Role models deserve recognition, and every time you cite a woman in tech, you’re furthering the message that this industry isn’t just for the boys.
Women in tech are not so rare that they can’t be found, recognised and recalled for reference. It’s easy to rely on famous figureheads such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg when referencing the tech industry and, indeed, as easy to trot out the same reliable names every time a discussion about women in tech rolls around.
That’s not to diminish anyone’s achievements – you’ll find some instantly recognisable faces below – but we do a disservice to the multitude of women in this industry by allowing so many to exist in relative obscurity.
For three years, Silicon Republic’s Women Invent series has celebrated women in science, technology, engineering and maths and shared their stories. Armed with research telling us about the importance of role models to inspire more women into these fields, we published the first Women Invent 100 in 2014, featuring women across all STEM disciplines both from and working in Ireland.
Women Invent 100: celebrating leading women in tech
Today, we celebrate 100 women in tech from around the world – and we’re glad to say we had to specialise in the T in STEM because of the sheer wealth of suitable candidates. (Look out for more coverage to follow on the leading lights in the other disciplines.)
We found powerful and inspiring tech leaders from home andabroad, as well as phenomenal founders spanning the spectrum of opportunity in tech, plus amazing advocates directly working to change the face of the industry.
We were spoiled for choice, and this list is by no means definitive or based on ranking. It is a diverse collection of names for you to store in your memory bank (or bookmark in your browser) in order to ensure women in tech are part of a broader industry conversation – the kind of inclusive conversation you can expect when many of these women come to Dublin for Inspirefest this summer.
 __________ | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Jamila Abass CEO and co-founder, M-Farm mfarm.co.ke |  __________ | INSPIRING LEADER Angela Ahrendts SVP, Apple apple.com |
 | AMAZING ADVOCATE Mags Amond Irish ambassador, EU Code Week codeweek.eu |  | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Sophia Amoruso Founder, Nasty Gal nastygal.com |
 | AMAZING ADVOCATE Isis Anchalee Founder, #ILookLikeAnEngineer ilooklikeanengineer.com |  | AMAZING ADVOCATE Dr Sue Black Founder, Techmums techmums.co |
 | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Anne Boden Founder and CEO, Starling Bank starlingbank.co.uk |  | AMAZING ADVOCATE Kimberly Bryant Founder and director, Black Girls Code blackgirlscode.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Margaret Burgraff VP, Intel intel.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Ursula M Burns CEO, Xerox xerox.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Safra Catz Co-CEO, Oracle oracle.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Aparna Chennapragada Director, Google Now google.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Tracy Chou Software engineer, pinterest.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Emer Coleman Chair, Open Data Governance Board data.gov.ie |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Cora Creed VP, Universal Music Group universalmusic.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Edel Creely Group MD, Trilogy Technologies trilogytechnologies.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Weili Dai Co-founder, Marvell Technology Group marvell.com |  | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Gaia Dempsey Co-founder and VP, Daqri daqri.com |
 | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Guan Dian Co-founder and VP, PatSnap patsnap.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Caroline Dowling Division president, Flex flextronics.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Caroline Faulkner Senior MD and CIO, Pramerica pramerica.ie |  | INSPIRING LEADER Una Fox VP, The Walt Disney Company thewaltdisneycompany.com |
 | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Cindy Gallop Founder, MakeLoveNotPorn cindygallop.com |  | AMAZING ADVOCATE Melinda Gates Co-founder, Gates Foundation gatesfoundation.org |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Diane Greene SVP, google.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Cathriona Hallahan Ireland MD, Microsoft microsoft.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Julia Hartz Co-founder, Eventbrite eventbrite.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Aisling Hassell Head of CX, Airbnb airbnb.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Fidelma Healy COO, Gilt gilt.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Ann-Marie Holmes VP, Intel intel.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Amy Hood CFO, Microsoft microsoft.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Arianna Huffington Co-founder, Huffington Post huffingtonpost.com |
 | AMAZING ADVOCATE Anne-Marie Imafidon Co-founder and CEO, Stemettes stemettes.org |  | INSPIRING LEADER Abigail Johnson CEO, Fidelity Investments fidelity.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Peggy Johnson Executive VP, Microsoft microsoft.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Margaret Keane CEO, Synchrony Financial synchronyfinancial.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Cathy Kearney Country manager, Apple Ireland apple.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Ana Keating Director, Rational Group intel.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Dr Ann Kelleher VP, Intel intel.com |  | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Nora Khaldi Co-founder and CSO, Nuritas nuritas.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Martina King CEO, Featurespace featurespace.co.uk |  | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Céline Lazorthes Founder and CEO, Leetchi.com leetchi.com |
 | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Jess Lee Co-founder and CEO, Polyvore polyvore.com |  | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Holly Liu Co-founder and CDO, Kabam kabam.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Bethany Mayer CEO, Ixia ixiacom.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Marissa Mayer CEO, Yahoo yahoo.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Fionnuala Meehan MD of SMB sales EMEA, Google google.com |  | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Kathryn Minshew Co-founder and CEO, The Muse themuse.com |
 | AMAZING ADVOCATE Mary Moloney Global CEO, CoderDojo Foundation coderdojo.com |  | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Hazel Moore Co-founder and chair, FirstCapital firstcapital.co.uk |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Regina Moran UK and Ireland CEO, Fujitsu fujitsu.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Joan Mulvihill CEO, Irish Internet Association iia.ie |
 | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Catheryne Nicholson Co-founder and CEO, BlockCypher blockcypher.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Norma O’Callaghan EMEA finance director, Trend Micro trendmicro.com |
 | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Olive O’Driscoll Co-founder and CEO, AventaMed aventamed.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Marguerite O’Grady MD for EMEA, Kemp Technologies kemptechnologies.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Anne O’Leary CEO, Vodafone Ireland vodafone.com |  | AMAZING ADVOCATE Jennifer Pahlka Founder and director, Code for America codeforamerica.org |
 | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Monica Parker Founder, Hatch Analytics hatchstrategy.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Michelle Peluso Chief strategic adviser, Gilt and HBC xerox.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Lucy Peng CEO, Ant Financial Services alipay.com |  | AMAZING ADVOCATE Alaina Percival CEO and board chair, Women Who Code womenwhocode.com |
 | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Monisha Perkash Co-founder and CEO, Lumo Bodytech lumobodytech.com |  | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Melanie Perkins Co-founder and CEO, Canva canva.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Louise Phelan VP global operations EMEA, PayPal paypal.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Ruth Porat CFO, Alphabet abc.xyz |
 | AMAZING ADVOCATE Shelly Porges Entrepreneurship advocate twitter.com/shellyporges |  | INSPIRING LEADER Zhou Qunfei Founder, Lens Technology hnlens.com |
 | AMAZING ADVOCATE Anne Ravanona Founder and CEO, Global Invest Her globalinvesther.com |  | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Jemma Redmond Founder and CEO, Ourobotics weare3dbioprinting humans.org |
 | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Danae Ringelmann Co-founder and CDO, Indiegogo indiegogo.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Ginni Rometty CEO, IBM ibm.com |
 | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Elizabeth Rossiello Founder and CEO, BitPesa bitpesa.co |  | INSPIRING LEADER Sheryl Sandberg COO, facebook.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Dr Anita Sands Board member, Symantec symantec.com |  | AMAZING ADVOCATE Niambh Scullion Co-founder, CoderDojo Girls coderdojo.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Ellyn J Shook CHRO, Accenture accenture.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Gwynne Shotwell COO, SpaceX spacex.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Megan Smith US CTO, The White House whitehouse.gov |  | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Dr Cristina Soviany Founder, Features Analytics features-analytics.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Lauren C States Fellow, Harvard University advancedleadership. harvard.edu |  | AMAZING ADVOCATE Debra Sterling Founder and CEO, GoldieBlox goldieblox.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Regina Sullivan Executive VP, Fidelity Investments fidelity.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Kara Swisher Executive editor, Re/code recode.net |
 | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Nina Tandon Co-founder and CEO, EpiBone epibone.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Minerva Tantoco CTO, New York City nyc.gov |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Niamh Townsend Ireland GM, Dell dell.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Lorraine Twohill SVP, google.com |
 | AMAZING ADVOCATE Vicky Twomey-Lee Co-founder, Coding Grace codinggrace.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Katharine Viner Editor-in-chief, The Guardian theguardian.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Cher Wang Co-founder and CEO, HTC htc.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Padmasree Warrior US CEO, NextEV nextev.com |
 | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Amy Webb Founder and CEO, Webbmedia Group webbmediagroup.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Meg Whitman CEO, HP Enterprise hp-enterprisesolutions.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Judith Williams Global head of diversity, Dropbox dropbox.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Susan Wojcicki CEO, YouTube youtube.com |
 | INSPIRING LEADER Maggie Wu CFO, Alibaba alibaba.com |  | AMAZING ADVOCATE Malala Yousafzai Co-founder, The Malala Fund malala.org |
 | PHENOMENAL FOUNDER Katharine Zaleski Co-founder, PowerToFly powertofly.com |  | INSPIRING LEADER Jane Zavalishina CEO, Yandex Data Factory yandexdatafactory.com |
