Silvery Linings: Dame Stephanie Shirley at TEDxLondonBusinessSchool 2014

Dame Stephanie Shirley is a successful IT entrepreneur turned ardent philanthropist and workplace revolutionary. Her amazing life story begins with her arrival in Britain as a five-year old Kindertransport refugee in 1939. In 1962, she started a software house that pioneered new work practices and changed the position of professional women along the way. She went on to create a global business and a personal fortune while raising her only son, Giles, who was born severely autistic. Her charitable Shirley Foundation has initiated and funded a number of projects that are pioneering by nature, strategic in impact and significant in money terms. The focus is on IT and her late son's disorder of autism. Dame Stephanie, known as Steve, is one of the 100 most powerful women in Britain. Her memoir Let IT Go was published in October 2012 as an Ebook with Print on Demand and a Talking Book version coming out early in 2014. 

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)