Role Models
We are passionate about encouraging young people (especially girls) into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. It is widely recognised that women are underrepresented in STEM industries and we are aiming to redress the balance. Our GiST programme sees Women in STEM talking to schoolgirls about their careers and showcasing the opportunities that are open to them.
If you'd like to be our next Role Model, email comms@technocamps.com.
Wendy Dearing
Dean of the Institute of Management and Health at UWTSD
Wendy is a nurse by background, a BCS Fellow and Leading Practitioner of Federation of Informatics Professionals. She holds an MSc in Change & Innovation and was awarded an Honorary Professorship from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. The professorship in Applied Practice has been awarded in recognition of Wendy’s expertise and knowledge in championing professionalism in technology and information.
Her new role as Dean is to lead the Institute in the areas of heath, care & digital and until recently she was Head of Workforce & OD for NHS Wales Informatics Service Her role included workforce planning recruitment and retention; professional recognition and registration; education and training; career pathways & CPD. She is Chair of BCS Wales Health and Vice Chair for Professionalism and has a passion for developing “the next generation” as well developing professionalism across H.I.
Laura Blackwell
Beth Fitzpatrick
Systems Engineer at Atkins
Beth works as a Systems Engineer at a consultancy, after graduating with a Physics degree. She has worked across industries including Defence, Aerospace and Technology, is currently working in Defensive Cyber with a Machine Learning and Data Science team and is a member of the IOP's Women in Physics Group.
Beth loves the variation in her job, that every day is different, and that she gets involved with big complex projects that sometimes span all across the world. This included working in Germany for 6 months, building armoured vehicles for the Australian Army!
She wants to break the myth that STEM subjects are spent at a desk looking at numbers. She loves STEM engagement and leads her company’s national presence with the charity Teentech, co-ordinating volunteers to inspire the next generation.
Nicole Ponsford
Co-CEO and Founder of The Gender Equality Collective
Nicole is an educational and technology thought leader, a Harvard author (TechnoTeaching), award-
Nicole believes that technology is the great equaliser for our time. She has taught new technologies in the education sector (from Early Years to adults) for 20 years,
working with a range of national and international charities and organisations to support #TechForGood. She is passionate about diversity and inclusivity on and offline - and that this will only happen through collaboration, conversation and immediate action. She believes it’s time to get #SmashingStereotypes.
Nicole is also on the Steering Group member for MITEY (Men in the Early Years). She started a Doctorate in 2018 researching the bias in education.
Cat Wildman
It was when she became an employer that Cat realised there was such a problem with gender disparity in tech, specifically in her recruitment pipeline, but it was when she became a mother that she realised that she had a personal responsibility to use her skills and experience to change things. Cat decided to dedicate the rest of her career to interrupting gender stereotypes, creating digital tools and training to help organisations and schools to bring about gender equality. The GEC's first app launched in September 2020.
Rajinder Kaur
UI Engineer at Directline group
Rajinder's role involves writing code for the visual features of the web apps used by the customer services teams. She loves her job for its creative, collaborative and problem solving aspects and for the opportunity it presents to keep learning.
She holds BSc (Hons) in Computing and IT from the Open University. Post graduation she did a 12-week coding bootcamp from the Northcoders to get the skills and experience to pursue her career as a software engineer.
Rajinder was shortlisted for the Future Stars of Tech’s Developer Award in 2020. She is a BAME Ambassador for Directline Group and a STEM Ambassador.
Rajinder deems it vital to address the gender gap and lack of diversity in tech. She wants to inspire and encourage girls and young women from all backgrounds to consider a career in tech. She believes that exposure to various career paths and understanding the different roles in tech at a young age will help close the many myths and stereotypes regarding the tech industry.
Kat Cauchi
Product Manager of ReallySchool, Editor of R.I.S.E. Magazine, Of
Primary Importance Podcast Host and Member of The Global Equality Collective
Kat is a former primary school teacher and is passionate about closing the
gender gap in STEM. She feels that, as a woman working in tech,
it is her responsibility to help. She has been taking part in panel discussions, webinars and other events with the Global Equality Collective.
Kat is proud to work for a company that is involved in its local education community, providing free software to schools and with staff working in education. In 2021 NetSupport launched R.I.S.E., a free educational magazine that supports the education community and the voices in the education sector to inspire and empower. Kat’s podcast Of Primary Importance explores all things primary and EYFS with different guests and topics each fortnight.
Kat works closely with the school she taught in. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to support Technocamps as she believes it is vital for young people to have access to opportunities to give them the best tools for the future.
Rituja Rao
Rituja Rao is an award-winning IT Consultant and emerging thought leader in the UK Tech Industry with a background in Financial services, Digital Transformation and Change Management. Rituja is the Winner of the Future Stars of Tech: IT Manager Award 2020 and TechWomen100 Awards by We Are The City, and was nominated as the Digital Hero of the Year at the Computing Digital Technology Awards 2019.
