Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
President of Tech UK, a titan of tech, one of the most influential women in the digital sector, and a CBE for industry contribution.
On the island
Eight records
Girl on FireFavourite
I am not great at acknowledging compliments. And I'm much better at giving than receiving, I would say. So having grown up in a male-dominated technology industry, I spent my career striving to equal the playing field for women. And this for me is my girl and them.
It just reminds me of childhood. I remember living in a council estate in Swindon and a young lad called Stuart who sat on the washing line walls, communal washing line walls, and he would belt out this song and it just feels to me like the mournful cry of a young man wanting to be something more than he was and that's exactly where I was at that time.
firstly because I didn't realise I was Chinese until I went to school, so it it's kind of my own personal anthem if you like, but also because David Bowie is someone who has reinvented himself so many times in such great ways and radical ways and I rather feel that I have also done that in my life.
Dave Stewart featuring Candy Dulfer
I just love the interplay of where the guitar speaks, the saxophone responds. And I am an aspiring saxophonist myself. So I love, love, love this piece.
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
because I remember having to grow up pretty quickly when I realised that I was now looking after this little bundle of joy. And she lay there looking at me and I just fell totally, deeply, completely in love with her.
My mother is one of my biggest role models and this is for her. She has dementia. So I find that quite difficult to talk about. Not because I don't want to recognize her, but I've I find it hard not to have her the way she was. So this is for her.
This one really makes me smile a lot. It's for my husband, Roger, my third and final husband. And I walked down the aisle to this piece of music by Ennio Morricone, and I am so grateful for him and everything he does for me.
This was a moment for my family. We were at Wembley with Ed Sheeran at his concert last summer. And family and relationships mean absolutely everything to me, not having had a great family life myself. And so what we've created is very close, it's very supportive. And we all felt this moment of joy when Ed Sheeran was singing Perfect Symphony with Andrea Pocelli.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:32How do we begin to tackle the gender gap in the UK's tech workforce?
It wasn't always this way, you know. You look at NASA, and we had female computer programs. In fact, it was the domain of women, so we lost it. And we have come to a place where 17% of women in tech, 10% in cyber, 6% in engineering is absolutely unacceptable. And certainly when I look at the industry today, women are not attracted or inspired by it necessarily. And I think it's because it's the domain of men or a male culture.
Presenter asks
6:29What are your thoughts about the potential impact of Brexit on the tech industry?
We certainly need certainty. We need to be able to make preparations for whether we are going to go it alone or not. The one thing we have an advantage in the technology sector is that we have a mobile and flexible workforce, so we can work wherever we are. On the other hand, we do need to have trade deals in terms of data, and we need to have agreements in terms of security. And I think perhaps our biggest issue is access to talent. If the borders are arguably closing and our domestic talent pipeline is quite low, then we need to figure out how we're going to create more opportunity inside the country by getting more talent into the country post-Brexit. That is probably our biggest challenge.
Presenter asks
9:25How did your mother manage to get away?
The keepsakes
The book
Daphne du Maurier
I've read it a thousand times. There's all the romance, there's all the disappointment. It's just a book of extremes, and I just love it.
The luxury
I think it would have to be my saxophone. I would have time to learn. No one could witness my failure. And I think that's quite important. And also I think it would be terribly useful for other things. I I'm sure I could collect rainwater in it if I needed to, and maybe the glint of it would attract a passing plane that might rescue me. All sorts of things really.
The Catholic priest Father Walmsley gave her money to escape, and we packed our bags and we ran away to my mother's parents, and my mother remarried a few years later to my stepfather.
Presenter asks
17:55Why were you turned down for that promotion?
I was told, well I asked for feedback actually and I was told, Jacqueline, we simply don't have women on the leadership team. And yes, that w that was a really big moment. And I'm a big believer in there is always a miracle if you look hard enough. And I had to look pretty hard in this scenario. And what I realized was that actually the miracle here was at least he told me. Because if I'd been there for another five years banging my head against the glass ceiling, I think I would have been distraught. So I went and got myself a job as a managing director somewhere else.
Presenter asks
24:54Why is diversity particularly important in AI?
Algorithms are making decisions about so many things for us today, whether you get a mortgage, whether you get a place at university, whether you get benefits. These are all decided by algorithms, machines, robots, whatever you want to call them. And we've got to decide who regulates, who says that the algorithm is safe or not. And my contention, which was helped by Dr Larissa Suzuki, a very young data scientist, who said to me, well, the only way is not to regulate through government policy necessarily because we're creating too much of AI too quickly. The only way to properly regulate is to have all our voices at the table so that we all do the right thing for everybody. And that's why diversity in technology really matters.
Presenter asks
26:08How should the tech industry respond to criticisms and calls for increased regulation?
Well, thankfully, Facebook and other platforms have said that they are going to make changes to the way in which they use data. And I think what we've got to do is to shine a light on that and make sure that it happens and it happens at pace. I would like to see much more privacy in the hands of the individual. We have to as individuals also be clear about what we want to have out there and have control over that. And I think we will need regulation, but I think we need regulation together with the platform providers themselves because you've got to have that partnership in order to making it work.
“I spent my childhood being quite insignificant on purpose.”
“I didn't realize I was half Chinese until I actually got to school.”
“I was told, Jacqueline, we simply don't have women on the leadership team.”
“I love to think that I do things effortlessly, elegantly, but that's an aspiration. What actually happens behind the scenes is I do an awful lot of preparation. And I think that's because my fear of failure is so incredibly high.”
“I think that resilience is a really wonderful virtue, but that opportunity comes from revealing vulnerabilities.”