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8 March, 2022 @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm GMT
Meet Kathryn Parsons MBE, the tech education revolutionary, who puts the tools of the future in everyone’s hands
Tuesday, 8 March 2022
18:00hrs
E2E Event: Meet Kathryn Parsons MBE, the tech education revolutionary, who puts the tools of the future in everyone’s hands
Tuesday 8th March 6:00pm – 7:30pm GMT
Cost: Complimentary
Event type: Virtual
About The Event
As it becomes increasingly vital to be tech savvy, with technology now billed as the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution,’ an ’Educational Revolution’ is essential.
Please join us in conversation with the education revolutionist, Kathryn Parsons MBE, one of the UK’s most phenomenal female entrepreneurial talents and one of the FTs top 30 female entrepreneurs of the year, on International Woman’s Day.
In 2022 successful British female entrepreneurs are still a relatively rare breed. Kathryn Parsons MBE is one of those rare breed and will give us her insight on what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur.
When: Tuesday 8th March 2022 – 6:00pm – 7:30pm
Where: Virtual
Cost: Complimentary
Kathryn Parsons MBE is co-founder and CEO of Decoded, a technology education company with a mission to increase digital literacy and demystify the digital world. Decoded’s signature one-day course trains participants without any background in computers to “code in a day”.
Their Digital & Data Academies are sought by organisations seeking to rapidly rewire the digital literacy, leadership, data culture and capability of their organisations. Clients span the Fortune & FTSE 500 to policy makers from Washington to Whitehall.
Kathryn has served on the advisory boards of the London Mayor and No 10 Downing Street. She was also a NED on the Board of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and received an MBE for her services to Education. Kathryn successfully campaigned for coding to be introduced as mandatory to the UK National Curriculum, making the UK one of the first countries in the world to do so.
We are excited to give you this rare opportunity to discuss why tech education is so important to British industry, entrepreneurship, and our community, and what it means to be a successful entrepreneur in 2022, with the ‘economic force’ that is Kathryn Parsons MBE.
Also speaking is Karen Holden, Founder and Managing Director of A City Law Firm, which is a list Legal 500 firm, in the City of London. She is also the founder of The Female Founders London Growth Program. Karen will be talking about how to scale your business and will impart some handy legal tips!
Our event partner is the world’s largest serviced office group, IWG UK (Regus). Richard Morris, CEO of IWG, will also be joining the discussion. If you are interested in exclusive discounts for E2E Ambassadors (Members) on office space or need support in any way, please do get in touch.
Meet Your Guest Speakers
About Kathryn Parsons MBE
Kathryn Parsons MBE is Founder and co-CEO of technology education company Decoded.
She started the business ten years ago with nothing more than a credit card and a mission impossible; to put the tools of the future in everyone’s hands.
It was a promise which resonated and Decoded has since grown to teaching code, data and cyber literacy and skills to over half a million learners in over 85 cities across the world. Decoded’s signature one-day course trains participants without any background in computers to ‘code in a day’.
Their Digital & Data Academies are sought by organizations looking to rapidly rewire the digital literacy, leadership, data culture and capability of their organizations. Clients span the Fortune & FTSE 500 to policy makers from Washington to Whitehall.
This year she was listed as one of the FT’s top 30 female entrepreneurs. Kathryn has been described as ‘an economic force,’ campaigning successfully for coding to be introduced as mandatory to the UK National Curriculum, making the UK, one of the first countries in the world, to do so.
Kathryn is an ardent techno-optimist, a believer in the promise of innovation and discovery to improve human life around the world. But she insists that as we witness the disruptive impact of technology on traditional economies and social systems around the world, the so-called “Fourth Industrial Revolution” in our midst, that we are called upon to launch an “Education Revolution.” She is leading the campaign for an education which is adaptive, expansive, and lifelong to ensure that the great benefits of technology flow to all of us.
Kathryn, has served on the advisory boards of the London Mayor and No 10 Downing Street. She was also a NED on the Board of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and received an MBE for her services to Education in 2014.
Kathryn is also a passionate ambassador for female entrepreneurship. She sits on the advisory board for The Rose Review into female entrepreneurship which revealed that less than 1% of Venture Capital is invested in female founders in the UK.
