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50 Women in the Tech Industry Every Man Should KnowThe tech industry is a sector dominated by men. You’ve probably heard aboutwell-known tech giants like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg, but youmight not know about the equally impressive female tech gurus. Research showsthat almost 80% of students cannot name a single famous woman working in tech.To solve this problem, we’ve got a list of the top 50 women in the techindustry you should know about!Despite the contributions made by women to the tech industry, even at techgiants like Google, Facebook, and Apple — women make up less than 30% of allemployees. Although teams of both men and women are responsible for innovativetechnologies like the smartphone or computer games, women hold a meager 25% ofleadership roles available.In the field of computer science alone, a gender balance isn’t expected untilapproximately 2100. But why wait 80 years?This list is just a taste of the female innovators, visionaries, and founderstaking tech by storm. They are living proof that with perseverance, anyone —regardless of gender — can succeed in the tech industry.Quick Guide: 50 Women in the Tech Industry Every Man Should Know 1. Christine Spiten — Engineer and Co-Founder of Blueye Robotics 2. Melanie Perkins — CEO and Co-Founder of Canva 3. Marissa Mayer — IT Executive and Co-Founder of Lumi Labs 4. Charity Wanjiku — Co-Founder of Strauss Energy Ltd 5. Pauline van Dongen — Tech Fashion Designer at Pauline van Dongen Studio 6. Anita Schøll Brede — CEO and Co-Founder of Iris.AI 7. Patricia Scanlon — CEO and Co-Founder of SoapBox Labs 8. Helena Samsioe — CEO and Founder of GLOBHE Drones 9. Tammarrian Rogers — Director of Engineering at Snap Inc. 10. Tal Rabin — Head of Cryptography Research Group at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center 11. Maru Nihoniho — Founder and Managing Director of Metia Interactive 12. Funke Opeke — CEO and Founder of MainOne Cable Company 13. Neha Narkhede — Co-Founder of Confluent 14. Katie Moussouris — CEO and Founder of Luta Security 15. Komal Mangtani — Senior Director and Head of Engineering and Business Intelligence at Uber 16. Jean Liu — President of Didi Chuxing 17. Carol Shaw — First Female Game Designer and Programmer 18. Megan Smith — CEO of shift7, Creator of TechHire 19. Leanne Kemp — Founder and CEO of Everledger 20. Christy Wyatt — CEO of Absolute 21. Marita Cheng — CEO and Founder of Aubot 22. Susan Wojcicki — CEO of YouTube 23. Jules Coleman — Co-Founder and Owner of Resi 24. Jade le Maitre — Technical Director and Co-Founder of Hease Robotics 25. Karen Dolva — CEO and Co-Founder of No Isolation 26. Eileen Burbidge — Co-Founder of Passion Capital 27. Elina Berglund — CEO and Co-Founder of Natural Cycles 28. Ginni Rometty — Chairman, President and CEO at IBM 29. Ursula Burns — CEO at VEON, Senior Advisor at Teneo and Non-Executive Director of Diageo 30. Angela Ahrendts — Senior Vice President at Apple 31. Meg Whitman — CEO of Quibi, Board Member at Dropbox 32. Safra Catz — CEO of Oracle Corporation 33. Anne Wojcicki — CEO and Co-Founder of 23andme 34. Whitney Wolfe Herd — Founder and CEO of Bumble 35. Julia Hartz — CEO of Eventbrite 36. Stacy Brown-Philpot — CEO of TaskRabbit, Board Member at HP Inc. and Nordstrom 37. Kathryn Parsons — Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Decoded 38. Sheryl Sandberg — COO of Facebook 39. Jackie Hunter — CEO of BenevolentBio 40. Amy Hood — CFO of Microsoft 41. Hooi Ling Tan — Co-Founder and COO of Grab 42. Lucy Peng — Co-Founder of Alibaba 43. Lexi Reese — COO of Gusto 44. Sara Klemens — COO at Twitch 45. Francoise Brougher — COO at Pinterest 46. Lisa Su — CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) 47. Brie Code — CEO and Creative Director at TRU LUV 48. Stephanie Harvey — Ubisoft Game Developer 49. Belinda Johnson — Former COO at Airbnb 50. Ruth Porat – CFO and SVP of Alphabet## The Top 50 Women in Tech You Need to Know### 1. Christine Spiten — Engineer and Co-Founder of Blueye Robotics Image source: Nordic Labour JournalAs a co-founder of Blueye Robotics, Christine Spiten oversees the design,creation, and sales of underwater drones controlled by phones. Blueye robotsare designed to dive 150 meters deep into the ocean with the aim to expandhuman knowledge on underwater beauty as well as the dangers sea life faces.Spiten wants to use her product as both a discovery tool and a way to teachthe public about the effects of global warming.