Meet The Fifty Most Inspiring Women In European Tech - Inspiring Fifty: Europe Highlights The Best-Of-The-Best From Across The Continent, Identifying And Showcasing Today’s Influencers, Leaders, And Role Models

Inspiring Fifty is proud to announce the results of its yearlong search to find the most inspiring women within the European technology community. The not-for-profit organisation identifies, encourages, and showcases women in leadership positions within the technology sector, and is kicking off 2015 with its first annual pan-European Inspiring Fifty list.  
 
The Inspiring Fifty: Europe initiative follows the success of the prior year’s Inspiring Fifty: Netherlands, a search to identify and showcase that country’s fifty most inspiring women in technology and business. Throughout 2014, Inspiring Fifty asked its extended network of professionals, journalists, and social media followers to nominate those women serving as role models and standing as an inspiration to others. What came back was an amazing list of women from across the technology spectrum, including entrepreneurs, business leaders, academicians, and policy makers.  
 
“The response was simply tremendous; we were overwhelmed by the calibre, breadth, and diversity of the nominees,” stated Russell Buckley, one of the members of the organisation’s judging panel. “We were incredibly impressed by the achievements of all of our nominees, and it was a nearly impossible task to narrow it down to just fifty.”
 
Judges included business and technology influencers from across Europe and the US, including Shari Yoder Doherty, Partner at venture firm Atomico; Ellenore Angelidis, Diversity Director at Amazon; Nina Dos Santos, Business Anchor at CNN; Russell Buckley, serial entrepreneur-turned-investor and UK Government Advisor; and Inspiring Fifty founders Janneke Niessen and Joelle Frijters, both entrepreneurs and co-founders of European tech company Improve Digital.
 
“Many women in tech seeking female role models currently look towards the most visible, the headline-makers, like Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Yahoo’s Marissa Meyer,” says Janneke Niessen. “However, as amazing as those women are, we felt there was a need to showcase the many accomplished, and all-too-often overlooked women in technology closer to home.”
 
Hundreds of nominations came in, highlighting talent across every country in Europe. In the final fifty, 16 countries were represented: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the UK. The UK led other countries with seventeen finalists; France followed with nine, Germany with six, and the Netherlands with three.
 
“Given the amazing response to our call for nominations, it is clear that the European technology scene is not only thriving, but is home to some incredibly talented – and inspiring – women,” says Joelle Frijters, judge and programme co-founder.
 
The following list of the Inspiring Fifty: Europe 2015 finalists is arranged alphabetically, and by country. It in no way reflects any ranking or scoring by programme judges.