We are deeply saddened to report that Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley, visionary IT entrepreneur, philanthropist, and founding donor of the Oxford Internet Institute, died on Saturday 9 August, aged 91, after a short illness.

Dame Stephanie’s journey from refugee to entrepreneur to philanthropist was truly extraordinary.

Born in 1933 in Dortmund, Vera Stephanie Buchthal came to Britain with her sister in 1939 via the Kindertransport, arriving as a child refugee from the Nazis and settling with foster parents in Little Aston in the Midlands. At Oswestry Girls’ High School, where maths was not offered to girls, she secured permission to study it at the neighbouring boys’ school – an early sign of her determination to overcome discrimination.

In the 1950s, she worked at the Post Office Research Station on early computers while studying in the evenings for a mathematics degree. In 1959, she moved to CDL Ltd, working on the ICT 1301.

In 1962, with just £6, she founded Freelance Programmers (later Xansa), which grew to 8,500 staff and a value of nearly $3 billion. The company pioneered flexible, well-paid roles for women with caring responsibilities. To counter bias, she started to sign business letters as “Steve,” and her teams delivered landmark projects including Concorde’s black box, early airline reservation systems, and major financial software.

After retiring in 1993, Dame Stephanie devoted her energy to philanthropy, giving her wealth to support autism research, technology, and the advancement of women in technical fields.

In 2001, her vision and generosity enabled the founding of the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at the University of Oxford. She recognised early the importance of research into the internet’s societal, ethical, and policy implications, and wanted Oxford to lead globally in this field.

Dame Stephanie also gave her time generously over the years, giving inspiring talks to students and personal support to individual scholars, both at the OII and at Balliol College where she was a Foundation Fellow.

In 2022, the OII launched the Shirley Scholars Fund in her honour, providing scholarships for talented students working at the frontiers of knowledge in technology, data and AI, including those with a focus on diversity and fairness in technology.

Over her lifetime, Dame Stephanie received many honours: she was appointed an OBE in 1980, elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2000, and made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 2017. She was also the first woman President of the British Computer Society (1989–1990) and received the Freedom of the City of London.

She described her resilience and drive as rooted in her refugee beginnings and the promise she made to live a meaningful life. In her memoir Let It Go, she wrote: “a simple resolution took root deep in my heart: I had to make sure that mine was a life worth saving.”

Professor Victoria Nash and Dame Stephanie pictured on the steps of Balliol College, celebrating International Womens Day, 2020.

Professor Victoria Nash, Director of the Oxford Internet Institute said: “I am so very sad to hear this news. Steve Shirley was hugely important to the OII – her founding gift made our very existence possible. But her greater legacy will be the ethos of personal integrity and commitment to public good that drove her philanthropy. It was these values that inspired our students during her visits and made her such an invaluable role model for me personally as Director. We will miss her greatly.”

Dame Stephanie pictured with OII academics and professional support staff celebrating International Womens Day.

The Oxford Internet Institute, the Shirley Scholars, and the many communities her philanthropy touched will continue to honour her extraordinary legacy.