### 2. Melanie Perkins — CEO and Co-Founder of CanvaImage source: BBC.comMelanie Perkins is one of the youngest female CEOs in the world. At just 22years old, she started leading her own tech startup company, Canva. Thepopular, free-to-use online design platform is based on the same technology asFusion Books, which Perkins created to help her classmates design theiryearbooks. Due to the simple style and ease of use, Canva is now widely usedacross the world for both business and personal designs. It’s currently valuedat over $1 billion.### 3. Marissa Mayer — IT Executive and Co-Founder of Lumi LabsImage source: ObserverMarissa Mayer is an Artificial Intelligence specialist, IT executive, and Co-Founder of Lumi Labs. Her greatest achievements include designing the layoutof Google’s popular search homepage and leading Yahoo! to impressive growth.When Yahoo! was sold in 2017, Mayer moved on to creating her own business,called Lumi Labs. Marissa Mayer has multiple patents in her name in both AIand interface design. She was also named on Forbes “40 under 40” list.### 4. Charity Wanjiku — CEO & Co-Founder of Strauss Energy Ltd.Image source: Forbes.comCharity Wanjiku is a leader in the renewable energy industry in Africa. Aimingat reducing energy poverty in Kenya, she created an innovative solar powersystem, which combines solar cells with traditional roofing materials. Stimaroofing tiles come equipped with a meter that measures energy use and recyclesunused energy back to the national grid. Her tiles guarantee no blackouts aswell as lower bills for homeowners. Wanjiku’s innovative idea aims to fullyreduce Kenyan energy poverty in rural areas by 2030.### 5. Pauline Van Dongen — Founder and Creative Director at Pauline vanDongen StudioImage source: Team Peter SigterPauline van Dongen, who launched her own studio at just 24 years old, is avery unusual fashion designer. All of her projects are equipped with wearabletechnology. Among her most popular designs are cardigans that measuremovements of elderly wearers, tops that correct posture, and a jacket thatstrokes the wearer’s back in response to touch. With her idea, Pauline aims toshow that you can naturalize technology and make it a part of everyday life.### 6. Anita Schjøll Brede — CEO and Co-Founder of Iris.AIImage source: Team Peter SigterAnita Schjøll Brede launched her company, Iris.AI, as the first AI search tooldesigned to make research more organized and productive. The startup came tolife when Brede discovered that due to the lack of affordable and efficientsearch methods, research teams spend approximately 3 weeks creating a readinglist. Designed to work like a human brain, Iris.AI extracts keywords andanalyzes word frequency in scientific papers. Because of its algorithm, it isable to read through published work 90% faster than any other research method.Iris.AI is now widely used around the world as an online research tool.### 7. Patricia Scanlon — CEO and Co-Founder of SoapBox LabsImage source: Team Peter SigterPatricia Scanlon has been working in Speech Recognition and AI for 20 years.In 2013, she launched SoapBox Labs in order to develop AI voice and speechrecognition apps to enhance children’s language learning. Her idea came fromnoticing the lack of artificial intelligence products tailored to the youngestgeneration. SoapBox Labs currently has over 25,000 different children’s voicesin their database and each of their devices can adapt to a specific child’sneeds.### 8. Helena Samsioe — CEO and Founder of GLOBHE DronesImage source: womenanddrones.comWith her extensive experience in Disaster Management, Helena Samsioe realizedthat technology and drones could be used to help people exposed to dangerousliving conditions. In 2015, she launched GLOBHE — a humanitarian drone servicecompany. The startup utilizes drones to analyze and share maps between itsusers all over the world in order to prevent and respond to disasters quicker.Apart from collecting bird’s eye footage of natural catastrophes, GLOBHE usesdrones to deliver medicine and medical tools to those in need.### 9. Tammarrian Rogers — Director of Engineering at Snap Inc.Image source: Forbes.comTammarrian Rogers has over 30 years of experience in both hardware andsoftware development. Currently, as a head of engineering at Snap Inc., sheoversees the design and improvement of code quality. She’s also responsiblefor the usability and effectiveness of Snapchat, Spectacles, and Bitmoji. Shehas paved the way for many other women of color in the industry as one of thefirst black female employees at tech giants like Microsoft and Apple.### 10. Tal Rabin — Head of Cryptography Research Group at IBMImage source: fromthegrapevine.comAs a female engineer, Tal Rabin ranks among the 22 most powerful women techspecialists in the world, according to Business Insider. She’s responsible fordesigning the most efficient and secure encryption algorithms used worldwide.Her aim is to make online communications more secure for everyone. In herlifetime, she has co-authored over 100 scientific papers, intending to makeencryption and cybersecurity more accessible to the general public.