Dame Stephanie Shirley

Dame Stephanie Shirley, who is known as ‘Steve’, is a successful entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist, who was named as the UK’s first Ambassador for Philanthropy by prime minister Gordon Brown in early 2009.
 
Shirley had arrived in Britain as an unaccompanied child refugee in 1939, and in 1962 she started the business that became Xansa on her dining room table with £6.  In 25 years as its chief executive she grew it into a leading business technology group, and pioneered new working practices as she made it possible for mothers to secure part-time employment in the business.
 
Since retiring in 1993, she has served on several corporate boards but her focus has been increasingly on philanthropy as she sought to give something back to society.  Her main interests are autism (her autistic son Giles died age 35 in 1998) and making better use of IT in the voluntary sector. 
 
Her charitable Shirley Foundation is one of the top 50 grant-giving foundations in the UK, having given away more than £50m since it opened in 1997. 

In 2005 she secured support from medical research charity Autism Speaks in the US to establish a UK affiliate, and in March 2007 the UK charity became an independent body in its own right. The two organisations, along with other international affiliates, are dedicated to funding research into the causes of autism and aim to halve the global cost of the disorder by 2020.

In January 2010 Autism Speaks UK changed its name to Autistica in order to differentiate itself from the US organisation and better reflect its focus on medical research.
 
Xansa was acquired by Steria in 2007 and Dame Stephanie  served on Steria’s CSR Advisory Board before concentrating entirely on her ambassadorial role.

Is this profile up-to-date? If not, please let us know at whoswho@civilsociety.co.uk