Technology

Posted on March 9, 2020 by staff

Scottish digital skills academy hires chief delivery officer

Technology

Scottish digital skills academy CodeClan has hired Vanessa Dawson as its chief delivery officer.

Dawson was previously a senior program and project manager in the Information Services Group at the University of Edinburgh.

The national digital skills academy is now led by an all female leadership team which also include former IBM executive CEO Melinda Matthews Clarkson, director of commercial & business development Sara Dodd, director of finance and HR Mary Fitzgerald and chief marketing officer Linda Scott.

Matthews Clarkson said the academy did not set to have an entirely female leadership team but that it happened by a “process of best person for the role.”

“Having said that, Scotland, like the rest of the UK and international tech sectors, continues to demonstrate pretty appalling gender balance particularly at board and senior management level so we don’t see our retooled team as a bad thing in any way – in fact, quite the opposite.”

“At the same time, when we look at our overall team, we have gender parity although we are looking at our diverse backgrounds and what experiences our staff bring to the environment and not so focused on a label of gender. I think that is the way to think about equality in the workforce.”