### 11. Maru Nihoniho — Founder and Managing Director at Metia InteractiveImage source: stuff.co.nzVideo games can serve a bigger purpose than just entertainment, which is theprime reason behind Maru Nihoniho’s startup, Metia Interactive. The companydesigns and develops free online games aimed at young people with mentalhealth issues. Their most popular creation, Sparx, helps teenagers deal withdepression and anxiety through gameplay, which uses simple Cognitive BehaviorTherapy tasks. Due to the importance and impact of Sparx, Maru Nihoniho wasnamed Innovator of the Year at the Xbox 2017 MCV Pacific Women in GamesAwards.### 12. Funke Opeke — CEO of MainOne Cable Company, Founder of Main StreetTechnologiesImage source: Forbes.comFunke Opeke is an electrical engineer with over 20 years of experience workingin US telecoms. As the Internet started to take over the world, she moved backto Nigeria and very quickly noticed its low online connectivity. She startedMainOne with the aim of putting the country and the rest of the continentonline. After raising an impressive $240 million in funding, she successfullylaid over 7,000km of underwater high capacity internet cable. Her actionsboosted the African economy due to the growth of online banking, retailwebsites, and online booking services.### 13. Neha Narkhede — Co-Founder of ConfluentImage source: twitter.comGrowing up in Indian suburbia, Neha Narkhede had to work extra hard to leaveher mark on the tech industry. Her persistence and determination led her toco-founding what is now the most popular streaming data technology company,Confluent. The site focuses on managing large scale real-time data usingApache Kafka — a stream-processing software developed by Narkhede. Thesoftware has since been released as an open-source, enabling other platformsto use and improve Narkhede’s code. Today Confluent is a $2.5 billion company,with Netflix and Lyft as its customers.### 14. Katie Moussouris — Founder and CEO of Luta SecurityImage source: thehill.comKatie Moussouris, both a self-taught software developer and cybersecurityexpert, was one of the first females to focus on creating bug bounty programs.At Luta Security, she advises companies and governments on online security andvulnerability disclosures. Starting her bug bounty programs at Microsoft, shewas recognized by the US Department of Defence, where she developed “Hack thePentagon” and “Hack the Airforce” schemes for hackers. Moussouris is also anactive public speaker who advocates for better internet safety across theworld.### 15. Komal Mangtani — Senior Director and Head of Engineering and BusinessIntelligence at UBERImage source: Forbes.comAs a head of engineering at Uber, Komal Mangtani has helped the company growto 5.5 million monthly users and $11.3 billion in yearly revenue. During herfirst 4 years at Uber, she built multiple learning-driven business machines,which improved payment process, tax engines, and fraud detection. Beyond hertitle, Mangtani has worked to lessen the industry’s gender gap, making sureUber offers a variety of roles to everyone, regardless of their gender orcultural background. She also serves on the board of Women Who Code anddonated $1.2 billion to Girls Who Code to increase diversity in computerscience.### 16. Jean Liu — President of Didi ChuxingImage source: fortune.comClimbing the career ladder as a woman in China is not easy, but Jean Liupersevered. Following her success at Goldman Sachs, she became the presidentof Didi Chuxing, China’s largest mobile transportation platform. DidiChuxing’s transportation app, DiDi, currently serves over 400 million usersacross 400 cities. Encouraged by the app’s success in China, Liu is nowworking on expanding the company and growing it in Mexico and South America.### 17. Carol Shaw — First Female Game Designer and DeveloperImage source: youtube.comRecognized as the first professional female video game designer, Carol Shaw isan iconic game developer. She designed some of the most popular retro games onAtari 2600, like 3D Tic-Tac-Toe, Video Checkers, and River Raid — which isregarded as an Atari masterpiece. Shaw quickly became a vital part of Atari asa go-to developer, especially for the most difficult programming tasks.Despite retiring almost 20 years ago, Shaw is still an important part of thegaming industry and was recently awarded the 2017 Industry Icon Award at theGame Awards.