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Cracking the code for girls: how you can help write history – Anna Brailsford, CEO, Code First Girls

About This Episode

Anna Brailsford’s message is a call to action: “I want tech to change. I want people to stop talking about tech changing and actually invest in real change being achieved. I want some tangible outcomes and I want companies in particular to stop jumping on the bandwagon and start acting.” But Anna is not only calling on an industry-wide transformation, she is leading from the front herself as CEO of Code First Girls.

Code First Girls is dedicated to transforming tech by providing the skills, space and inspiration for women to become future tech leaders. This is a story of a risk-taking entrepreneurial leader, committed to writing a new narrative for the tech industry that puts women on a level playing field. Anna explains how she is delivering change, the career steps that guided her and the instinct that drives her.

Anna Brailsford

Anna Brailsford is the CEO of Code First: Girls, a social enterprise that looks to increase the amount of women in tech, by training women in IT skills and helping companies to develop more inclusive recruitment policies. Anna is also a Board Member for the Institute of Coding. Before joining CF:G Anna was the CEO and co-founder of Founders Factory incubated EdTech startup Frisbee. Prior to that, Anna was the Commercial Director of Lynda.com and LinkedIn.

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Lockdown List

What is a book that has changed your life?

Away by Jane Urquhart. After ten years this book still haunts me in the best possible way.

What are you watching in lockdown?

The Haunting of Blyth Mansion. It is loosely based on The Turning of the Screw and made me read Henry James again.

What is your lockdown soundtrack?

I Want To Break Free – Queen

La Traviata (The Drinking Song) Verdi,

Survivor – Destiny’s Child

The Bare Necessities – Jungle Book

Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow – Fleetwood Mac

Una Furtiva Lacrima – Pavarotti.

In one sentence, describe your new normal.

Work, eat, repeat (to distract myself from craving human interaction and energy).

Who is your biggest inspiration and why?

Mum – need I say more?

What is your best tip for life ?

Instinct is queen.

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