About Karen Holden
Managing Director of A City Law Firm
Karen is the founder and Managing Director of A City
Law Firm a listed Legal 500 firm, in the City of London. She is also the founder of The Female Founders London Growth Program.
Having obtained her degree in Law, Karen went on to achieve a Masters from the University of Cambridge and her LPC from the College of Law. Her studies were conducted whilst working full-time as an analyst and a senior member of management in the public sector.
She is an entrepreneur having developed a thriving corporate firm from scratch and securing its place firmly in the City. Karen oversees founders, CEO’s and entrepreneurs especially those in the disruptive technology sector scaling , seeking investment or selling.
Karen was invited and given freedom of the City in 2019 for her work in Equality as such is part of the Guild of Freeman. She has also been awarded small business of the year, most Innovate law firm and Best Business Women in Legal Services
Meet Your Hosts
Richard Morris
CEO – IWG UK
Richard is the CEO of IWG UK. He joined in 2014 following his role as CEO of G4S’s UK & Ireland Division. IWG UK is the world’s largest provider of flexible workspace solutions offering a fast growing global network of 3,000 locations in 120 countries. Since joining, Richard has consistently delivered year on year growth for Regus’ UK division.
Shalini Khemka CBE
Founder & the Chief Executive Officer of E2E
Shalini began E2E in 2011 to help founders to ‘scale’ and to avoid many of the challenges she had faced during the establishment of her first business. There are other organisations supporting the growth of entrepreneurs, however, by connecting founders, investors, NED’s, mentors and corporates Shalini has developed a unique approach to serve the entrepreneurial community and the UK economy.
She has attracted global audiences through building an ecosystem of world class entrepreneurial support services and by hosting hundreds of events over the last decade; many at The House of Lords.
In addition to business development this work has resulted in contributions to white papers on EIS schemes, business rates and the encouragement of youth employment in SMEs.
Through her development of this ecosystem, E2E has become an organisation which supports 23,000 founders who contribute £213bn to the UK economy and employ 1.15m people. The end goal as she regularly articulates is to drive the UK upwards from its current position of 13th in the world in its support of ‘scale-ups’ to a similar level that ‘start-up’ businesses achieve (3rd).
Perhaps more important than this has been the access to finance and mentoring that she has facilitated. This is done through her engagement with those who have achieved success and her encouragement of them to invest and provide pro-bono advice and support to those who are on their journeys.
Additionally, she has secured further government and private support for those SMEs that have been affected by COVID. Her response has been through involvement with an array of initiatives, working with founders on a one-to-one basis and capturing, in April last year, the feedback from hundreds of SMEs and translating that into a series of targeted recommendations that were presented to the Chancellor and directly influenced the nature of support packages developed by the Government.
Shalini was appointed CBE – Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, in the New Year’s Honours List 2022 by Her Majesty the Queen for Her Services to Entrepreneurship and the UK Economy.
Shalini is a Member of the Mayor of London’s Business Advisory Board and is on the Supervisory Committee of Market Finance, one of the UK’s leading Fintech firms.
She is a Fellow of Burton and South Derbyshire College and believes that turning knowledge into wisdom is the elixir of life.
In March 2021, both Shalini and E2E were commended in the Hansard at the House of Lords for their work on the Capital Gains Tax deliberations.
Recognition and Awards:
Appointed as CBE – Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, in the New Year’s Honours List 2022 by Her Majesty The Queen for Her Services to Entrepreneurship and the UK Economy.
• Most Influential Women in UK Tech, Computer Weekly 2017 – To Date
• Judge, Great British Entrepreneur Awards, 2017 – To Date
• Former Judge, National Business Awards, 2016 – 2018
• Book recognition: ‘Lessons from Life in Business’ from Facebook – 2018
• Former Judge, The Start-Up Awards – 2018
• Maserati 100 Index of Britain’s Most Successful entrepreneurs and investors – 2016
• Former Judge, IBM Smart Camp – 2016
• Former Advisory Board Director, Centre for Entrepreneurs 2015 -2018
• Harper’s Bazaar Meets Shalini Khemka: The Power of Networking – 2015
• Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech – 2015
• Former Director of The Development Board, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, 2013 – 2015