### 18. Megan Smith — CEO of shift7Image source: politico.comMegan Smith is an award-winning tech engineer, responsible for making theinternet widely available to the general public. While serving under BarackObama As the first female Chief Technology Officer of the US, she helped theformer president understand the power of online data and the need for constantinnovation. During her time with the government, Smith opened more than200,000 general public data sets, like weather and maps, and made themavailable online. She also focused on making the tech industry interesting andaccessible through various initiatives, including the government-run programTechHire.### 19. Leanne Kemp — Founder and CEO of EverledgerImage source: ibmsystemsmag.comEverledger is a startup company created and led by a self-taught engineer,Leanne Kemp. Alongside her team of Everleger, she aspires to increasetransparency within the valuable market industry. Kemp developed a set oftechnologies like blockchain, Radio-frequency identification (RFID), and datamatrix coding used by stakeholders and industry partners to track the journeyof diamonds from mines to expert stores. In order to tackle money launderingand general fraud, she is now looking to expand her business to verify finewine, gemstones, and metals.### 20. Christy Wyatt — CEO of AbsoluteImage source: bizjournals.comAbsolute Software Corporation develops and sells computer software designed tomonitor and track computers across the globe. The program, developed by CEOChristy Wyatt, is currently installed on over half a billion different devicesin over 12,000 companies worldwide. Thanks to this software, multiplebusinesses were able to find and recover lost or stolen laptops. Now, Wyatt isguiding her company in shifting its focus from being a simple ‘track-and-trace’ tech security provider to an online security leader.### 21. Marita Cheng — CEO and Founder of AubotImage source: cairnspost.com.auMarita Cheng combines her interest in robotics with a deep desire to helpthose in need. With her team at Aubot, she designed and marketed atelepresence robot called Teleport to enable a person’s virtual presence in adesired place. With Teleport, children in hospitals can attend schools, peoplewith disabilities can still participate in tasks at work, and relatives andvolunteers can monitor and socialize with the elderly. As well as leadingAubot, Cheng co-founded Aipoly — a smartphone app that can recognize and relayobjects in real time to visually impaired people.### 22. Susan Wojcicki — CEO of YouTubeImage source: Female Founders FundSusan Wojcicki is possibly one of the biggest names in the modern techindustry. Her career developed at Google, where she kickstarted AdSense,earning the company its first big check. She’s also the reason why Google’siconic logo changes according to holidays and special events. Encouraged byher success, she persuaded her colleagues to purchase YouTube, which was onlya small but promising website at the time. As the CEO of the online videoplatform, she supervised the creation and release of YouTube Gaming,YouTubeTV, and YouTube Music. Wojcicki has been responsible for the platformsince 2014.### 23. Jules Coleman — Co-Founder of ResiImage source: lookthebusiness.ieJules Coleman got the idea for her business while looking for a new houserenovation project online. Feeling increasingly frustrated with how difficultit was to assess the building’s potential through a few pictures, shepinpointed a gap in the market for investors like her. Despite her lack ofprogramming knowledge, she successfully launched Resi — the first website thatlets its users design a house online. The success of Resi.com earned hermultiple tech awards as well as the title of “Internet Hero.”### 24. Jade le Maitre — Technical Director and Co-Founder of Hease RoboticsImage source: Bizz & BuzzJade le Maitre found her passion in the science communication sector throughher research project in human-robot interactions. Hease Robotics was foundedto increase work efficiency by developing and providing autonomous customerservice robots. To this day, the company provides robots to shops, airports,offices, and museums in France. Maitre’s most popular clients are Total (anoil and gas company) and Leclerc. Recently, Le Maitre created a websitealongside her business, Lyon-Is-AI, in order to promote positive opinionsabout robots and AI.### 25. Karen Dolva — CEO and Co-Founder of No IsolationImage source: wegate.euKaren Dolva is living proof that you don’t have to have a lot of experience tostart a successful company. She set up No Isolation right after graduating asan expert in UX design. With the aim of reducing general social isolation, shehas been working on developing “warm” technology for those who struggle tostay connected. Dolva designed and built a telepresence robot called AV1,which is used in hospitals and homes for children with long-term illnesses.She’s also behind the invention of KOMP — a one-button screen for the elderlythat enables them to participate in social events online.