Female founder and tech advocate Beckie Taylor, based in Bury, has been crowned the ‘Ultimate Northern Gamechanger’ at an awards ceremony in Manchester.
Taylor co-founded Tech Returners, an initiative supporting those re-entering careers in technology and innovation.
Inspired by her own experience of returning to a career in tech after her first child, which left her feeling isolated, lacking in confidence and self-belief – and behind, due to the fast-paced nature of tech – she founded the organisation in 2017. Her mission being to address the underrepresentation of women in tech and assist individuals who have taken career breaks due to caregiving responsibilities, or other reasons, to return to work in the tech industry.
Taylor also built the Confidence Community, enabling over 140 women to develop into leadership roles, launched ReframeWIT, the largest non-profit Women in Tech conference in the North, and co-founded WIT North, one of the largest Women in Tech community groups in the UK.
She also recently launched ‘Voices in Tech,’ a new speaker platform connecting dynamic voices with progressive events to amplify diverse individuals in tech.
Returning for its third consecutive year, The Northern Gamechangers, founded by business consultancy Elevate , celebrates those making a significant impact across the North. This includes businesses pioneering innovation in sustainability and individuals driving positive change in their local communities.
The full list of 50 Northern Gamechangers was released last month, and the honourees gathered last night to celebrate each other’s success. Taylor was announced as the ‘2024 Ultimate Northern Gamechanger’ and was presented with a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork from local artist, Caroline Dowsett.
“It’s an honour to be picked as the 2024 Ultimate Northern Gamechanger and for me, it proves what I’ve always believed – that anything is possible,” said Taylor.
“I’ve always lived by a quote that my late dad and gran would say to me growing up: ‘there will be lots of challenges in life, but you should never give up’ and that’s what has inspired me to achieve everything I have so far.
“I’ve faced many challenges over the years, personal and professional, including scaling a business through covid. Having that resilience and being recognised for it by the city region that I established Tech Returners in means everything to me.
“When we established that organisation, the whole purpose was to support women back into tech and this has just made me want to champion it even more and I hope that I’ll be able to continue with that mission for many years to come with my new venture, Voices in Tech.”
Ilona Alcock, co-founder and director of Elevate, said: “We chose Beckie as our 2024 Ultimate Northern Gamechanger because she faced sadly common issues when returning to work after giving birth and turned overcoming those into a powerful movement.
“Through Tech Returners and the Reframe Women in Tech conference, she inspires and supports hundreds of people to return to work and to develop careers in tech, whilst also creating a platform to amplify under-represented voices.
“The North is better and stronger because of the work Beckie has done – and we can’t wait to see the next stage of the adventure.”