Give Me Inspiration! The Paradigm Shift with Martha Lane Fox

Описание: A series of conversations with distinguished female professionals hosted by Professor Dame Athene Donald.

What do academics actually do? What motivates them to get out of bed each morning and to deliver what is — or in many cases what isn't - expected of them?

For a student setting out, the life of senior academics may seem very mysterious, particularly as many may end up taking on responsibilities and activities far removed from where an individual started. The trajectory from student to senior academic is rarely a straight line, with twists, setbacks, time out and/or opportunities (taken or declined) all to be combined with a personal life.

This series of conversations aims to explore the individual paths of some eminent academics who have made it to the top in their own particular ways. How have they found their own solutions to 'life', what tips do they wish they'd been given earlier on, and what might they view, retrospectively, with most pleasure or regret?

Martha Lane Fox is a Businesswoman, philanthropist and public servant.

She is a founder and executive chair of Doteveryone.org.uk, a charity fighting for a fairer internet and is also a non-executive director of Twitter. In 2017 she became a member of the Joint Committee on National Security Strategy, having been Digital Champion for the UK and helped to create the Government Digital Service from 2009 to 2013. Martha was appointed Chancellor of the Open University in 2014.

Having been awarded a CBE in the 2013 New Year Honours for 'services to the digital economy and charity', she became a crossbench peer in the UK House of Lords in March 2013, making her its youngest female member. In her maiden speech, she addressed the need for skills and understanding of the digital world in all parts of the UK economy. She has been listed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.

In 1998. Martha co-founded Europe’s largest travel and leisure website, lastminute.com with Brent Hoberman. They took it public in 2000 and sold it in 2005.

Find out more about this conversations series at: www.chu.cam.ac.uk/conversations

Filmed at Churchill College on 9 May 2018.