### 26. Eileen Burbidge — Co-Founder of Passion CapitalImage source: standard.co.ukThe Queen of British Venture Capital (as described by Fortune Magazine),Eileen Burbidge stands behind the success of many small and medium sizedcorporations, including Monzo Bank and Butternut Box. Her extensive experiencein high positions at Skype, Sun, Apple, and Yahoo! enabled her to seepotential in numerous startup companies. With Passion Capital, she carefullyinvests in and oversees the growth of promising businesses. On top of that,she occupies the position of Chair of Tech City UK for the Mayor of London’sOffice.### 27. Elina Berglund — CEO and Co-Founder of Natural CyclesImage source: thriveglobal.comElina Berglund originally started her career as a particle physicist. However,when she was looking for a good natural form of birth control, she discovereda big gap in the market. Driven by her observation, she wrote an algorithmbased on her own menstruation cycle and created an app called Natural Cycles.The app identifies its user’s fertility window purely from daily bodytemperature measurements. The app currently has nearly one million downloadson the Google Play Store and is still growing in popularity.### 28. Ginni Rometty — Chairman, President, and CEO of IBMImage source fortune.comGinni Rometty spent a long time rising in IBM’s ranks. Having worked at thetech giant since 1981, she is the current chair, president, and CEO,responsible for most of its growth. Leading IBM through a chain of majorchanges including transition into a data business, Rometty reinventedcybersecurity, quantum technology, and AI. Her successful attempts atpurchasing Red Hat in 2018 made IBM one of the leaders in the cloud computingindustry. Alongside her tech accomplishments, Rometty reimagined the company’sworking culture by creating “no-collar” positions for those without atechnology degree.### 29. Ursula Burns — CEO of VEON, Senior Advisor to Teneo, and Non-Executive Director of DiageoImage source: xerox.comBack in the 1980s, when Ursula Burns was starting out as a tech employee,there weren’t many opportunities in the field for a woman of color. Reluctantto give up, she committed to climbing the career ladder at Xerox. In 2009, shebecame the first African-American female CEO of the leading document company.Recognizing her great knowledge and experience, that same year, Burns wasasked to lead the White House National STEM program. She remained in thatposition for 7 years. Apart from her successful career, she’s become animportant symbol for other women of color inside and outside of the techindustry.### 30. Angela Ahrendts — Senior Vice President of AppleImage source: britannica.comPeople tend to associate Apple with the name of Steve Jobs, but the companyowes a lot of its success to Angela Ahrendts. Despite her initial lack ofinterest in the tech industry, Ahrendts quickly took charge of improving thephone giant’s customer shopping experience, making it feel more like a luxuryprocess. She designed the high-end looking Apple stores we can visit today.Ahrendts announced in 2019 that she was leaving Apple to take on newchallenges in life. To this day, she has been the only female at such a highposition in the company.### 31. Meg Whitman — CEO of QuibiImage source: britannica.comMeg Whitman graduated with an economics degree and quickly became well-knownin the tech industry. She worked at various big tech corporations throughouther career, but is best known for leading the Hewlett-Packard split into twoseparate firms as well as leading eBay’s growth into an $8 billion salescompany. Since becoming the CEO of Quiby, a mobile-only streaming platform,Whitman succeeded in securing over $1 billion in funding from investors likeDisney, Sony, and Viacom. She is also the first female employee and CEO of thestartup company she marketed as “mobile Netflix.”### 32. Safra Catz — CEO of Oracle CorporationImage source: Forbes.comSafra Catz is the highest-paid female CEO in any US company. Leaving hercareer as an investment banker in 1999, she joined a computer technologycorporation, Oracle. Her potential was quickly recognized and within 2 years,she was invited onto the company’s board of directors. In 2014, she became thefirst co-CEO of the company. Alongside her CEO partner, Mark Hurd, she drovethe company’s biggest investment to date by acquiring its software rival,PeopleSoft. In 2019, Catz became the sole CEO of Oracle.