receive support and build relationships through having regular meetups.
She started the community in 2017 to help others, as she describes here: “I wanted to feel less isolated. I started going to meet other black women in tech. I wanted to understand their experiences. The more I did, the more I realised we shared many experiences of being a Black woman in tech. So, I started building a community and developing skills within it.” Now, only four years later, Coding Black Females has exploded and is helping thousands of women.
She wrote her first line of code when she was ten years old and later did a BSc in Mathematical Sciences and an MSc in Computer Science before starting a professional career in coding. She is the Lead Software Engineer at Made Tech and has been named one of Tech Nation’s 50 most inspiring, prominent, and influential Black voices in UK tech. Charlene also co-hosts Meetup and Code, a place for developers to meet and share their knowledge.
Follow her here.
6. Andy Davis (Co-founder, 10x10 and Angel Investor, Atomico)
Andy Davis
“I want founders who can run through walls. The game goes, you start a company and a wall finds its way to you.”
(Read more here)
Andy is the founder of 10x10, a group of UK’s early-stage black founders and black VCs, black angels. He launched the 10x10 Fund with an open invitation to commit a minimum of £1,000 to be invested in Black founders.
“When you grow up Black, you’re told you need to work 10x harder in the world. In start-ups, your product needs to be 10x better than the others. Hence, 10x10,” Andy explains. “The mission is to fast forward black founders and investors. For founders, this means getting funded. For black VCs, it’s getting them VC jobs and helping them progress in those roles.”
He is an investor in residence at both Google for Startups and Capital Enterprise and advises 10x10 members on topics such as hiring, fundraising, building products, and finding customers. He also hosts weekly conversations with Black founders where he advises them on pitching for investment and negotiating terms and connects them with other investors.
Andy is spearheading efforts to make European investing more diverse and inclusive by raising awareness of underrepresentation, and providing financial, strategic, and networking support to Black founders. For those reasons, he makes our list of industry transformers.
Follow him here.
7. Kike Oniwinde (Founder and CEO of BYP Network)
Kike Oniwinde
“What drives me is the mission to change the Black narrative and I am very passionate about it.”
(Read more here)
Kike is the Founder and CEO of BYP Network, a platform that connects Black professionals to each other and corporations. She is a BSc Economics graduate of The University of Nottingham, University of Florida MSc scholar, and an ex-Great Britain javelin thrower. After gaining work experience in investment banking, Kike then worked in Business Development at a fast-growing financial technology company for two years.
Her motivation for starting BYP Network was to “change the Black narrative” after Kike studied abroad and met talented Black students, who faced similar challenges to those in the UK. Once back in London, the lack of diversity in the workplace coupled with low opportunities to meet others in the city; prompted her to take action. The platform has since grown to 60,000 members and over 600 corporate clients including Facebook, DAZN and Farfetch.
Last year, Kike led a successful crowdfund campaign with over 1200 investors and raised over $1m. She is on the board of the London Chambers of Commerce Black Business Association, Getting on Boards and is a London Tech Ambassador.
Follow her here.
Last year we partnered up with Coding Black Females to provide software skills scholarship worth £8,000 to 6 Black women. Not only was the initiative a huge success, but we’re only just getting started.
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