Code First: Girls has appointed former LinkedIn executive and entrepreneur Anna Brailsford as its new CEO.
Former CEO Amali de Alwis has joined Microsoft as UK MD of Microsoft for Startups.
She will be replaced by Brailsford, who was most recently CEO and co-founder of HRTech start-up Frisbee and prior to that served as commercial director of Lynda.com and LinkedIn.
When LinkedIn acquired Lynda for $1.5 billion in April 2015, she became part of the fourth-largest acquisition in social media history and subsequently contributed to the creation of LinkedIn Learning.
With extensive experience in EdTech and commercial growth, Brailsford will sustain the organisation’s efforts to train more women to code and bring a fresh focus on employability, upskilling and scalability.
“Code First: Girls is in a unique position to educate women in technology and partner with companies to make real and pragmatic changes to their organisational culture,” said Brailsford.
“It is my aspiration to build on Amali’s legacy and strong educational foundations. I plan to do that by connecting our extensive network of women to employment opportunities in the technology sector.
“We want to pair Code First: Girl’s unique educational offering with the employers of tomorrow and to transform learning into tangible economic opportunity for women across the UK and beyond.”
Under the new leadership, Code First: Girls has fleshed out three new goals: employability, upskilling and scalability online.
Through virtual delivery, the organisation has to date already helped its corporate partners to educate 26,000 young women in over 25 countries from Lesotho to the Congo.
De Alwis said: “Anna brings significant EdTech and talent development experience to support Code First: Girls grow even further.
“Her demonstrable commercial acumen will build on the transformative partnerships and commercial work the team has already undertaken with companies such as BT, Vodafone, Twitter, Thoughtworks and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and enable the organization to continue helping companies upskill their staff and hire better, more diverse tech talent into their teams.
“I am excited to see the more amazing things CF:G will go on to achieve under Anna’s capable leadership.”