### 33. Anne Wojcicki — CEO of 23andmeImage source: inc.comDespite starting out as a Wall Street analyst, Anne Wojcicki decided it wasn’tthe right path for her. In 2006, she co-founded 23andme, a DNA testing firmthat checks both the customer’s health status and ancestry. Undeterred by manysimilar companies on the market, Wojcicki worked hard to make 23andme the onlygenetics testing business to be cleared by the FDA for health tests. She iscurrently leading her team in discovering medicine to treat certain medicalailments.### 34. Whitney Wolfe Herd — Founder and CEO of BumbleImage source: topic.grWhitney Wolfe Herd started her career as the co-founder of Tinder, where shedesigned the app’s famous logo. Taking from her experience, she decided to setup a dating platform focused on empowering women. Despite the lack of greatinitial feedback, she created Bumble — a dating app designed to give morecontrol to women. Bumble has since expanded rapidly, with Wolfe Herd evenmanaging the app’s successful release in India, where many dating apps don’tperform well. Following the platform’s success, she also created BumbleBFF andBumbleBizz.### 35. Julia Hartz — CEO of EventBriteImage source: eventbrite.co.ukJulia Hartz noticed a lack of local event promotion online during herinternship at MTV. Alongside her fiance, she built and founded EventBrite — aticketing and event technology platform. The website quickly grew to becomeone of the most popular sites to promote and sell various events acrossCalifornia. Following its incredible success, Hartz took her fiance’s positionas CEO of the company. Under her leadership, EventBrite has expanded to over170 countries worldwide and became an award-winning company for its workplaceculture.### 36. Stacy Brown-Philpot — CEO of TaskRabbitImage source: nbcnews.comStacy Brown-Philpot made history as one of the first black employees atGoogle, where she led online sales and operations for almost 10 years. Movingon as a CEO of TaskRabbit, she aimed to expand the platform worldwide andmanaged to double its worth across the US and the UK. As the app grew inpopularity, Brown-Philpot supervised TaskRabbit’s acquisition by IKEA in 2017.Alongside her accomplishments as a CEO, Brown-Philpot is also a board memberat various companies including Nordstrom, HP Inc., and Black Girls Code.### 37. Kathryn Parsons — Co-Founder and Co-CEO of DecodedImage source: standard.co.ukKathryn Parsons launched Decoded in 2012, with the aim of teaching its usersto code in just one day. Since then, the company has expanded to includetopics such as cybersecurity, data management, and Artificial Intelligence.Due to its courses with varying levels of difficulty, Decoded has beenproviding online classes to many tech giants like Google, eBay, Facebook, BBC,Microsoft, and TalkTalk. As a valued STEM expert, Parsons is also a member ofthe UK Prime Minister and London Mayor’s Business Advisory Boards.### 38. Sheryl Sandberg — COO of FacebookImage source: about.fb.comAs the first woman on Facebook’s board of directors, Sheryl Sandberg quicklyproved that she was the best fit for the role. By enabling smaller businessesto advertise on the platform, she increased not only Facebook’s revenue, butalso its popularity. Sandberg was also the first person to recognize the needfor protecting the privacy and security of Facebook users, aiming to reducethe platform’s negative impact on mental health. Despite numerous scandalstied to her name, Sheryl Sandberg is still one of the most recognizable womenin the industry.### 39. Jackie Hunter — CEO of BenevolentBioImage source: a-star.edu.sgBenevolentBio owes its efficiency boost to Jackie Hunter. Drawing on herlifelong pharmaceutical experience, Hunter modernized the company by combiningtraditional medicine development with AI. This new approach, calledBenevolentAI, revolutionized the speed of creating blueprints for newmedication. Now as the CEO, Hunter is responsible for overseeing the correctapplication of BenevolentAI’s technology in the company.### 40. Amy Hood — CFO of MicrosoftImage source: financialexpress.comIn 2002, Amy Hood joined Microsoft as Business Division leader, where shefocused on improving Microsoft Office 365. 11 years later, Hood becameMicrosoft’s CFO. Since then, she has led the company through over 57successful acquisitions, causing its stock to surge by nearly 300%. With dealsincluding LinkedIn, Minecraft, and GitHub, Microsoft has become the biggestdealmaker in history. Most recently, Hood has been leading Microsoft indeveloping its cloud computing division.