She is currently a Management Consultant at Capco, and has successfully delivered a £1 million digital transformation project to implement Azure Cloud and a DevOps framework for a Banking client. She has also delivered multiple client projects for Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC – ranging from new products, process optimisation and digital transformations. Rituja is an industry speaker, speaking about graduate careers in Tech regardless of STEM degrees, D&I and Career Management. She is a strong advocate of skills diversity in Tech organisations.
Rituja is currently mentoring other young people, a Mentor on the Cajigo App and other platforms, empowering young girls to pursue a career in Tech. She is a Trustee and Board Director for Being Woman Charity UK. Rituja is the recipient of Women on Boards Bursary 2020, and is exploring her Board career.
Her latest venture is a YouTube channel and community called Gen-We - focusing on skills diversity and mental health during early careers.
Freya Davies
Agile Delivery Manager at Made Tech and School Governor
Freya is an Agile Delivery Manager at Made Tech whose mission is to empower public sector organisations by helping them to become digitally native.
Freya studied STEM subjects throughout her education, earning a degree in Applied Geology. From there she went into technology studying for her Diploma in Computer Science at Swansea University.
Freya has spent 20 years in tech roles, becoming a director for a local tech company in 2018 before taking her expertise into the public sector.
Freya is passionate about positively impacting the future of the country by using technology to make a difference to young people, the community and STEM education.
Freya is both a STEM Ambassador HUB Wales and a local School Governor. Through these roles and supporting Techno Camps Freya is on a mission to illuminate diversity in tech careers and raise the profile of STEM in schools.
Lorna Bolton
Director on the Commercial Contracts & the IP team and Head of the Bristol Office at Greenaway Scott.
Lorna studied a Law degree at Swansea University before going on to gain her LPC. She now specialises in providing commercial contract legal services to science and technology businesses’ at the law firm Greenaway Scott.
In her role, Lorna deals with complex commercial agreements for clients and supervises trainees and the commercial team in an organisation that is largely-female.
Fran Moore
Technical Lead Software Engineer
Fran is currently working as a technical lead software engineer at the Office for National Statistics in the Digital Publishing department who look after the ONS.gov.uk website. The project she is helping to deliver at present is preparing the website to allow for the publication of Census 2021 data next year.
She has a career history spanning 20 years in software development, which began with an apprenticeship with Electronic Data Systems from which she progressed to software developer roles at Welsh Government and the DVLA.
Whilst working as a Software Developer for Welsh Government, Fran studied for her degree in Computing and Information Systems part-time at UWTSD in Swansea gaining first class honours. She is currently studying part time for her MSc in Computing with the Open University.
Gwen Parry-Jones OBE
CEO of Magnox Ltd
Gwen Parry-Jones is the CEO of Magnox Ltd and the President of the Nuclear Institute. Since starting out as a reactor physicist in 1989, Gwen has worked in a number of organisations across the world, including British Energy and EDF Energy. In 2008, she became the UK’s first female station director of a commercial nuclear reactor, and is still the only female to have held this role.
Gwen is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and is passionate about gender equality and equal representation in Science and Technology. She received and OBE for her services to Science and Technology in 2015.
Oceanne Esparcieux
Senior Interaction Designer at Companies House.
At the age of 29, Oceanne wanted a career change from administrative roles and started a 2 year digital apprenticeship at Companies House. Within 7 months, she was hired internally as an interaction designer and promoted to a senior position 2 years later. She had no experience in coding or agile practices when starting the apprenticeship, but it’s now become a daily part of her role.
Oceanne designs prototypes of government websites using various coding languages. She works closely with user researchers to build and test the prototypes before working with developers in scrum teams to make sure the ideas can become reality. This involves quickly making MVP versions of websites, making sure the services meet accessibility criteria, and helping with front-end mark-up.
Beth Jenkins
Digital Forensic Examiner
Beth has a BSc (Hons) in Computer Forensics and an MSc in Cyber Security, having completed two dissertation projects (one on ISO 17025 and one on ISO 17020) that were commended by the Home Office for being a trailblazer in the industry. She also made the final for National Cyber Student of the Year in 2021 at the National Cyber Awards and spoke at Europol’s Forensic Experts Forum 2021 on the topic of ISO 17020.
Dr Jennifer Harris
Director of Research Policy at ABPI
Jennifer is the Director of Research Policy at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) in the UK, where she leads on making the UK the best place to research and develop new medicines and vaccines. Previously, Jennifer worked at the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care on the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act where she led on evidence generation and patient involvement.
Jennifer has a PhD and MPhil in medical research from the University of Cambridge and a BSc in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Plymouth. She believes in the scientific method and evidence-based policy making and she is an advocate for public involvement in research and equal opportunities for STEM careers.
