Rebecca George: encouraging more women into IT and learning from mistakes
University of Bradford honorary graduate Rebecca George CBE has had a successful career with two global organisations but her journey has not been without its challenges.
Rebecca was recently awarded Doctor of Technology in recognition of the significant impact and contribution she has made to the promotion of inclusion of women in technology.
She spent almost 20 years with computer giant IBM before joining accounting firm Deloitte in 2006, retiring in 2021 as Managing Partner for the firm’s public sector practice across Europe and the Middle East.
She has a passion for equality, diversity and inclusion and has been a staunch advocate for encouraging more women into information technology for more than 30 years. She is also a past president of the British Computer Society, the Chartered Institute for IT, is a non-executive director of the Metropolitan Police and for five years worked with the Department for Education on Skills Reform, including T-levels, apprenticeships, lifelong learning and employer engagement.
Asked what advice she might give to graduates, she said: “For students coming through the education sector today, my advice would be whenever you’re in trouble, tell someone - the minute you do that, people will say, ‘Let me help you’. People make mistakes but it’s how you deal with them that matters.”
She should know, as she has had a couple of knocks in her career. A failed relationship with a manager nearly resulted in her losing her job. When she asked for help she got it, resulting in a position in the company that was much more suitable for her and in which she was successful. She looks back at that time as a turning point in her career – a seemingly catastrophic situation that ended up being a real opportunity.
She thinks she was lucky having that experience relatively early on because later she had to face a much bigger issue. A memo written by one of her team, intended for internal use only, ended up in the public domain. It was interpreted as critical of the government and they were justifiably upset. The first thing she did was apologise. Then she and her team set to work to rectify the situation.
Reflecting on the experience, she said: "In life, things happen and people make mistakes and it’s not always fair. The point for me is how you deal with it and how you learn. You have to put those times in your backbone so they make you stronger and more resilient.”
Rebecca, who is also a member of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (a successor body to one of the ancient guilds of London), earned an OBE in 2006 and CBE in 2023, both of which recognised her work to bring more women into the IT sector. She is also an advocate of lifelong learning.
She said: “I have been working with BCS since 1997 and for most of that time I have championed bringing more women into IT. For me, it’s really important because we still don’t have enough women working in IT but there are more coming through and when I go to places like Bradford, I meet many more women who are interested in and studying for professions in the digital world.”
Commenting on her honorary award, she said: “I was blown away, it was something I never thought would happen to me, I am delighted and honoured and it’s made me feel and think more about Bradford. I would love to be more involved going forward.”
Get your skates on…
And finally, for 12 years, Rebecca was involved in running her local roller skating club in Bognor Regis, which catered for around 200 people every Saturday night. She said: “I loved the club. Skating is really good fun and it’s very good for you. My husband and I did it and my two grown up sons still skate. I learnt a huge amount from all my volunteering roles which helped me in many ways throughout my career.”