### 41. Hooi Ling Tan — Co-Founder and COO of GrabImage source: facebook.comTaxi safety is a big issue in Malaysia, and Hooi Ling Tan decided to fix that.She is behind what’s now considered Southeast Asia’s most valuable startupcompany — a cab hailing mobile application called Grab. Basing her idea onUber’s technology, she worked hard to increase the efficiency and safety fortravelers around Malaysia. Hooi Ling Tan and her business partner alsosuccessfully expanded the firm by adding extra features like food delivery totheir app.### 42. Lucy Peng — Co-Founder of Alibaba GroupImage source: fortune.comLucy Peng is one of the pioneers in the online shopping industry. In foundingher e-commerce company called Alibaba Group, she provided online services toretailers all over the world. This enabled shops to sell products through webportals and collect electronic payments. She’s also behind the development ofshopping search engines and cloud computing services. As Alibaba Groupexpanded, Peng held various high-profile positions in the company. She steppeddown as CEO of Alibaba’s e-commerce firm, Lazada, in 2018 to serve as thecompany’s chairman.### 43. Lexi Reese — COO at GustoImage source: huffpost.comAfter learning the tricks of the trade at Google, Lexi Reese found her realpassion — helping small businesses succeed online. She developed a cloud-basedsoftware called Gusto, which makes payroll and HR management more simple. Thecompany helps new businesses do everything from setting up their work ethic tosending offer letters to new employees and managing taxes. Gusto is consideredequally as beneficial to its workers as to its owners, and is known forfacilitating a better relationship between the two. Thanks to Gusto’spopularity, Reese is now seen as one of the top female executives in SiliconValley.### 44. Sara Clemens — COO at TwitchImage source: thewrap.comThe popular game streaming platform, Twitch, experienced an influx of userswhen Sara Clemens became its COO. She saw great potential, not just in thecompany itself, but also in the streamers using the site. In order to giveback to Twitch gamers, she created a Bounty Board which enabled the users toearn money by advertising certain products in their streams. Many popularstreamers on the platform credit the start of their online careers to Clemens’revolutionary idea.### 45. Francoise Brougher — COO at PinterestImage source: thewrap.comFrancoise Brougher became well-known in the STEM field after becoming thefirst-ever COO at Google. She was responsible for leading global sales andoperations teams and ensured the website’s growth in customer support andmarketing. Her recognizable success led Pinterest to appoint Brougher as itsfirst COO in 2018. Since joining the visual search engine platform, she hasworked hard to develop and enhance the user experience. To establishPinterest’s position on the market, she also supervises marketing,communications, sales, and partnerships with businesses advertising on thesite.### 46. Lisa Su — CEO and President of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)Image source: Forbes.comWhen Lisa Su became the CEO of AMD in 2015, the company was an established butstruggling semiconductor business. Developing the company’s strengths inmanufacturing, she created RYZEN — a high-performing computing processor chipthat would finally allow AMD to compete with its rivals. This creationrevolutionized the PC industry by improving battery life and the overallsystem performance in devices used for both gaming and design. Within just afew years, Su’s hard work increased AMD’s revenue to $6.5 billion and hasestablished the company in the computer market.### 47. Brie Code — CEO and Creative Director at TRU LUVImage source: briecode.comBrie Code has always considered herself “AI passionate,” working withartificial intelligence since the onset of her career. Her interest led her tostarting TRU LUV with the aim of creating smartphone AI companions. Her firstmobile app, #SelfCare, is based on the idea of aiding relaxation and teachingusers meditation techniques. The app was such a success that it made Apple’s2018 list of best trends in under a year.### 48. Stephanie Harvey — Ubisoft Game DeveloperImage source: The Garage – HP.comStephanie Harvey is not only a game developer at Ubisoft, but also aprofessional gamer. What began as a hobby led her to winning multipleelectronic world championships and developed into a full-time job. Now, shewants other women to follow in her footsteps as she regularly campaignsagainst gender discrimination in the gaming industry. She even co-founded anonline community, Missclicks, that raises awareness about the under-representation of females in video games. Apart from campaigning for biggergender diversity in tech, she continues to work as a Twitch streamer.