Under New Management

Entrepreneur

05-08-2025

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Tech leadership used to be a boys' club with a secret handshake - an exclusive ritual women weren't part of. Now, women are in the room, sealing deals and closing million-pound rounds with a different kind of grip. Leaders like Lisa Miles-Heal, Danae Shell and Caroline Carruthers demonstrate that success in tech isn't just about innovation - it demands a fundamental reshaping of power, culture, and vision. They aren't simply changing who sits at the table - they're changing how the table itself is built.
Lisa Miles-Heal's leadership sits at the intersection of two persistent fault lines in the tech sector: rapid innovation and entrenched gender inequality. As CEO of Silverfin, a UK based financial technology company, Miles-Heal operates in a space where women remain significantly underrepresented - particularly in senior roles within enterprise technology. Yet her presence at the helm challenges the long-standing norms of who gets to lead in tech, and how. In a sector still defined by structural hurdles, Miles-Heal's rise stands as an unmistakable challenge to the established order.
"I wish more women knew that the skills and experience they bring to the table are as equally valuable as anyone else's," she says. "It's easy to fall into the trap of comparing yourself to the majority, thinking if you don't do things their way, you're doing it the wrong way. But your unique style and approach are your strengths. Your powerful differentiators will serve you well." Miles-Heal's leadership journey is a quiet rejection of conformity - and a celebration of difference. "Starting a business takes resilience and belief in yourself. One of the best ways to build that self-belief is by finding role models who show you different paths to success - people who prove it's okay to lead authentically." Authenticity, for her, isn't just a management strategy; it's survival. "My inspiration comes from other female leaders. The CEO of Visma is one - she came from a HR background, which is atypical for a tech CEO. Another role model is Dawn Marriott, who's shown me you can stay true to yourself even when moving from operator to investor. These women prove there's no one 'right' way to lead."
That kind of perspective has helped guide Silverfin's rise - a company now regarded as one of the leading platforms transforming financial data workflows for accountants and finance teams. But when asked what decision made the biggest impact on the company's growth, her answer is disarmingly straightforward.
"Growth is rarely driven by a single factor," she says. "But, I'd say gaining a much better handle on our core metrics was crucial. Having clear visibility into your numbers provides you with the clarity to identify exactly what is needed for focus and improvement."
The focus on fundamentals isn't just a business cliché. It's a discipline. "Without being clear on your metrics - whether that's ARR growth, EBITDA, or customer-related numbers - you're at a serious disadvantage. You can run a business on gut feel, experience, and a strong product vision, but without data, you can't be sure if what you're doing is actually moving the needle."
The key metrics Miles-Heal watches most closely are telling: employee engagement scores (eNPS), employee numbers (EMPs), customer net promoter scores (NPS), ARR growth, and EBITDA. These give a rounded picture of Silverfin's business health and growth potential. But metrics alone don't define culture - or leadership. When asked what assumption about leading in tech she's found to be untrue, the CEO doesn't hesitate. "One big assumption I've found is that you must have a technical background to be a leader in tech," she says. "That's quite a funny assumption because the landscape is shifting so much. With the rise of AI and evolving tech, leadership is circling back to focus less on coding skills and more on understanding the problem you're solving and communicating clearly - whether that's with people or AI tools."
It's a shift that could - and should - rewrite the rules of who gets to lead. "What's becoming absolutely vital are the soft skills and emotional intelligence. These are the skills that women often excel in, and I like to think AI could be a feminist intervention shifting the power towards these strengths. Imagine a world where women lead because the future of tech values empathy, communication, and nuanced understanding as much as technical know-how. That would be powerful and honestly, I hope it becomes reality."
That imagined future is something Miles-Heal is actively building - one initiative, one hiring policy, one conversation at a time. "It starts with yourself - building confidence and being your own best advocate. From there, it's about supporting the people closest to you - friends, family, and colleagues - and being a positive role model." Internally at Silverfin, progress has been tangible. "We've achieved 50% gender equity both in our leadership team and on our board. We've also taken practical steps like launching a women's network and peer-to-peer mentoring programme where women mentor other women, which is separate from our broader mentoring initiatives." That peer support is mirrored externally, too. "Looking beyond the business, we actively advocate for women in our customer base by hosting forums in Belgium and the UK for senior women in accounting technology."
