Advisor to the Prime Minister on the Digital Economy
Twitter: @joannashields
Joanna Shields has been one of the London technology industry's most well-known success stories. She started working in tech in 1989 as a product manager for Efi in Silicon Valley.
In 1997 Shields became the CEO of video streaming company Veon, which was acquired by Philips in 2000. After that, she became Google's Managing Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Shields became the President of Bebo in 2006, where she oversaw the company's sale to AOL for $850 million. In 2009, she was recruited by Sheryl Sandberg to run Facebook in Europe. And in 2012, Shields entered government when David Cameron asked her to run the UK Tech City investment scheme. Shields was appointed an OBE in 2014 and named a working peer in August.