### 49. Belinda Johnson — Former COO of AirbnbImage source: inews.co.ukThe tech industry needs lawyers just as much as engineers, and Belinda Johnsonis one of the best in the field. Known as the first executive employee ofAirbnb, she has overseen the company’s growth since its start. With thecompany through multiple legal and regulatory problems, Johnson helped findsolutions to various marketing hurdles. Despite stepping down from herposition in 2018, the role has not been filled by anyone else. According toAirbnb’s CEO, Brian Chesky, no one could ever compete with Johnson’s expertknowledge and leadership skills.### 50. Ruth Porat — CFO at Alphabet Inc., GoogleImage source: businessinsider.comRuth Porat is a financial leader and investor who has been mentioned inmultiple magazines over the years. Joining Google as a CFO in 2015, sheimproved the company’s share prices by putting a strict financial plan inplace. Recognizing her strengths, Google appointed Porat as the CFO of one ofits subsidiaries, Alphabet Inc. She has won various awards and titles for herleadership skills and ability to work well under pressure.## Why Are There Less Women in Tech?In 1981, the number of women graduating with tech degrees reached its peak,but even then, women only made up 37% of all students. Ever since, femalerepresentation among graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math(STEM) disciplines has stagnated. In 2016, only 35% of tech graduates in theUS and Canada were female, while in the European Union, women earned only 27%of STEM degrees. So why is it that fewer women want to work in tech?The first problem lies in the lack of information at schools. According to aWomen in Tech Report by PWC, only 63% of high school girls choose to studySTEM subjects, compared to 83% of boys. Despite female pupils performingequally well in compulsory math and science classes, tech subjects remaindominated by boys. Qualitative research suggests that teenage girls are moreapt to choose courses based on the perceptions of their peers.However, the issue of unequal representation stretches beyond the classroom.According to a study by McKinsey & Company, 40% of women in tech agree thattheir employer doesn’t offer equal opportunities for professional development.On top of that, over 50% of female employees don’t believe there is a fair andobjective criterion for job promotions. This discrepancy is reflected in thegender wage gap among STEM employees.TrustRadius’ report shows that female tech employees earn a lower wage,averaging at 94.6 cents for every dollar their male colleagues earn in thesame position. In her paper, Marianne Bertrand suggests women are more likelyto accept lower pay if it means they’ll have maternity leave, flexible hours,and the option to work-from-home. Whether or not women agree to lower wages inexchange for flexibility, more needs to be done to allow mothers working intech to balance their family lives and professional lives.## How Can We Encourage Women to Take Up STEM Careers?According to a 2018 study, women in tech impact teen girls to a greater extentthan male STEM leaders affect teen boys. This shows that finding a successfulfemale role model within the field could greatly impact a young girl’sdecision to pursue a tech career in the future.Despite major female underrepresentation in tech, there are still manysuccessful women paving the way for their successors. They fought, and arestill fighting for a more inclusive and diverse industry all around the world.Their stories, though not too popular in the media, inspire and show that witha lot of hard work and determination, women can also succeed in this field.However, young girls aren’t the only demographic who can make a change. Nomatter what age, women from all over the world can follow their passions intechnology. Education is now accessible to anyone willing to learn a newskill. Where there’s a will, there is always a way, and the amazing women onthis list lead by example.## We Need to Promote Diversity in the Tech IndustryIn spite of having numerous male tech leaders, it’s clear that the industrycould benefit from increasing its female workforce. Without female techpioneers, we wouldn’t be able to work from home, find love through theInternet or use the world wide web.Although the tech industry is slowly starting to welcome more femaleemployees, both in entry-level positions and as leaders, we still have a longway to go before the gender gap disappears.Until then, we need to show younger generations the opportunities available tothem in STEM. With the 50 inspiring leaders on this list, we can prove topeople all over the world that the tech industry can be conquered by anyone —no matter their age, gender or cultural background.