Representation, she notes, isn't an afterthought. It's deliberate. "We also support women-first events like the Women's Tour de France and the Women's Rugby World Cup, consciously choosing to prioritise female-focused activities and ensuring gender balance in speakers at our events and paid participation." Miles Heals's also conscious that progress sometimes means rewriting the rules that have gone unnoticed for too long. "A big focus for me personally has been pushing for gender-neutral language across tech and accounting. This means actively challenging the use of long-standing phrases like 'man days' or defaulting to 'guys' when referring to groups of people." "It's a small but meaningful way to foster inclusivity and help change the culture for the next generation of women in tech." If there's a thesis to Miles-Heal's leadership, it might be this: change begins close to home, but its impact can ripple outward. "Overall, I believe creating opportunities is about focusing on the immediate environment first - yourself, your company - and then gradually expanding your impact outward, like ripples in a pond."
Joining this chorus of female tech leadership is Danae Shell, co-founder and CEO of Valla, a workplace dispute resolution platform. Named one of the UK's Top 50 Female Entrepreneurs by Innovate UK, Shell brings a complementary perspective on women in tech and entrepreneurship.
"I wish more women knew that they can start a business in tech - many women I've met assume that they need deep technical knowledge to start a tech business, and with Generative AI lowering technical barriers every day, this has never been more untrue," Shell says. "I want women to know that the tech industry needs their deep expertise in their own fields, and that the technology part is getting easier and easier every day."
Her decision to "go all-in on AI" in 2023 marked a pivotal moment for Valla's growth. "We saw Generative AI emerge and knew immediately that it was going to be a game-changer for the industry we were in, legaltech. I set the team the goal of delivering 'one unit of magic' using AI - the tech was so new that we didn't even know what it could and couldn't do yet. The company became an AI R&D department overnight and we unlocked huge amounts of value that are now built into our most popular products." For Shell, the toughest part of leadership hasn't been the fast pace or the demanding workload, but rather "managing myself and making consistently good decisions even under high uncertainty and stressful situations. It's a tough mix of trusting your gut and staying open to challenge, especially when things are moving faster and faster."
On fostering the next generation of female entrepreneurs, Shell recalls how mentorship shaped her journey. "A lot of women gave their time to help me get where I am today - I remember one well-known entrepreneur I had never met called me in the few minutes before a flight to give me some critical advice, which was exactly what I needed at the time." Following their lead, she now actively supports groups like AccelerateHer and Pathways Forward, "to give support, large and small, to the next cohort of female entrepreneurs."
Caroline Carruthers, CEO of Carruthers and Jackson, a Darlington based data consultancy, adds yet another dimension to the conversation about women in tech leadership. "I wish more women knew how supportive other female business leaders will be. This is something that really surprised me when I started Carruthers and Jackson, especially as the support I received even came from women who ran companies that were competitive to mine." She acknowledges the challenges of being a female founder in tech, but stresses solidarity. "It's still hard to be a female founder, especially in an industry like technology, which is why it's so valuable that we offer each other a lot of support. Rather than being adversarial, we want more women to join our world."
Reflecting on her own growth, Carruthers reveals the mindset shift that propelled her forward. "My company's growth really took off when I realised the need to toughen up. It's impossible to please everybody and to be a business leader you must be able to make tough decisions and, crucially, be comfortable with the decisions you make. You can't keep saying sorry and you can't let the decisions you make keep you awake at night. Without this mindset, your business isn't going to grow."
She also emphasises the strategic use of networks. "Another important decision I made was to draw on my network, but to do it in the right way. There is a perception that your network doesn't want to be put upon, but really, it's about giving them an option - teaching people what you do and letting them decide if it's right for them." Carruthers challenges a common myth about leadership: "I assumed that when you get to a certain position in your career, you stop suffering from imposter syndrome, but this isn't the case. No matter where you are, everyone still suffers, so this is something you need to learn to work with."
Her commitment to nurturing future talent is clear. "Carruthers and Jackson runs an annual Summer School for Data Leaders, a free programme designed to give future data leaders the skills they need to succeed. While the course is open to men and women, we have so many promising female students every year, and I feel honoured to be able to help them along their paths." Beyond that, she mentors through Women in Data, "a community focused on advocating for and supporting women in the data field. As well as mentoring, within these sessions, I try to coach future female leaders on working with their strengths and making the best career for themselves."
Before starting out, she suggests speaking to someone who's done it before - a step she wishes she'd taken herself. "I've learned so much since starting my businesses that I didn't even know I needed to know. If I'd have spoken to my peers, some of these learnings wouldn't have come as such a painful surprise!"
Miles-Heal, Shell, and Carruthers are driving a new era of tech leadership. Their insights highlight not just the challenges women face, but the power of community, courage, and conviction to transform an industry long overdue for change.